If you thought Mushu serves Mulan your average bowl of milky oats, you’d be dead wrong.

Savoury rice porridge (otherwise known as Congee) is a staple dish across many parts of Asia, and you can top it with just about anything — leftover chicken, spring onions, hot sauce. Whatever you have lurking in the back of your fridge.

But the real secret to Mushu’s masterpiece is in the eggs. I used smaller quail eggs, to make sure they’re a perfect fit for my porridge bowl, but you can also use half the whites of a regular egg and save the rest for an impromptu meringue. Yum.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 200g white rice
• 2 chicken stock cubes dissolved in 1.5L water
• 15g ginger
• 4 rashers streaky bacon
• 8 quail eggs
• Soy sauce, sriracha and sesame oil to serve

Method (45 minutes)

Step 1: Add the rice and stock to a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat until the stock is simmering.

Step 2: Peel and finely chop (or grate) the ginger, and add it to the rice pot. Cook for 30-40 minutes until the rice is soft and porridge like. If it’s looking a little dry, add a splash of boiling water to loosen it up. When the rice is almost cooked, taste a little and season it if needed.

Step 3: When the rice has about 15 minutes left to cook, fry the bacon over a medium heat with a drizzle of vegetable oil — 2 minutes on each side should do the trick. Then use a pair of tongs to remove the bacon from the pan and shape it into a smile on a paper-lined plate.

Step 4: Return the pan to the hob over medium heat. Crack the eggs into the pan and fry them in the bacon fat for 3 minute, or until the whites have set.

Top tip: Use a knife to pierce the tough membrane of your quail eggs.

Step 5: Spoon the Congee into bowls and top with 2 fried eggs and a bacon smile.  Serve with soy sauce, sriracha and sesame oil.

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