Mung beans porridge (Bubur kacang Hijau)

I got a message on my facebook inbox last week, it was from Ibu Zita from Massachusetts. Once, I responded to her inquiry about this recipe, since then we sent email few times. I promised her that I will post the recipe on my blog so she and the others who looked for this recipe can try it at home.

As far as I could remember, this food has been weekly treat at home since I was very young. Vividly, I also still had this memory of my mum and her activity with PKK and Posyandu. No she is not the wife of Kepala Desa or the head of the village, she was a teacher and I can see her love for teaching :)

PKK (Family Welfare and Empowerment Movement) is a group of local women who volunteered to educate the women and girls on fiamily empowerment issues. It was started in Central Java in 1957 as a reaction to the poor socio-economic situation. The by then the wife of Central Java governor Mrs. Isriati Soenadi . (http://deemention.blogspot.com/2008/09/peranan-pkk-dalam-pemberdayaan-keluarga.html)

One of the activity of the Ibu-ibu (women) PKK was to manage the Posyandu. A Posyandu is an integrated community service station that function as a center(s) for pre- and postnatal health care and information for women and for women and for children under five (balita). Through the Posyandu the local community mostly woman with children under five were educated about child care, nutrition, hygiene and sanitation and also reproductive health. It was a big movement in Indonesia especially during Soeharto era (2nd president of Indonesia).

Children under five were taken to Posyandu and then the volunteers put them on the scale, write down the weight on a personal history records called "Kartu Menuju Sehat" or Child personal health records. This card contains column to fill the weight and age of the child, immunization history, information about diarrhea intervention, Vit A intake, information about breastfeeding and additional food to provide along side breastmilk. The records of those information is used by the volunteers to discuss the health status of the children and when necessary educate them with relevant health issues. Sadly after Soeharto lost the power in late 90's, this activities was abandoned nationwide. Recently the issue of revitalization of Posyandu has been appeared in public.

So why PKK and Posyandu? Anyway, the most interesting part of going to Posyandu for the children is probably the treat after that ugly scaling up. Yes, most of the children looked unhappy when they were put onto the scale. Most will cry, since hanging on that sarung attached to the scale is not pleasant at all. But after the scale done, a bowl of mung bean porridge is always nice.

Here is the recipe,


Ingredients:
1 cup of mung beans, soak over the water over a night ot at least 2 hours before cooking
4-6 cups water 

1 pandan leaves or 1/2 tbs vanilla essence
2 cm ginger
1/2 cup palm sugar (brown sugar); add more sugar if you like
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup boiled coconut milk + 1/2 tsp salt. (if you cook it separately)
1 tbs gravy flour (maze flour) mix with 2 tbs of water.


Direction:

1. Soak the mung beans with water over the night, this will make it fleak easily and reduce the cooking time
2. Boiled the mung beans , pandan leaves and ginger with water till it soft and fleaky, then add the palm sugar.
3. Add the coconut milk and cook it till all is boiled then add the gravy flour, stir a bit then turn off the heat.
4. You can also add the coconut milk when the porridge is ready to be served.

The porridge can be served both warm and cold, if you want to top it with coconut milk, make sure to boiled it once and keep it separated from the porridge. This can be added as topping to the porridge. Enjoy!