Hello Reader,

Welcome to Canberra, where this morning, when I alighted from bed at 4 am, it was –5.9 °C with an apparent temperature of –8.6 °C.

The best food for such a cold morning is my favourite food. Congee transports me back to my childhood, except at home, we called it jook.

As I was showering yesterday, I decided on jook for tea tonight. Coincidentally, Lorraine’s Friday blog post also mentioned congee, so the deal was sealed in my head. 

In the title of this post, you’ll see I’ve mentioned duck. Last weekend I cooked two duck breasts, and I still had a portion to use. There’s no way I would waste duck breast, especially since I kept the skin and fat. 😊

Recipe

Photo Gallery

Equipment

• Pressure cooker

Ingredients

• Duck breast pieces (Chen, Luo et al. 2021, Zhang, Deng et al. 2022)
• Chicken thighs
• Speck
• Arborio rice (Vici, Perinelli et al. 2021)
• Vegetable stock
• Sesame oil
• Soy sauce
• MSG (Obayashi and Nagamura 2016)
• Bird’s eye chillies
• Dried shiitake mushrooms
• Shallots
• Spring onions

Instructions

1. Wash the rice in tap water until the starch has been removed. Did you know that the consistency and appearance of the stools associated with cholera diarrhoea is described as rice water? (Alexakis 2017) When you look at the water as you finish washing rice, think of the ongoing cholera pandemic (seventh), which started in Indonesia in 1961 and continues today. Check out the reference for photographs of the rice water stool.
2. Add some cold stock to the rice in a pressure cooker vessel.
3. Slice the shallots and chillies and toss them in along with a few dried shiitake mushrooms.
4. Mix through the duck breast pieces and lay the chicken thighs and speck on top.
5. Splash some sesame oil over the skin of the chicken.
6. Seal the lid of the pressure cooker and cook for 45 minutes.
7. When the pressure inside the cooking vessels equals the pressure outside, remove the lid and carefully scoop out the chicken pieces and speck. The meat may tear off during the lifting from the pressure cooker so be careful.
8. Place the chicken in a large bowl and the speck on a cutting board.
9. Pull the chicken meat and skin with two forks and sucks the bones of the juices and remaining tit bits of flesh. 
10. Roughly cut up the speck with a knife.
11. Put the meat back into the cooking vessel and with a spoon stir the meat through the rice gruel.
12. Slice some spring onion for garnishing.
13. Transfer some jook to a bowl, add a splash of soy sauce, and garnish with the spring onion.
14. I also prepared some crispy kale sprouts with my meal. Mum would often have shredded ham and iceberg lettuce too.
15. Give thanks to the Lord.
16. Eat with a spoon and feel good knowing this rice gruel will pass through your œsophagus into your stomach and feel like it will warm you from the inside.

Thoughts on the meal

I remain impressed with my electrically powered pressure cooker. It is more convenient than a traditional stovetop version. Last night, I had a chicken though, a small portion of pumpkin, some vegetable stock, and some chillies. Within an hour I had a delicious chicken soup.

I feel full. I think tomorrow when I weigh myself, I might be a kilogram heavier than I weighed this morning. 

Photograph Gallery

Here are some photographs of my dinner.

Final thoughts

I hope you enjoyed reading this recipe and let me know if you try it.

References

Alexakis, L. C. (2017). “Cholera -“Rice water stools.” Pan Afr Med J 26: 147.

Chen, X., et al. (2021). “Duck breast muscle proteins, free fatty acids and volatile compounds as affected by curing methods.” Food Chem 338: 128138.

            The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different curing methods on protein structure, protein and lipid oxidation, lipolysis and volatile compounds in duck breast meat. The results showed that compared to static brining and pulsed pressure salting, the vacuum tumbling curing significantly decreased the oxidation of proteins and lipids, and the surface hydrophobicity of proteins, increased α-helix structure but decreased the proportion of β-sheet, and increased actomyosin dissociation, liplysis and the free fatty acid content in meat. Meanwhile, vacuum tumbling curing decreased the amount of volatile flavor compounds, hexanal, 2,3-octanone, and off-flavor compounds 1-octen-3-ol and 1-hexanol. This study suggests that concerns on healthiness and the sensory quality of processed meat products should be paid in the selection of curing methods and vacuum tumbling curing is superior in terms of both aspects.

Obayashi, Y. and Y. Nagamura (2016). “Does monosodium glutamate really cause headache? A systematic review of human studies.” J Headache Pain 17: 54.

