Congee

At this current point in time I am unemployed and so therefore don't have the greatest income coming through. Whilst I am thankful for my centrelink payments, they are still very much a struggle to live off. Now trust me, I know that the payments aren't there to make you comfortable and all that capitalist ideology. However, I also know from first hand experience how hard it is to currently find a job, especially where I'm living. In this day and age everything requires a piece of paper to say how good you are and that almost always means that without said piece of paper you're not even given the time of day to physically show the skills you have. I'm currently 22 years of age and have 2 years worth of experience as an Assistant in Nursing and Endoscope reprocessor. The latter of which is an occupation that not many people can say they have the skills and knowledge for. Now when I was 20, before I acquircd those jobs, I was studying my Cert III in Health Services Assistance, to which I attended every class and excelled in all the practical work. I never finished said course because I never completed my written work and would get easily overwhelmed and frustrated when doing my online quizzes. These struggles and more are currently contributing to my growing suspicions that I have undiagnosed ADHD. The only reason I managed to get those jobs is because of another common factor to how people get jobs these days; I knew someone. This person was my first boss, and she was extremely loved by the entire clinic. I'm still grateful to this day for being given such amazing opportunity to be able to work where I did.

At the start of this year, before Miss Rona kicked herself into hyperdrive, I was offered a Part Time position at a local hospital. This, to me, sounded like the best thing ever because it would mean I would be doing a job I loved whilst having the stability of an employment contract and as an aspiring nurse, it also meant I would have my foot in the door at a major organisation for when I finished my course. Whilst this job would have been perfect for someone with no prior mental health issues, that were especially triggered by isolated environments, it was not perfect for me because I was that person with prior mental health issues, that were especially triggered by isolated environments. When I started there, it wasn't necessarily bad, it just didn't feel like, like my other job had. It was only a couple weeks after I started that COVID-19 kicked itself into full gear, which meant that endoscopy would have to shut down unless for emergencies. Because this job had me employed as only Endoscope Reprocessing, it meant I couldn't just be reassigned to the wards to fulfill AIN duties due to me not having that little piece of paper to say I was qualified, even though I could prove my employment history as one. Which left me with one place and one place only to go; CSSD. CSSD is a whole other planet. When you first get there, you're slightly uneasy because you have no clue what's going on. CSSD also had some casual employee's whom of which were not recieving as many shifts due to my relocating, which inturn meant I didn't exactly recieve the warmest welcome. After a couple days I started to learn who was who and how everyone's minds operated. To this day some of those staff members are still some of the best I've worked with. When restrictions eased, I reluctantly had to go back to what I was hired to do. I could only hope that it would start to feel more like home soon. It didn't. During all the work reshifting, I also was having a huge support network shift. I limited my contact with majority of my family to the point where I had essentially cut them off. I did this because I just wasn't feeling supported or understood and what's the point in keeping toxicity in your life, especially when it's only going to do more harm than good. As a result to my family disconnect, I also lost contact with my niece and nephews, which wasn't fantastic by any means because they were my entire reason to wake up everyday. Unfortunately because of all of the family stuff, it only made going to work even harder as I was alone for most of my day and oh how I yearned to be able to interact with people properly again. You know that saying "Don't let one bad apple spoil the bunch"? Well there was this one particular bad apple at work that just spoiled everything. I would literally avoid her at all costs because the energy that she radiated was purely toxic. I don't know to this day what their issue was and if it was personal or not, but the fact they had an issue was evident. I would try to interact with and get them to like me but to no avail. Somedays they just straight up ignored me. They would walk in of a morning somedays and I would simply say " Good Morning *person's name*", to which I would get nothing in response, not even a slight head tilt. This person would also neglect to pass on important information. Their attitude towards me affected me to the point where I put in a complaint at my 3-month review. I also put in a general complaint with a higher ranking boss about the lack of communication and respect given to me within my unit, some of which could have lead to detrimental physical health effects. Whilst communication after that got somewhat better and I got a little bit more respect, I still just felt a great sense of isolation and sadness. My feelings eventually got the best of me, resulting in a panic induces tic attack that scared my brother and sister in law into calling 000 as they were scared I may do something worse. I was in a room with a desk and a chair, by myself (great more isolation) from about 2300-0600. During that time I saw one doctor for maybe 5 minutes and a mental health nurse who seemed liked she should be anything but that. I also probably got no more than an hour of sleep in that time. They finally took me to the mental health unit at around 0600 where I was greeted by whom I can only assume was the other mental health nurses sister because lord was she as unpleasant and as uncaring as the other. That's when I knew I was not meant to be there and broke down out of exhaustion to the night duty doctor about how I just wanted to go home. He was cool, a little on the condescending side of things, but mostly cool. He talked into waiting to see the Psychiatrist at 0800 and just having a sleep until then, in what would've been my room. At this point I felt like I must have been in hell. My head was hurting, I had the worst heartburn and I felt sick & extremely dehydrated(I was only given one cup of water in ED and I couldn't get anymore). I lightly slept for about an hour. I sneakily scrolled through my phone for a bit as I wasn't too sure if I could have it or not. Finally, the best nurse I've ever met came in to do my admitting paperwork and told me when exactly I'd be seeing the Psych. She was the first health care professional to treat me like an equal in months. She was so kind and understanding. She eventually escorted me to the meeting room with the psych who couldn't seem any less interested if he tried. Seriously though, what's up with health care professionals reading as not giving a single damn?? He then told me he is going to recommend my dosage of my Zoloft be doubled, which just that one thing messed with my head so much. Part of my reason for being there was because of how my mind was working due to not sleeping at night and when I did, I had extremely vivid nightmares. The insomnia and vivid nightmares I had only found out a couple hourse earlier from night shift doc, was a common side effect of Zoloft. All I could keep wondering was whether or not the psych should be a patient himself. Why would he recommend upping the dosage of a drug that is clearly not making me feel fantastic? It made no sense, but alas he had the medical degree, not me and I would have agreed to anything to have been able to get home at that point. He agreed to my discharge, thankfully but told me I definitely should resign. Over the next couple of days I just tried working on my emotional ability to be able to write that resignation letter. Finally, I handed that bad boy in. I cried for a bit because I was so disappointed in myself and I knew I had disappointed a lot of other people too. I also started to stress about my income. I was thankfully already recieving youth allowance then but I've known since before then it wasn't sustainable long term. Hell, it was sustainable at all. Thanks to the COVID supplement, I'm earning just over $500/fortnight, about half of which goes to rent, then majority of what's left will go towards bills, leaving me with a couple dollars a fortnight for groceries. Which is what brings me to this recipe.

