Bubur kacang hijau (boo-boor kah-chunk hee-jaa-oo) is not a savoury poridge; it's a sweet dessert. Bubur or porridge can be a sweet or savoury dish in Indonesia. I have known other kind of bubur kacang hijau that has more complex ingredients to company with such as black and white glutinous rices and a slice of bread. We call it Bubur Kacang Hijau Madura, just because most of the sellers are Maduranese, an ethnic group who resides on a small island off the northeastern coast of Java.
Bubur kacang hijau sometimes is pronounced as bubur kacang ijo. Well, I didn't have time to make the complex version. So I made a version that was enriched with palm sugar (gula aren), flavoured with pandan leaves and touched of coconut milk at the end. Palm sugar and coconut sugar (gula jawa/gula merah/gula kelapa) are used interchangeably in Indonesian cuisine.
Lately, I have seen organic coconut sugar and produced in the Philippines at one of Asian markets in Winnipeg.
Besides having this as dessert, it can be for a breakfast. Indonesians don't separate food for breakfast, lunch and dinner as typical Europeans or North Americans. We eat rice 3 times a day and can be with the same vegetables and protein sources for all those times.
Some people like making this by combining and boiling all the ingredients together. But, I like separating the coconut milk and mung bean. So, I can save them for later in the fridge.
Ingredients:
- 150 grams (1/3 lb) green mung beans
- 1.5 L (6 1/3 cups) water
- 250 grams (0.55 lb) coconut sugar (gula merah) or palm sugar (gula aren)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cm (0.4 inch) long ginger, peeled (optional as I don't use this)
- 1 pandan leaf, cut into 2.5 cm (1 inch) long
Sauce:
- 1 pandan leaf, cut into 2.5 cm (1 inch) long
- 250 mL thick coconut
Directions:
- Wash mung beans thoroughly by soaking them in ample water. Any floating beans should be removed.
- In a pot, combine 1.25 L, mung beans, 1 pandan leaf and 50 grams (1.76 oz) coocnut sugar for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours, add the rest of coconut sugar to in the pot with the soaked mixture. Boil until the beans are soft. Add salt and mix. Simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Sauce: Boil coconut milk and pandan leaf in the saucepan.
- Serving: In a bowl, place the mung bean mixture. Drizzle with pandan coconut milk sauce over.
Cook's Note:
You can always reduce the amount of coconut sugar, then before serving, you can drizzle over with sweetened condensed milk beside the pandan coconut milk sauce.