Passport & Plate - Tinutuan (Bubur Manado)
Indonesia | Tuesday, February 24, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
For the porridge:
150 gr rice
1500 ml water
1 stalk of lemongrass
1 tsp salt
100 gr cassava, peeled, diced
100 gr corn, peeled
100 gr sweet potato, peeled, diced
200 gr pumpkin, peeled, diced
20 gr water spinach, washed thoroughly
20 gr lemon basil, washed thoroughly
For the sambal (sauce):
50 gr salted tiny anchovies (ikan teri), fried
3 garlic
1 shallot
2 tomatoes
3 chilies (or more, if you want spicier sambal)
a pinch of salt
1 tsp sugar
How to prepare this recipePorridge:
Wash rice, then boil with crushed lemongrass and 500 ml water using moderate heat (you'll be adding water bit by bit later). Stir occasionally. After 10 minutes or so, add more water, with corn, cassava, sweet potato, and pumpkin. Stir occasionally until the mixture thickens. When it has reached a porridge-like consistency, add water spinach and lemon basil, stir for 5 minutes or so. Add more water if you prefer a thinner porridge. Eat it with sambal and prepare yourself to have another helping.
Sambal (sauce):
Grind garlic, shallot, sliced chilies and tomatoes with salt. Add sugar and mix well. Add fried anchovies into the mix. You can use a food processor, but make sure to crush the garlic and shallot a bit first, so the flavor will be richer.
(for 4 servings)
The story behind this recipe"Everyone should learn how to cook, this skill is essential for your survival," my mother told me this when I was a little girl.
My mother made cooking into a philosophy. She traveled the world through the dishes and books. Often, after reading a book, she'd hunt the recipes from the setting of the book. She found many epiphanies when she was preparing food. "Cooking is a way to show our loved ones how much we care," she often told me. "If you can cook, you can do anything. Believe me."
She taught me how to make tinutuan when I was in elementary school. It was one of her specialties, one of her favorite dishes. Whenever she made tinutuan, we knew that she was in a good mood. Tinutuan always brings fond memories. Of her, laughing in the kitchen, sharing highlights of her day. Of her, with me on traditional markets, bargaining and choosing the freshest ingredients, the aroma of exotic spices and sweat wafting in the air. Of her, during her last days, telling me how she'd like to have tinutuan but she couldn't due to her disease...
She left this legacy to her family, especially me, her only daughter, love for food. Like her, I cook to express my love. Like her, I like to cook dishes from foreign places and pretend that we're paying them a visit.
And now I am teaching my kids (10 and 7) to make tinutuan. I have to admit that I have an ulterior motive for teaching them. I am secretly training them to be good cooks, so that whenever I am too lazy to cook, they can take my stead in the kitchen!
