Sweet Rice Flour Porridge ( Bubur Manis Madura)

This coming Friday, my son school is going to celebrate International Day and on that day the children are encourage to come to school in their traditional costume of their nationality. We chose to let our son to dress up in Chinese costume in respect to his his father who is a Taiwanese. So off I go with my mom and her best friend plus her daughter to Surabaya's China town or Surabaya old downtown. There there is a wholesaler+retailer mall called Pasar Atum. It's a very messy mall with a very bad floor plan because they basically built the new wings here and there based on needs and land availability. I don't like to come here because I know I won't be able to find my way out from this maze! That's why we need my mom best friend to guide us because her flower shop happen to be near this mall so she knows the lay out of this mall and where the right stores are for our need.

Actually if you are good in remembering the lay out this mall and you have the patience to walk everywhere to find what you want to buy ( I don't!!! ) this is a great place to explore because they pretty much have everything that other more fancy malls have but with a much lower price tag! They also have a lot of delicious street food in there. Nothing fancy but good.

After going to several stores we found out that since now is not Chinese New Year, those children clothing stores only have enough selection for toddler 4 years old and below and nothing for my son's size which is for 7 years old, so we decided to just buy the material and custom made it! This is the beauty of living together with a company that have to provide a lot of service for our customer. Needless to say, if I need to made Halloween's costume ( like the Peter Pan costume that my son wore for last Halloween ) and even this Chinese costume, I just gave it to my employee to make in her spare time. Ditto for home improvement stuff.

Right before we hopped into our cab, I saw several "Bubur Madura" sellers all line up , so I have to stopped there because I miss to eat this dessert! It cost Rp.6000 , about US $ 0.60. The one I like is the less colorful one, I don't remember what they called for the other type that is more colorful. I bought one of it too just to taste but I still like my first choice better.




Pic: Bubur Madura sellers in Pasar Atum.


Pic: Prettier but not my favorite.

Pic: I prefer the less pretty one, the one in that clay bowls.

To try making this dish at home, you can try this version, a simpler one:



Sweet Rice Flour Porridge

200g ( 1 2/3 cups ) rice flour
1 1/2 L ( 6 cups ) water
50g ( 1/2 cup ) freshly grated coconut -- you can buy it frozen from Asian grocery store
1/2 tsp salt

Palm Sugar Syrup:

185 g ( 1 Cup ) palm sugar, finely chopped -- you can substitute it with dark brown sugar or you can use the Mexican Cane sugar that usually being sold in the grocery store in a shaped of a cone.

Pic: Piloncillo - Panela or Panocha Cane Sugar by Corona

250 ml ( 1 cup ) water
1 pandanus leaf, torn lengthwise and tied in a knot -- again, you can obtain this leaf from the frozen section in Asian grocery store , it also comes in an liquid extract form in a tiny bottle in Asian grocery store.

  1. Combine the flour and water in a mixing bowl and mix well. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve to remove any lumps. Place in a non-stick saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for about 30 minutes, stirring from time to time until it thickens. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
  2. Combine the grated coconut and salt in a bowl, and mix well.
  3. To prepare the Palm Sugar Syrup, place the palm sugar, water and pandanus leaf in a small pan and simmer until the mixture is slightly thick and syrupy. Strain into a small jug or bowl and set aside.
  4. To serve, spoon the rice flour porridge into individual serving bowls and top with a little grated coconut ( mixed with the salt ), followed by a drizzling of Palm Sugar Syrup over it.
Serve 4 to 6




To make palm sugar, this lady has to boiled down a big pot of the sugary liquid and it takes 20 palm trees to make that one pot.



This is a picture of a man making the palm sugar by using bamboo to give this sugar traditional shape.





Later after he unmold them, he can cut them into smaller size like this picture here ...






Pic: A different shape is also common, this type is usually shaped into like a bowl.















Pic: A more modern Palm sugar now is available in stores. Here in Indonesia, we usually called Palm sugar with different name, we called it Gula Jawa which means Java Sugar. Different type of palm sugar is also called Gula Aren. They taste the same to me.

When I was small sometimes my parents took me to Solo in Central Java, when we were there we like to visit their biggest wet market and buy some specialty food. One of them was this palm sugar. I think their palm sugar is the best, I still remember that I love to nibble on it. Palm sugar has a more complex taste than cane sugar or even dark brown sugar. Truly delicious.

Comments

Eliza said…
aku gak pernah nyobain bubur madura loh...rasanya gimana ya campur2 kayak gitu? :)
Yohana Wu said…
ya manis terus creamy juga dan krn ada campuran macem2 nya spt: ketan item, terus bola2 yg kenyal dibuat dari tepung beras yg mungkin juga dicampuri dgn ketan beras gitu. Enak sih ... dari kecil udah bias makan ini sih.

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