Bubur Cha Cha — sweet potato, yam and tapioca jellies in coconut milk

i. Origin & history

Bubur in Malay covers any porridge or thick soupy dish, sweet or savoury, and a family of sweet bubur made with coconut milk — of mung beans, black glutinous rice, sago, bananas or sweet potatoes — is eaten throughout Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Bubur cha cha is the most colourful of them, and is found everywhere from hawker dessert stalls to home kitchens and Nyonya restaurants.

The 'cha cha' is the puzzle. Several explanations circulate: that it comes from a Hokkien or Teochew phrase, from a French or Portuguese word, or that it imitates the sound of the many ingredients being mixed together — and some even link it to the Latin dance. None is well documented. The most that can be said is that the name is old, long used by Malay and Peranakan cooks alike, and that it suits a dessert built from many small pieces.

In Penang and Melaka Peranakan households, bubur cha cha has a ritual place. It is traditionally made for Chap Goh Meh, the last night of the Lunar New Year festivities, and sometimes for other family gatherings. The mixture of ingredients is sometimes read as a wish for abundance and prosperity, though that interpretation may have been attached after the fact. Malay households make it at any time, including during Ramadan for breaking the fast.

The dish has close relatives across the region, including the Indonesian kolak, in which banana and sweet potato are stewed in coconut milk with palm sugar, and Filipino ginataang bilo-bilo, made with glutinous rice balls, sweet potato and jackfruit. Bubur cha cha is distinguished by its small, brightly coloured tapioca jellies.

ii. How the chewy jellies are made

The coloured pieces in bubur cha cha are a simple tapioca-starch dough. Tapioca starch is mixed with boiling water, which partly gelatinises it and turns it into a pliable, smooth dough. The dough is divided and coloured — traditionally red, green and white, sometimes blue with butterfly pea — then rolled out and cut into small cubes or diamonds.

When the pieces are boiled, the remaining starch gelatinises completely and they turn translucent and chewy, rather like small mochi. The boiling water is the key step. Cold water does not form a workable dough: the starch stays a crumbly slurry until heat acts on it. Pouring boiling water into the starch and stirring immediately gives a dough that can be kneaded by hand once cool enough to touch.

Cooked jellies are rinsed in cold water, which stops them sticking together and firms them slightly. They are best added to the coconut milk at the end; if left to stand in hot liquid for a long time, they soften and lose their chew. Some cooks, and many hawkers, now use cubes of agar jelly instead, which are firmer and slightly crunchy rather than chewy; this is the 'crunchy jelly' that many people remember.

The sweet potatoes and taro are steamed rather than boiled in the coconut milk. Steaming keeps the pieces intact and stops their starch thickening and clouding the broth. Taro in particular breaks down quickly when boiled.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 6 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 200 g orange sweet potato, peeled, 1.5 cm dice
• 200 g purple or yellow sweet potato, peeled, 1.5 cm dice
• 200 g taro (yam), peeled, 1.5 cm dice
• 100 g tapioca starch, for the jellies
• 70 ml boiling water, for the jellies
• 2 drops each red and green food colouring, or pandan paste
• 400 ml coconut milk
• 500 ml water
• 100 g sugar, or half sugar and half gula Melaka
• ½ tsp salt
• 3 pandan leaves, knotted
• 30 g small sago pearls (optional)

Use a mix of sweet potato colours for the classic look; Malaysian cooks commonly use orange, yellow and purple varieties. Taro, called yam in Malaysia and Singapore, adds a nutty, starchy richness; handle it with gloves or oiled hands, as raw taro can irritate the skin. The tapioca starch must be pure starch, sometimes labelled tapioca flour. Gula Melaka in place of some of the sugar gives a darker, more caramel broth, which some families prefer. Salt balances the coconut and should not be skipped. The sago is optional, but it slightly thickens the broth.

iv. Method

1. Steam the sweet potatoes and taro in separate dishes over high heat for 10–15 minutes, until a skewer passes through easily but the pieces still hold their shape. Set aside.
2. For the jellies, put the tapioca starch in a bowl and pour in the boiling water, stirring at once with a spoon. When cool enough to handle, knead into a smooth dough, adding a little more starch if sticky.
3. Divide the dough into three; colour one red, one green and leave one plain. Roll each into a thin rope 1 cm thick and cut into small cubes or diamonds.
4. Drop the jellies into a pan of boiling water. When they float, cook for 1–2 minutes more, until translucent. Drain into a bowl of cold water.
5. If using sago, boil it in plenty of water for 10 minutes until clear, then rinse in cold water.
6. In a wide pan, heat the water, sugar, salt and pandan leaves until the sugar dissolves. Add the coconut milk and bring to a gentle simmer; do not let it boil hard.
7. Add the steamed tubers and simmer gently for 3–4 minutes. Drain the jellies and sago and stir them in, heat through for 1 minute, then remove the pandan leaves. Serve warm or chill for at least 2 hours.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Steam the tubers, do not boil them. Boiling breaks them up and clouds the broth with starch.
• Use truly boiling water for the dough. Hot tap water will not gelatinise the starch, and the dough will crumble.
• Cut the jellies small. Pieces larger than about 1 cm stay chalky in the centre.
• Keep the coconut milk at a simmer. Hard boiling can split coconut milk and give an oily, grainy finish.
• Add the jellies at the end. Left simmering in the broth, they soften and lose their chewiness.
• Loosen leftovers. The broth thickens as it cools; stir in a little water or coconut milk when reheating.

vi. Variations

Some cooks add banana, jackfruit or black-eyed beans; others replace the coloured jellies with agar cubes or sago pearls. A darker gula Melaka version is common in Melaka, and some modern recipes use butterfly-pea flower for blue jellies. In Indonesia, the related kolak uses palm sugar, banana and sweet potato and is a favourite Ramadan dish.

For other coconut-milk desserts from the region, see cendol, sago gula Melaka, the Vietnamese chè ba màu and the Thai tub tim krob, in which water-chestnut 'rubies' float in iced coconut milk. Purple yam also stars in the Filipino halo-halo.

vii. Serving & storage

Serve bubur cha cha in small bowls, warm on a cool evening or chilled with a few ice cubes on a hot afternoon. It is a dessert after a meal, a tea-time snack, or, for Nyonya families, a dish for Chap Goh Meh.

It keeps for 2 days in a covered container in the fridge. The jellies firm up and the broth thickens as it stands, so stir in a splash of water when reheating gently. Uncooked tapioca jellies can be frozen on a tray, then bagged, and boiled straight from frozen. The finished dessert does not freeze well, as the tubers turn watery.

ix. More from Indonesian & Malaysian

• Sago Gula Melaka — sago with palm syrup
• Cendol — pandan jelly in coconut milk
• Seri Muka — pandan custard on sticky rice
• Chè Ba Màu — Vietnamese three-colour dessert
• Tub Tim Krob — Thai water-chestnut rubies
• Ube Ice Cream — Filipino purple yam ice cream