Bubur Lambuk oh Bubur Lambuk

I was longing for bubur lambuk. Bubur lambuk was one of the special dish during puasa time when I was young. Che' (my mom) makes the best bubur lambuk. Our bubur lambuk is not the same like any other that you can find in Selangor. Like my neighbour said, it is unique with all the leaves and vegetable inside it.

Last weekend, I was so happy that the needed ingredients were available at Sect 6 Market. So that Sunday evening I set to make my favourite bubur lambuk while busy sewing Anis's baju raya and teaching my friend, Lela how to make her daughter's baju kurung. I checked back with Che' on the recipe. I thought I had written it somewhere in my book - turns out I didn't. I asked Kak Su (my helper) to pound black pepper and the roasted fish (ikan kembung). I just told her 1 tablespoon since Che' said for 2 pots, we can put in 1 spoon. When I put in the pounded stuffs into the porridge, it looked like there were too much black pepper. But once I put in all the vegetables and ulam and coconut milk, and more water, it looks ok-lah, I guess. By the time I put in the last ingredient, Budu, the porridge smells so good and looks so nice.... well, it may turn out ok. I returned my neighbor's bowl with the bubur and send 2 more containers to my opposite neighbor and another neighbor who is Kelantanese.

So with high expectancy, we buka puasa with the bubur lambuk plus other dishes - we have more dishes when Kak Lin (my neighbor) gave us 2 more dishes to add on to what we have. Alahai...tak terbalas pinggan mangkuk dia:-) Back to the porridge - when I ate it, I felt so down. The taste was too overwhelmed with black pepper. It tasted good but there was a bit of bitter after taste because of pepper. Azlin add rice into it and said it tasted better. I just couldnt stomach it down coz I dont like black pepper much. I told my helper that the black pepper is really too much but she said, it's good to have extra black pepper, "lebih pedas, jadi ubat kok, lada hitam". But then, you cannot believe someone who did not even eat the food!

Anyway, we had the modified porridge - I added more rice porridge to tune down the black pepper tast - for the next 2 days. My in-laws are here today coz baby Aisya (Nini's baby) is down with diarrhea and is hospitalized and they helped us to finished off the modified porridge.

The recipe

Ikan kembung - dipanggang (roasted?), the amount depend on how much rice and the size of fish, maybe 2 atau 3 ekor
Rice - cooked till it becomes porridge like (pecah nasi) - i used 2 full cups since I was planning to give to neighbors

Pucuk paku merah
Daun Kesum
Daun pucuk kayu (dont know what others call it here)
Pucuk manis
Coconut milk (about 1 bowl)
Shallots and young ginger - sliced thinly (ginger - you can sliced into thin long strips)
Budu - satu senduk

How to make it -- pound black pepper (just a bit) with the roasted fish. Add the pounded stuffs into the rice once it has become porridge. Then add all the vegetables, if you like more vege, put a whole lot of it - there's no actual measurement but I put a lot of pucuk paku merah and daun pucuk manis and daun kayu. A little bit of daun kesum for the smell. Throw in the coconut milk and the sliced stuffs. Finally put in one full senduk (ladle?) of budu. Dont use the red budu. Find budu cap ketereh, brownish one. Put salt to taste.

Here's how it looks like -- this one taken without flash...