Black Sesame Porridge (Heukimja Juk)
Koreans love juk. Koreans eat juk for breakfast, as appetizers and almost always when they are sick. There are juks made with abalones (my personal favorite), pumpkin, red bean, mung bean, pine nuts, spinach, beef, chicken, oysters.
- Prep time
- 1 hr
- Cook time
- 20 min
- Yield
- 6 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 1/2 cup Roasted black sesame seeds ((you can also use regular sesame seeds, although black sesame seeds are more nutritious))
- 1 cup Short Grain Rice
- 5-6 cup water ((water will be divided and used at different stages))
- 1 tsp salt
- Sugar or Honey ((optional))
- Dried jujubes/pine nuts/almonds ((as garnish))
Instructions
- 1
Measure 1 C of rice and let it soak in water for 1 hour or more and drain.
- 2
Measure 1/2 C of black sesame seeds. Rinse and drain.
- 3
When rice is fully soaked, finely grind rice with 1 C (out of 5) of water.
- 4
Finely blend the black sesame seeds with 2 C of water. Instead of adding all of the water at once, start blending with less water (more like 1/2 to 1 C) and gradually add more.
- 5
Mix the blended rice and black sesame seeds in a pot. (NOTE: because I blended my rice and sesame mixture really finely, I just cooked everything together directly in the pot. If your blended mixture is coarse, you may want to separate the solid rice and sesame bits and theire liquid by straining. Mix and cook the two liquids first (just for 2 min) and then add the solid rice and sesame bits later).
- 6
Turn on the heat to medium high and keep stirring until it starts to boil. Stir in remaining 2~3 C of water as it cooks. Cook at low heat for 10-15 min. Make sure you continue to stir (I used a whisk) to prevent any rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- 7
When the jook is fully cooked (with 2 C of water added in step 6), it should be quite thick (consistency of thick batter) as shown here:
- 8
If you like yours to be a little more thin, add more water (up to 1 C) and it will come out looking more smooth
- 9
Season with salt (1 tsp) to taste. Do NOT add salt early on while it’s cooking but only AFTER it’s fully cooked. Salt can dissolve the rice and make the jook watery. Believe me, I’m not talking about the jook just turning thin, adding too much salt or adding it too early will basically ruin the porridge. A good way is to not season before serving but allow each person to season it themselves right before they eat.
- 10
Optionally you can add sugar or honey to the jook or serve it on the side with the jook (which I recommend).