Bubur Cha-Cha
Bubur cha-cha is a popular Nyonya dessert of sweet potato, yam, black-eyed beans, tapioca jelly and sago pearls in thick coconut milk. As a child, whenever it was cooked at home, I would eat bowl after bowl. Those times, the word �cholesterol� was never heard of. Preparing the bubur cha-cha is time consuming as each ingredient has to be steamed or cooked separately. Thus, it was not cooked often which made it a much yearned for delicacy.
I had bubur cha-cha at Cynthia�s house last night, skilfully prepared by Robert, who is an accomplished cook in his own right. He added water chestnut, too, in addition to all the usual ingredients. Incidentally, I have already bought the stuff for making the same dessert when I went grocery shopping earlier and had planned to cook it today which I did. I threw caution to the wind and indulged again today with an extra large bowl. Now, the pangs of guilt are slowly settling in. It will be a very long time again when I commit another dietary sin like this. It was fun while it lasted though.
Bubur Cha-Cha
(This recipe is adapted from The Star’s Nyonya Flavours cookbook.)
Ingredients:
300g yam, diced
300g sweet potato, diced
80g black-eyed beans, soaked in hot water for 2 hours
100g sago pearls
100g tapioca starch
boiling water
3 cups thick coconut milk
100g sugar, or to taste
3 pandan leaves, knotted
Steam yam and sweet potato separately until soft (about 20 minutes) and set aside.
Remove the beans from the water it had been soaking in and cook in boiling water until soft. Remove and set aside.
Cook sago pearls in a pot of boiling until they become translucent (about one half hour). Remove and set aside.
Using a spatula, add boiling water to the tapioca starch in a mixing bowl, bit by bit until it becomes doughy. Mix well. When it can be handled with bare hands, roll into 1cm thickness and cut into strips. Cook in boiling water until they become translucent (about one half hour). Remove and soak in iced water until needed.
Put coconut milk, sugar and knotted pandan leaves into a pot and bring to a gentle boil, stirring continuously. Add yam, sweet potato, black-eyed beans, tapioca jelly and sago pearls and mix well. Serve hot or cold.
October 16th, 2004 at 23:55
Where is the pisang raja? It would be heavenly when gula melaka is used.
October 17th, 2004 at 01:08
Mwt,
Pisang raja is hard to come by nowadays besides being one of the most expensive bananas. I think bananas are used for pengat more than for bubur cha-cha although there is a fine line of difference between both.
October 17th, 2004 at 01:09
I like it too. Seldom eat because TOO sweet.
October 17th, 2004 at 01:23
LcF,
That is why I like to cook it myself. I can adjust it to my taste.
October 17th, 2004 at 12:59
Hi Peter
can u describe it’s taste?
cheers
October 17th, 2004 at 13:19
Sweetspirit,
It tastes creamy because of the coconut milk, sweet because of the sugar and sweet potatoes, and fragrant because of the pandan (screwpine) leaves.
October 17th, 2004 at 15:50
So deliciously sinful - one of my favourites too. Never made it myself though. Can u share the recipe??
October 17th, 2004 at 20:56
Bkworm,
I have added the recipe to this entry. Enjoy.
October 17th, 2004 at 21:49
i never like bubur cha cha. it is usually eaten during chap goh meh (15th night of chinese new year), isn’t it?
October 17th, 2004 at 23:28
Lucia,
Those for Chap Goh Meh are pengat and as I mentioned earlier, the difference between bubur cha-cha and pengat is the former is not usually cooked with bananas while the latter is.
October 18th, 2004 at 01:03
oops. so ‘pai seh’. pengat for chap goh meh. i thought bubur cha-cha. well i don’t eat pengat too.
btw, does anyone knows why it is call bubur cha-cha? bubur is porridge in bahasa right? but there is no porridge in bubur cha-cha? then why the cha-cha dance comes in?
October 18th, 2004 at 17:41
Thanks for the recipe! Will try it out this weekend
October 18th, 2004 at 17:46
Peter
I had been dreaming of pengat with the tapioca jelly (those red/green transparent thingy?) for days now. Too much of a chore to cook a pot myself so have to continue dreaming about them. And today, you got me salivating for asam prawns pulak. Thanks for sharing the food, next time gimme a call if you have a spare portion.
October 18th, 2004 at 18:09
Bkworm,
Enjoy. Hope you like it.
Lilian,
No need to eat spare portions. Lets pick a date and have a cookout at my place. I am sure you have your own mouth-watering repertoire too.
October 19th, 2004 at 12:58
Peter, I am a M’sian in Chicago, craving for bubur cha cha. So happy to have found your bcc recipe. Alas, could not find screwpine leaveas at Chinatown
Should have packed a whole container full with me 
Any alternative for screwpine leaves?
October 19th, 2004 at 13:39
Carol,
Pandan is used for its fragrance more than anything else. Maybe you can add a few drops of essence of pandan? I have not tried that though. I suppose it should taste equally nice even without pandan. Bon appetit.
November 5th, 2004 at 02:43
Hey Carol,
I’m from Chicago too. Recently I found out where I can get the pandan(screwpine) leaves. You can either go to Vietnamese Town (Argyle and Broadway) or you can get it from Food Harbor in Addison. By the way, they also have banana leaves too!!! Thinking of doing the Ikan Bakar… Yummy
November 5th, 2004 at 08:16
Diane,
Carol and you can together and cook up a feast of Malaysian cuisines. Talking about banana leaves, there used to be a time when I could just go to the backyard and cut down a few. Now I have to buy it from the market too. I like ikan bakar but I have to go easy on the lam chut sauce because of the belacan.
November 9th, 2004 at 02:15
Peter,
What is “lam chut” sauce?
thanks
November 9th, 2004 at 13:13
Diane,
Lam chut is the sauce for ikan panggang/bakar. Below I paste verbatim the recipe from The Star’s Nyonya Flavours cookbook.
50g (5) shallots, sliced thinly
50g (5 small) calamasi limes
1 tbsp sugar, or to taste
10g belachan, toasted
1 tbsp sambal belachan
1 tbsp light soy sauce
To make sauce, combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend with a fork until sugar dissolves and sauce is smooth.
I do not know if this is as nice as those found at the hawker stalls here. I have not tried it yet. Enjoy!
January 10th, 2006 at 02:44
There is actually no cholesterol at all in your recipe so enjoy as much as you like if it was a concern of yours!!! (fyi: cholesterol is found Exclusively in animal products like cow’s milk, cheese, meats, eggs, etc)
Thanks for the recipe!