When I was living in Thailand, I would love to eat jok. Jok is what it was called in Thai, but English words for it are rice porridge, rice soup, rice congee or even rice jook. I just called it jok and I’d eat it every morning. After leaving Thailand, I would make it at home, it was a cheap food and fairly nutritious. Unfortunately, the rice doesn’t play well with my Type II diabetes. Recently, I concocted a new style that uses oatmeal instead of rice.
Whether you want to call it oatmeal jok, oatmeal congee or oatmeal jook, it doesn’t matter. I still like to just call it jok since it tastes much the same as the rice version….it’s cheap and VERY nutritious. I have put the recipe here to give you a rough guide but feel free to play around with it.
In a big pot, start boiling 7 cups of water. Why 7 cups? It’s just produces the amount I need for my family of 4 in the morning, feel free to play around with the amount you need. Next add a couple of small pieces of ginger to the water as it boils. Normally jok is made with chicken, beef or pork meat. You can add some chicken to it if you want, but I am cutting out my meat…and meat is expensive so I toss in a chicken bullion cube and a tablespoon or so of olive oil. You could easily add butter to it, but I like the olive oil better. Remember, the end flavor is up to you so have fun with it.
Let the water reach a boil and slowly add 2 cups of oatmeal to the mix while stirring. It can be quick cooking oatmeal or the old fashioned style oatmeal, whatever you have on hand. You are going to cook it until it is overcooked. In other words you want it really soft. While waiting for it to cook, I usually add some sort of seasoning to it. If I have taco or chili seasoning, I’ll add a tablespoon or so to it. Lately I have been using a tablespoon of curry powder. Either way, it’s up to you.
Once the oatmeal looks like it’s cooked, you are ready for the eggs. I usually use anywhere from 2 to 4 eggs. I crack them open and then stir them up in the oatmeal jok. I keep stirring them up as the oatmeal is boiling. Within a few minutes the eggs are cooked and your oatmeal jok is ready to eat.
I suggest serving it quickly into bowls because it doesn’t taste nearly as good cold. At the table, I usually put some tabasco sauce or even ketchup in the jok. I know that sounds weird, but that’s me. Most people will put a little soy sauce in their jok so if you got it, use it.
There you have it, a cheap and easy meal that is VERY nutritious.