Bubur Cha Cha Recipe

Another 3 months to go before I am able to touch ground in my hometown!!! CANT WAIT!! But, in the meantime, I have decided to make another Malaysian Delicacy. This is called bubur cha cha .... bubur means porridge in Malay. Whilst it is not technically rice=porridge, it does certainly look like it and it tastes fantastic. And the combinations which you can put into your little porridge is really - endless.

Bubur Cha Cha

Ingredients

2-3 pandan leaves

2 cups of water

1can(400ml) coconut milk/cream

400g of sweet potatoes (yellow/red/purple whatever you want)**

300-400g of yam**

300-400g of taro**

50g of mixture of brown/white sugar (or as desired for taste)

50g of sago seeds

Corn starch to thicken

Directions:

1) Firstly, cut the potatoes, yam and taro into bite-sized cubes. You can choose to steam these first or just cook it as I did.

2) Heat up the 2 cups of water in a pot together with 3 pandan leaves (knotted). When the water starts to boil, add in your taro and yam first and boil for 3 minutes. Then add your sweet potatoes. Apparently the sweet potatoes cook faster than taro and yam. (IF you didnt have enough water, just add some more till it covers the ingredients)

3) Mix in your 400ml of coconut milk (or more as desired) and continue to boil away till the potatoes are cooked (takes about 15minutes). Then add the sago seeds and stir continuously. If not, the sago seeds will actually clump up. If you prefer a thicker mixture, just add some corn starch. If not, just forget about it.

4) Finally, add the sugar till your desired taste for sweetness.. And thats it. Just serve hot or cold. 

** As I mentioned, the possibilities are endless, you can add purple yam's to make it look purple, you can add tapioca pieces, add/remove sago and do whaaaatever you want. Texture, color and taste depends on what you want to put in. My recipe is by no means the set standard. This is just what I like in mine!

Enjoy guys. I loved making this healthy soup and I hope you will too.

Doug.

Chow Cai Hoon Ngan / Zou Cai Hung Ngan (However it is said) Recipe

Hello guys, after a long period of absence, I am sort of back! This time, i've made a noodle soup which is essentially made of preserved vegetable in chicken stock base. This is a local delicacy from where I come from and it is FANTASTIC for people that love the spicy/sour soup type person.

Hung Ngan/ Hoon Ngan!!

There really is no set recipe for this dish so you can make it however you want.

Ingredients

Preserved vegetable (for this dish I used the preserved mustard)*

Tomato

Cuttlefish ball

Fish slices

Black fungus

Egg

Rice Noodles

Ginger

Chicken stock (you can choose to boil chicken for 1 hour like I did or just use chicken stock for convenience)

Method

1) Preparing the ingredients. If you want to use original chicken stock (trust me, tastes much better). Just get a packet of chicken bones from a butcher, wash it out with water then boil the chicken. Remember to remove the layer of oil otherwise it will be REALLY oily when you make your soup. Boil it on high heat for 20mins then reduce the heat to med-low and continue boiling for 40mins.

2) To prepare the preserved vegetable, make sure to cut it into tiny pieces. If you want it to be more sour, you can choose to use a food processor to mince it to make the flavour come up more. Cut the cuttlefish balls in half, slice the tomatoes into bite sized pieces and slice the fish into bite pieces too.

3) Soak the black fungus in some boiled water to soften (make sure to wash it beforehand).

4) Once all the ingredients are prepared, set up a pot with some oil and fry the ginger till fragrant. Add in your preserved vegetable and continue frying for a few minutes. At this point, add in some chicken stock (do your own estimate I guess.. if more instructions are needed, just let me know and i'll try to write a more comprehensive one). Add all your other ingredients in, cuttlefish ball, fish slices, tomato slices and black fungus and let it boil.

5) Once the mixture is boiling, add in your rice noodles and when it is soft, you can take it out to be served. Please try your mixture before you add in salt. I didnt have to add anything in as the preserved vegetable was already salty enough. Lastly, add in your boiled egg and serve.

And there it is! Simple! Took a little over 2 hours to prepare but as I said, if you want to do it the easy way, just use chicken stock powder. No need to prepare it yourself. Any questions, just let me know =) 

Next recipe: Mantou! Mmmmmmmm....

Doug.