Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Easy Peasy Bubur Lambuk (Mixed Porridge)

Every time I cook bubur lambuk (mixed porridge), I feel like that guy who cooked nail soup.
You know the story - a vagrant asks a miser to make some soup using only water and a rusty crooked nail, then he starts adding more and more ingredients to 'make it better' and ends up with a delicious nutritious soup.

The basic ingredients for my bubur lambuk is simple - water, rice (raw or cooked, the only difference is the time it takes to become porridge), fish stock, shallots and pepper, and a ladle of coconut milk. I might replace fish stock with pounded anchovies/dried prawns or a stock cube or actual fish flesh (pounded to a pulp) or even last nights leftover vegetable soup or even sayur masak lemak, but the other ingredients cannot be subtituted. What else I put in it depends on what I have in the fridge. If you want it authentic, put pucuk mmiding (a kind of fern shoot) and budu, but kangkung (water convulvus) would also do. I have put cabbages, potatoes, carrots, celery and ground beef in mine and the kids just ate it up.

Though this rice porridge is usually eaten un-garnished, I have picked up a habit from my pakistani friends - I brown some onion slices (until crispy or not, depends on how you like it) and add it to my porridge. Yum.




Easy Peasy Bubur Lambuk
(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients
1/4 cup uncooked rice or 1/2 cup cooked rice
4 cups liquid (water or stock)
3 shallots
half teaspoon black peppercorns
a handful of anchovies or dried shrimp
hard vegetables of your choice (cubed or cut into small pieces)
leafy vegetables of your choice (preferrably sliced thinly)
meat of choice (optional, minced or cut into small pieces)
one ladle coconut milk (roughly 6 tablespoons?)
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Pound shallots, peppercorns and anchovies/shrimp till fine.
In a huge pot, put in ground ingredients, rice and liquid, bring to a boil.
Let simmer, stirring ocassionally, till rice has fatten up.
Put in the hard vegetables and meat, if using, and cook till vegetables are tender. (add more liquid if it gets too thick).
Put in the leafy vegetables and coconut milk, stir to mix well.
Simmer till porridge is thick, add salt and pepper to taste.


If your kids don't like fried onions like my kids, serve it seperately as a side dish.
This porridge is also a good way to sneak in veggies into your children's diet ;).

p/s For my non-asian friends who uses the anchovies they put on pizzas, you might want to use only like half a tablespoon of it, and taste it first before adding more salt.

9 comments:

  1. bubur eaten with cili padi in kicap also yummehhhh :)

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  2. elisa
    1. lain padang lain belalang. kat pahang lain, kat melaka lain, kat kg baru lain. nama sama bubur lambuk. saya masih prefer yang mak saya buat. hi, hi.
    2. bukan, saya tak pernah mengajar calculus. saya cuma mengajar engineering graphics, statics, dynamics, thermodynamics di MCC.

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  3. olie x pernah menjadi buat bubur lambuk. my hubby plak kalau demam suke sangat bubur nasi... i must try yrs... namapak senang..

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  4. there is something about bubur lambuk during ramadan - well at least for our household.

    we must-have grinded chilli in black sauce (kicap) with them.

    Yum-o

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  5. one healthy meal this one. and definitely easy peasy. the one that i would probably cook when the main chef is too ill to cook other than nasik goreng :)

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  6. Anonymous7:13 AM

    My mouth is watering!
    Coconut milk makes everything taste better. i want to start eating it on cereal!
    :)

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  7. I didn't know you were here - you should come back to vox with me and Pee Face. :-) Where's my blueberry pie? -code

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  8. warggggg..... aku lapar tengok gambar nie,,, tak leh jadi....

    ;-)

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  9. 21 Syawal 1429
    Salam

    ... for me... Bubur Lambuk is only when there is 'pucuk mmiding' in it. Else... it is bubur nasi.

    Ramli AR

    ReplyDelete