I don't know where the craving or idea for me to make congee came from. I'd never had it before but I knew it should be fairly simple and, most importantly, cheap to make. I already had my rice, stock powder, spring onions and cinnamon at home. I chose chicken drumsticks because they're only 80c a piece here and they had those fantastic flavour imparting bones. All up the additional ingredients probably only cost about $14, most of which, I had a lot remaining, making the total cost a lot lower.

The first mouthful you take of this congee should make you feel like you're being warmly embraced by a nurturing spirit. It should feel like cuddles from your grandparent when you're upset. It should feel like a warm hand on your cheek when you're cold. In a way eating this congee is quite cathartic, I guess you could say. It so simple and easy to make. You could probably premake the broth on day when you have nothing to do, freeze it, and let it defrost when you're ready to use it. Perhaps on a day when you're sick or hungover? You could just get a chair and sit by the stove whilst stirring it or get a volunteer to do it for you. Said volunteer would have to obviously be capable enough to be left unsupervised in the kitchen but they also don't need amazing culinary skills. I would dare say that this would be an amazing cold/flu fighting meal, especially with a little added tumeric. So without further ado, I present my Soul Hugging Congee. Enjoy!

Ingredients

- 4 Chicken Drumsticks/1 Packet of Shiitake Mushrooms for a Vegan Friendly Alternative

- 1 stick of Lemongrass

- 1-inch piece of ginger

- 1 ½ TBSP Vegetable Stock Powder

- 4-5 Whole Cloves

- 2-3 Star Anise

- ½ TSP Cinnamon

- 2-3 Spring Onions

- ½ Head of Garlic

- 2 cups Long Grain White Rice/ Jasmine Rice

Method

1. Carefully remove the skin from the chicken drumsticks by making an incision around the base of the bone and using your fingers to delicately ply the skin away from the meat. Place the skin in a Ziploc bag or container and keep in the fridge to use later.

2. Season the drumsticks with salt and pepper and place in a pot with 2 TBSP of oil. Cook on medium-high heat until golden. *Note: You’re not cooking the chicken just gaining some colour and fond

3. Slice the ginger into roughly 3-mm thick slices. Bash the lemongrass with something heavy weighted like a cast-iron pan or meat tenderizer. Cut into thirds along with spring onions. Trying to keep the garlic as in-tact as possible, cut the half head in half horizontally. Alternatively, you can also smash the cloves individually still in their casing. *Note: You’re simply imparting these aromatics flavours and therefore will be removing them later, so keeping them as in-tact as possible will just make life easier.

4. Add the garlic, spring onions, ginger, lemongrass, cloves, star anise, cinnamon, vegetable stock powder and enough water to cover everything to the pot. If doing a vegan version add your shiitake mushrooms now.

5. Simmer uncovered for 1 hour on medium-low heat.

6. Remove the chicken from the pot and place covered in the fridge.

7. Allow broth to continue simmering on the stove for another 2 hours minimum.

8. Remove aromatics from broth either by straining through a sieve or using a skimmer.

9. Add rice to broth and cook until, well, cooked. Stir the congee every couple of minutes or so. Congee should be viscous but still runny, like porridge. You can always add additional water to adjust consistency.

10. Whilst congee is still cooking, place chicken skins on lined baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Place another sheet of baking paper on top, followed by another baking tray. Bake in the oven until golden brown and crispy

11. Fry, boil or poach 1 egg/person until white is set and yolk is runny. Alteratively you can also do some fried seasoned tofu for a vegan friendly version.

12. Reheat chicken in microwave

13. Serve Congee in a bowl topped with egg/tofu, crispy chicken skin, sliced spring onions, chicken, fried garlic slices and a couple drops of chilli oil.

14. Bone apple teeth!

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