Sweet potato porridge @ Home
Well, this entry should be flagged “by demand”.:)
Seriously, as what Ling told me the other day, sweet potato porridge is known here in Singapore as a “poor man’s food”, largely because of the very low costs that go into its preparation. Apparently, many in our parents’ generation were either prudent in spending or that they weren’t as affluent as typical Singaporeans seem to be these days. So, their meals often were porridge cooked with cubes of sweet potatoes.
These days, it’s still a semi-popular dish but it’s hardly ever sold in eateries. Possibly because it’s so easy to prepare and the low cost makes it sort of silly for any hawker to setup shop just to sell this porridge, unless his version of the fare has some special taste in it. The way I do it for two person portions is like this:
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- Empty 1.5 cups of rice into the pot, rinse it once, and fill the pot with at least one third full of water. Boil. Cut the sweet potato into small chunks of around 1 to 1.5 cm sized cubes.
- Once the water’s started to boil, toss the potato chunks. Stir and mix it up a little.
- Boil for around 10 more minutes or until the porridge turns reasonably viscous, then divide into bowls. Wait for the porridge to cool a bit, then serve.
Thing is, sweet potato porridge in itself is really tasteless. The trick is to eat it not by itself, but as a replacement for the rice item, and accompany it with other dishes with strong sodium tastes. My personal favorite is pan-fried luncheon meat. Yeah, that’s not terrifically healthy stuff, but even Ling has been won over by the combination.:)
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten fried lunch meat, except for sliced ham in scrambled eggs, I guess. So, of course, I must give this a try. I’ve half a mind to prepare some deep-fried eggplant as a side, but I’m still wondering what I should cook to accompany it as a main dish. Any ideas?
Hi Matt,
Regarding the sweet potato porridge recipe, it is up to the individual’s taste. I remember that my paternal grandpa used to have larger chunks of sweet potato in his porridge. Basically, the appearance is more potato than porridge. Do ensure that the sweet potato is softened (cuts easily) in the porridge before you stop cooking. It is okay if the porridge is on the watery side. :)
I’ve asked Ling to see if she can do an entry on luncheon meat. She’s more knowledgable about food compositions than I am – I only know how to eat haha :P
Hi Matt,
You can try using ‘SPAM’ – canned meat. It’s a western version of ‘luncheon meat’. :) I think you can find it in a supermarket.
Hi cookie,
It’s already August! When are you going to shift over the hougang? Must tell me the auspicious date okay? I will chop the date on my calendar just for you! It would be so wonderful to do baking and cooking together someday soon. :D
More baking??? NOOOO!!!! :(
Just joking.:)
Hey all, I think I’m gong to give this a try over the weekend. I’ve come to the realization that I’ve never eaten spam before, so I’ll be shooting two birds with one stone when I attempt this.
Today I’ve got to drive to St. Louis to drop off my niece and nephew who’ve stayed the week with us, and afterward I plan on heading to the museum since I’m in the area to watch a Kenji Mizoguchi retrospective. I’m hoping there are some decent places to eat there, but I don’t know my head from a hole in the ground in St. Louis. I’ll be lucky just not to get hopelessly lost!
And speaking of baking, it appears everyone in my family—including my son—is proficient in making fudge brownies (except, of course, me).