Ingredients
The rice
- 150 gshort grain rice
- or millet
- rinsed briefly
- 400 mlwater
The milk
- 800 mlwhole milk
- or more, to loosen
- warmed
- added gradually
To season
- 1 teaspoonsalt
- or to taste
- 40 gbutter
- plus more per bowl
- black pepper, optional
To serve
- hot in wide bowls
- with extra butter
- or clotted cream, öröm
- at breakfast
Directions
- Salt and fat carry calories into cold mornings. A hot fatty salted breakfast makes real sense. Butter goes in during cooking and again at serving. It is thick, rich and slightly nutty.
- Keep the heat low and stir it regularly. Use a genuinely heavy based pan. Never leave the pan unattended once milk is in. Use a pan far larger than seems necessary. Rinse the rice briefly under cold water. Rinse it briefly rather than thoroughly. One quick rinse is quite enough.
- Simmer the rice in the water until absorbed. Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat. Simmer it gently for about twelve minutes. The water should be almost entirely absorbed. Pour the warmed milk in gradually while stirring. Warm the milk before it goes into the pot. Cold milk stops the cooking entirely.
- Add it a third at a time rather than all at once. Stir it through between each addition. Simmer the rice in the milk until it is soft. Give it about twenty minutes over a low heat. Keep the heat genuinely low throughout. A heat diffuser helps considerably if you have one. Stir it every couple of minutes as it cooks. Stir the butter into the simmering porridge.
- Add it about halfway through the milk cooking. Stir the salt into the porridge. It should taste clearly and definitely salty. Add it gradually and taste as you go. It tastes closer to a thin soup than a pudding. Add more warm milk if it thickens too far.
- Make it looser than you want to serve it. The rice should be entirely soft and collapsing. Taste a few grains before deciding. Give it longer if there is any hardness. Ladle the hot porridge into wide bowls. Serve it hot rather than merely warm. Stir it before ladling it out.
- Drop a knob of butter into each bowl. Put it in the centre of the surface. Let it melt into a golden pool there. Do not stir it in before serving. Spoon öröm or clotted cream on top instead. It softens slowly into the hot porridge.
Technique
- Never leave the pan unattended once milk is in: milk rises suddenly and boils over without warning, climbing the pan far faster than expected. It also scorches readily, so keep the heat genuinely low, stir every couple of minutes scraping the base, and use a heavy pan much larger than seems necessary.
- Cook the rice in water first until about half done, then add warmed milk gradually — rice cooked in milk from the start softens slowly, since the milk proteins interfere with the starch, and cold milk stops the cooking.
- This is almost entirely milk and butter and is not suitable for dairy-free diets; there is no meaningful substitute.
Substitutions
- Millet replaces the rice and is the older grain in Mongolia, where rice arrived through trade and became common; both are genuinely made today.
- Clotted cream, or a thick spoonful of double cream, substitutes for öröm — the Mongolian clotted cream skimmed from slowly heated milk, thick, rich and slightly nutty. Neither is quite the same thing, and the atlas records that honestly.
Variations
- This is salted rather than sweetened, which is entirely normal in Mongolia and startles people expecting a pudding — it tastes closer to a thin soup. Salt and fat carry calories into genuinely severe winter mornings, a documented practical reason, and salted milk dishes run across Central Asia from Tibet through Mongolia. Suutei tsai, the salted milk tea, is the same base without the grain.
- Rinse the rice only briefly rather than until the water runs clear, since some surface starch is wanted to thicken the porridge.
- It should stay loose and pourable rather than stiff, and thickens considerably as it cools, so make it looser than you want to serve it. The knob of butter or spoonful of öröm goes in the centre of the surface and is left to melt into a visible pool rather than stirred in.
History
A herder breakfast built on the same salted-milk base as suutei tsai, thickened with rice or millet.
Frequently asked questions
What is Suutei Budaa?
Suutei Budaa is a breakfast from Mongolia: rice simmered in salted milk with butter; soft, mild morning porridge. A herder breakfast built on the same salted-milk base as suutei tsai, thickened with rice or millet.
How long does Suutei Budaa take to make?
Suutei Budaa takes 5 minutes of preparation and 35 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 4. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Suutei Budaa?
Yes, within limits. Millet replaces the rice and is the older grain in Mongolia, where rice arrived through trade and became common; both are genuinely made today. Clotted cream, or a thick spoonful of double cream, substitutes for öröm — the Mongolian clotted cream skimmed from slowly heated milk, thick, rich and slightly nutty. Neither is quite the same thing, and the atlas records that honestly.
What is the most important thing to get right in Suutei Budaa?
Keep the heat low and stir it regularly. Use a genuinely heavy based pan. Never leave the pan unattended once milk is in. Use a pan far larger than seems necessary. Rinse the rice briefly under cold water. Rinse it briefly rather than thoroughly. One quick rinse is quite enough.
