Sweet Potato Porridge – Kolak Bubur

This is a porridge of sweet potatoes braised in coconut milk: it is called kolak bubur. You can also make it with banana and normally a pandan leaf is added too. But I make Beb Vuyk recipe her and she doesn’t use pandan. But I definitely will add one next time. I love pandan.

Sweet potato

Sweet potato is called ubi jalar in Indonesian. I buy my orange ubi at my supermarket. You can also get white or purple ubi; beautiful! Your porridge only becomes more exciting.

This porridge is pretty heavy. A small bowl is more than enough. I think it’s the perfect dessert next to a fresh espresso for example.

This kolak of sweet potatoes is ready in 25 minutes and is enough for 4 people.

Kolak of sweet potato #577 translated from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesisch kookboek, page

Ingredients

• 1/2 kg ubi jalar (sweet potatoes)
• 100 grams of Javanese sugar
• 1/4 block of santen (coconut cream)
• a pinch of salt

1. Peel the sweet potatoes.
2. Cut them into dice of ± 3 cm.
3. Boil them in a bit of water with a little salt until half done.
4. Dissolve the sugar in 1 dl of boiling water, strain and stir through the half-cooked potatoes.
5. Add the block of santen and cook this until the potatoes are tender. Don’t cook them until porridge.
   

Gula Jawa is Javanese sugar. I buy this sugar in slices at an Asian food store. It is sugar that is extracted from the nectar of the coconut palm. It had a delicious flavor. Very different from white sugar.

I do not use santen because I have leftover coconut milk. Santen is a thick block of coconut cream.  Santen is a bit fatter than ordinary coconut milk. I use 200 ml coconut milk for kolak bubur.

The potato can be peeled and chopped into coarse pieces of about 3 cm. The potato keeps its shape in the porridge because of these big chunks.

I dissolve the sugar in 100 ml (1 dl) of water that I heat up. I let it quietly melt on medium heat.

I boil the potatoes on medium heat. I add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and fill the pan to 1/3 with water; definitely not too much otherwise the porridge gets too wet. I bring this to the boil and let the potatoes simmer for about 5 minutes with the lid on.

Now I add the coconut milk to the semi-soft potatoes.

And I add the sugar syrup too. I let this simmer for another 10 minutes until the potatoes are done and the sauce is reduced a little.

The potatoes should become a bit mushy, but they should keep their shape. When the porridge cools, it becomes a bit thicker.

We can not stay away from this kolak bubur and take a small bowl in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. The sugar sticks deliciously around the sweet pieces of potato and the creamy coconut sauce makes this into a real porridge.

Delicious with a cup of coffee or tea. Selamat makan!