            Although monosodium glutamate (MSG) is classified as a causative substance of headache in the International Classification of Headache Disorders 3rd edition (ICHD-III beta), there is no literature in which causal relationship between MSG and headache was comprehensively reviewed. We performed systematic review of human studies which include the incidence of headache after an oral administration of MSG. An analysis was made by separating the human studies with MSG administration with or without food, because of the significant difference of kinetics of glutamate between those conditions (Am J Clin Nutr 37:194-200, 1983; J Nutr 130:1002S-1004S, 2000) and there are some papers which report the difference of the manifestation of symptoms after MSG ingestion with or without food (Food Chem Toxicol 31:1019-1035, 1993; J Nutr 125:2891S-2906S, 1995). Of five papers including six studies with food, none showed a significant difference in the incidence of headache except for the female group in one study. Of five papers including seven studies without food, four studies showed a significant difference. Many of the studies involved administration of MSG in solution at high concentrations (>2 %). Since the distinctive MSG is readily identified at such concentrations, these studies were thought not to be properly blinded. Because of the absence of proper blinding, and the inconsistency of the findings, we conclude that further studies are required to evaluate whether or not a causal relationship exists between MSG ingestion and headache.

Vici, G., et al. (2021). “Nutritional Properties of Rice Varieties Commonly Consumed in Italy and Applicability in Gluten Free Diet.” Foods 10(6).

            Gluten-free diets are often characterized by an inadequate intake of nutrients and are generally monotonous for the limited number of products celiac patients can use. As rice is the most used cereal by celiac consumers, studying rice varieties nutritional characteristics is of interest to manage diet quality and variety. Proteins, total carbohydrates and amylose content of six rice varieties (Ribe, Vialone Nano, Carnaroli, Arborio, Basmati, and Fragrance) were analyzed. Analyses were performed in raw products and after boiling, stewing, and microwaving. A decrease of proteins and total carbohydrates amount was observed in cooked rice. The same was reported for amylose content with boiling showing the highest loss (average retained amylose 53%). Considering amylose percentage with respect to total carbohydrates, each variety showed either an increase or a decrease depending on cooking method. The highest values were obtained with stewing above all for Basmati rice and Arborio rice. However, exceptions can be underlined as Carnaroli rice, showing the highest percentage when boiled. In this context, nutritional characteristics of cooked rice varieties appear to be of great importance to increase specific nutritional knowledge to better manage gluten-free diets.

Zhang, X., et al. (2022). “Effects of different breeds/strains on fatty acid composition and lipid metabolism-related genes expression in breast muscle of ducks.” Poult Sci 101(5): 101813.

            Fatty acid composition contributes greatly to the nutritional value of meat, and breeds/strains are important factors affecting the composition of fatty acid. Recently, few studies have focused on the fatty acid composition in breast muscle of different duck breeds. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to compare the fatty acid composition and lipid metabolism-related genes expression in breast muscle of Jianchang duck (J), Cherry Verry duck (CV) and 3 crossbred strains (BH1, BH2 and MCmale symbol x (BGF2male symbol x GF2female symbol)female symbol (MBG)). Our results showed that the breast muscle of J had the highest contents of C22:1(n-9) but the lowest ratios of -omega 6 (n-6)/-omega 3 (n-3), -mono-unsaturated fatty acid (MUFA)/-saturated fatty acid (SFA) and -polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)/SFA. The PUFA/SFA ratio was higher in breast muscle of MBG than in that of BH2 and CV, and the contents of C22:1(n-9), MUFA and PUFA were higher in BH1 than in BH2 and CV. Furthermore, the mRNA levels of SCD1, FADS2, ELOVL2, and ELOVL5 were significantly higher in MBG (P < 0.05), while those of FASD1 and ACACA were significantly higher in BH1 than in BH2 and CV (P < 0.05). Principal component analysis showed that fatty acids variation exhibited extensive positive loading on principal components (PCs). Correlation analysis showed that PC1 and PC3 of BH1, as well as PC1 of MBG were correlated with the mRNA levels of ACACA and FABP3, respectively. Thus, it could be concluded that the breast muscles of MBG and BH1 have better fatty acid composition, which was closely related to the increased expression levels of SCD1, FADS2, ELOVL2, and ELOVL5 genes in MBG but FADS1 and ACACA in BH1. Moreover, these results also showed that crossbreeding could optimize the composition of fatty acid in breast muscle of ducks.