Every week, I’ve shown you how to make a different iconic food showcased in a Disney movie. This week is one I am really excited to bring you: the porridge from Mulan!
Before Mulan sets off on her first day of training with the Chinese army, her guardian dragon, Mushu, feeds her some happy porridge so she’s ready for the day.
Image Courtesy of Disney
He gives her lots of sage advice, and asks Mulan to show him her “war face.”
Image Courtesy of Disney
“I think my bunny slippers just ran for cover.” -Mushu
Of course, I was so ready to make porridge that was happy to see me, and it looks so delicious! Plus, I love eggs and bacon, so I knew this would be a winner.
“Look, you get porridge, and it’s happy to see you!” -Mushu
Porridge From Mulan: Congee
The actual name for the porridge from Mulan is congee, which is a Chinese porridge made from rice.
There’s a few different ways to make it, and it’s very versatile. You can add whatever flavorings and toppings you’d like, like garlic or ginger flavors, and topped with scallions, chicken, or maybe even chopped peanuts.
The possibilities are endless!
Of course, for this, I am topping my congee with a slice of bacon and two sunny-side-up eggs.
The great news on this recipe is that it is super-duper simple! However, though it takes very little prep work, it takes quite a bit of time to cook.
Because of this, I decided to make my congee for lunch instead of breakfast!
Here’s the recipe I used. I did method 1, kind of mixed with method 2. Read along for some tips and how to Mulan-ify this porridge!
What You’ll Need
The ingredients for the porridge from Mulan. Photo by Leah Sikes
For this method, here’s what you’ll need:
- 3/4 cup long-grain white rice
- 8 cups water (or some sort of broth)
- Salt
- Eggs
- Bacon
- Garlic (optional, my addition)
- Olive oil (optional, my addition)
I decided to flavor my congee with a little bit of garlic. I also chose to use chicken broth instead of water for extra flavor.
This makes about 6 cups of porridge. I fed three adults with it, but that included the eggs and bacon (I also couldn’t finish my bowl).
1. Soak The Rice
First, pour your rice into a bowl and rinse it off. Then, fill the bowl with water to cover the rice, and leave it to soak for 30 minutes.
The soaking rice. Photo by Leah Sikes
2. Boil It!
Next, you’ll boil the water or stock with the rice.
Before I did this step, though, I wanted to flavor my congee with garlic.
I put a little olive oil in my pot and sautéed the garlic until it was fragrant. I think the addition of garlic was really good.
Sautéing some garlic for flavor! Photo by Leah Sikes
Pour the 8 cups of liquid into your pot, and then put the rice in.
Set it to high heat, and let this come to a boil. Once it is boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low and cover the pot with a lid, slightly off-set, to let out some steam.
Cover the pot, but make sure the steam can escape! Photo by Leah Sikes
I also added a little bit of olive oil to the mixture. Another method said adding oil could make the rice cook faster, and give it a softer texture. I like the flavor of olive oil so I decided to try this out.
3. Watch & Wait
Now, we wait.
And wait.
It takes a long time to cook. Just stir it occasionally so it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot too much.
Here it is, about 30 minutes into cooking. Photo by Leah Sikes
The recipe says it would take one and a half or more hours to cook, but I think it ended up taking me about an hour to get to my desired consistency. This could be because of my addition of olive oil.
Once it was almost done, I also added a very little bit of salt, but it didn’t need much at all since I used chicken stock.
4. Make Your Toppings!
Cook the eggs and bacon while your congee is finishing up. Photo by Leah Sikes
Toward the end of the cooking time, I prepared my eggs and bacon for my toppings.
Just cook the bacon as you usually would.
For the eggs, they need to be sunny-side up. Usually, I make my fried eggs over easy, so I flip them. I’ve never actually made sunny-side-up eggs before now!
Luckily, it was super easy to make them, just use lots of butter or oil so the eggs don’t stick, and cover the pan so the tops cook with steam.
5. Top Your Congee
Once everything was finished, I set out all my components to re-create the porridge from Mulan.
An assembly line for the porridge from Mulan. Photo by Leah Sikes
I made lunch for myself, my brother, and my fiancé, so I prepared three happy porridge bowls.
6. Enjoy!
They’re all so happy to see you! Photo by Leah Sikes
Once it’s all assembled, it’s ready to enjoy!
I used fairly deep bowls, to try and match the bowl size from Mulan, but I would have been better off using a shallower and wider bowl. This would have helped with the proportions.
Despite the eggs and bacon taking over the top of the porridge, I think they turned out really cute.
It’s so happy and so tasty! Photo by Leah Sikes
I also thought the flavor was amazing. I was nervous it would just be mushy rice, but it had a really nice texture and the garlic flavor really came through. And, the eggs and bacon went really well with the porridge!
Plus the whole thing was incredibly filling. The whole meal feels like comfort food.
I will definitely be making this porridge from Mulan again.
Let me know what other Disney movie foods you’d like to see, and maybe I’ll make it next on the blog!
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