Bubur Kacang Hijau

the mung bean porridge of Java: whole green beans simmered with pandan and ginger until they burst, sweetened with dark palm sugar, and flooded at the bowl with thick coconut milk

Origin: Indonesia

From the journey of Mung Bean.

Maritime trade out of southern India carried the mung bean into the Malay archipelago, where it became kacang hijau, the green bean, and where, as across most of Southeast Asia, it is treated as a sweet rather than a pulse. Bubur kacang hijau is its definitive form and one of the most widely eaten things in Indonesia: whole beans cooked long and slow with pandan and a knob of bruised ginger until the skins split and the pot thickens, sweetened with gula merah, the dark palm sugar sold in hard discs, and served with a ladle of thick coconut milk poured over so that it marbles white through the brown. It is a bubur, a porridge, and it is eaten at any hour: from a cart at breakfast, as a mid-morning jajanan pasar from the market, in the afternoon, and last thing at night, when the bubur sellers do their best trade. It is cooked in quantity for communal meals and for selamatan, and it appears across the strait in Malaysia and Singapore under the same name. One point of vocabulary is worth flagging: the gula merah or gula jawa used to sweeten it is palm sugar, boiled from the sap of the coconut or arenga palm, and is a wholly different product from cane sugar despite the English habit of calling both jaggery.

Ingredients

Bubur

250 g whole green mung beans (kacang hijau)
1.5 litre water
3 leaf pandan, knotted
30 g fresh ginger, bruised
150 g gula merah (dark palm sugar), chopped
2 tbsp caster sugar, or to taste
0.5 tsp fine salt

Coconut

300 ml thick coconut milk
0.25 tsp fine salt (for the coconut milk)
1 leaf pandan (for the coconut milk)

Optional

60 g black glutinous rice, soaked overnight (optional, traditional)

Method

Rinse the mung beans, discarding any that float, and soak in cold water for at least 4 hours or overnight. Drain. If using black glutinous rice, soak it separately overnight.
Put the beans in a large pan with the water, knotted pandan, and bruised ginger, and the drained black rice if using. Bring to the boil, skim, then simmer partly covered for 40 to 50 minutes.
Cook until the beans have swollen, split, and gone entirely soft, with a good proportion collapsed so that the liquid has thickened to a loose porridge. Top up with hot water if it reduces too far.
Add the chopped palm sugar, the caster sugar, and the half-teaspoon of salt, and stir over a low heat until the sugar has entirely dissolved. Simmer for a further 5 minutes and taste for sweetness.
Warm the coconut milk separately with its pinch of salt and a pandan leaf, without letting it boil. Ladle the bubur into bowls and pour a generous spoonful of the salted coconut milk over each, leaving it to marble rather than stirring it in.

Notes

Gula merah or gula jawa is palm sugar and is sold in hard discs by Southeast Asian grocers; dark muscovado is the nearest substitute and gives a good result, though it lacks the faint smokiness. Pandan is sold frozen and is worth having, since it is the defining aroma. The black glutinous rice is traditional in Java and turns the porridge a deep purple-brown; leaving it out gives the plainer and equally common version. Bubur kacang hijau keeps three days refrigerated and thickens as it stands, so let it down with water or coconut milk on reheating; it is eaten warm rather than hot, and cold in the heat of the day. In Malaysia the same dish is often finished with a little sago or with durian, and the related Singaporean tau suan uses split hulled beans in a thin, clear, starch-thickened syrup with fried dough sticks.

The Gastrographer

Name: Bubur Kacang Hijau
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 5 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Indonesia
Ingredients: 250 g whole green mung beans (kacang hijau); 1.5 litre water; 3 leaf pandan, knotted; 30 g fresh ginger, bruised; 150 g gula merah (dark palm sugar), chopped; 2 tbsp caster sugar, or to taste; 0.5 tsp fine salt; 300 ml thick coconut milk; 0.25 tsp fine salt (for the coconut milk); 1 leaf pandan (for the coconut milk); 60 g black glutinous rice, soaked overnight (optional, traditional)

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control