Its a holiday today, Deepavali. I was dead tired that I slept early last night.
And I woke up early this morning and went straight to the kitchen to prepare for the Bubur Asyura.
I have chosen an old receipe from cikgu Ahmad receipe book. Not sure what his real name, I simply put his name as Ahmad. However, in real life, the writer of this very old Johorian recipe book was a teacher and a cook, a very good one it seems. I believe he was very famous back then judging from the followers of his recipe.
However, his cooking technique can be very tedious. You have to start everything from scratch even the curry powder. Back then there is no ready made curry powder, no blender or food mixer. No gas or electric stove/oven. So you have to go back in time to try this recipe hehe.
Bubur in English is congee or porridge. Bubur Asyura or Bubur Kanji is usually made on Ashura Day which is 10th day of first month in Islam, Muharram. In Islam no matter what your Sectarian (Sunni or Shia), Ashura is related to war. However, I don't think any of the Islamic warriors back then eat this particular congee I'm making. I'm pretty sure they ate bread rather than spooning congee into their mouth.
Anyway, today is not 10th of Muharram, it's end of Zulkaedah nearing Zulhijjah where Muslims all around the world will be celebrating Eidul Adha. And the Hindus are celebrating Deepavali today.
Bubur Asyura
Ingredients:
2 whole chicken ( I replaced with 1 kg of beef -cooked until tender, keep the stock aside)
600 gm Siamese rice wash
200 gm coconut milk
1/2 coconut to make kerisik
II
2 (pokok? how to translate - bouquet? Adoi)Chinese celery (daun ketumbar)-chopped finely
5 stalk Celery leafs (Daun saderi) - chopped finely
5 stalk Sacallion (daun bawang) - chopped finely
4 boiled egg ( I omitted this)
4 eggs (fry like pancake and cut into strips)
76 gm lotus seed (buah teratai- I omitted this)-boil till tender
76 gm peanut (kacang tanah - bigger ones)- boil till tender
76 gm chick pea (kacang kuda- I din used this either)- boil till tender
2 carrot diced
III- Spices (Usually I will fry these spices without oil then grind them. You can never imagine the wonderful aroma they made to the dish)
5 tbs coriander
1 tbs cummin
1/2 tbs aniseed
1 tbs sajira (I'm not sure what this is. Someone told me it looks like aniseed only thinner.Probably it comes with a different name. I din used this)
IV-Chopped in strip. Fry till brown and crisp, then crush with hand.
20 shallots
15 garlic
V-Add to ingredient
15 cardamom
20 cloves
5 cm of cinnamon
2 star anise
1 nutmeg (pound finely)
1 tbs pepper
7.5 cm ginger (pound finely)
76 gm ghee
Salt to taste, Chicken stock cubes.
1. Put rice into a big pot onto stove. Put in the beef stock and add about 4 (1.2 kg)tin of water and 200 gm of coconut milk.
2. Add the ground spices, nutmeg, ginger and the crushed shallots and garlics.
3.Let the rice softened, then add in beef, nuts, carrot, chicken stock, some of the leafs (leave some for garnishing)
4.Stir until thickens and add salt to taste.
5. Garnish with crisp fried shallots, leafs and fried/boiled eggs.
Eat with accompanied salad.
The Salad to accompany this dish
I- Julienne
Chinese turnip (sengkuang)
Cucumber
II- Sauce - Pound or put everything into blender or food processor
Red chillies
Sweet potato or potato to thicken sauce
Vineger
Dried shrimps
Salt, Sugar.
This cake is made of tapioca which I also made today , bingka ubi,(in Johor we call bengkang ubi) found in Mat Gebu's website. I don't have his permission to publish his recipe so you can get it from his blog. Its a good recipe, my bingka ubi turn out very nice and delicious. But the idea to put it into cuppies din work as they sticks to cuppies paper.
