Chapter 4 : Hari Raya At Kampung

 After a few weeks of zealous preparations for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri, due to the unevitables, the celebration was postponed to Hari Raya Aidil Adha or also known as Hari Raya Ha on the 15^th of October 2013.

-        The preparation for Hari Raya Haji is not as easy as expected.  Every dishes requires more than 4 hours in total which includes preparation and cooking.

-        Hari Raya Haji is a day for the muslim to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to follow Allah’s command to sacrifice his son Ishmael. It is also known as a Feast of Sacrifice. In the morning of the Haji day, the Muslims will perform a sacrifice using Cow, which is called Korban. We were fortunate to witness the ceremony in one of the mosque near to the Kampung Batu 16.

-        Cows are contributed by families who volunteered to sponsor the cows. The cows are then hung up high and the Korban will begin. The animals are slaughtered with proper religion rites and then the meat are weighed and distributed evenly to the visitors, villagers and also to the poor. Villagers will also gather together for lunch after the ceremony, having food like Lemang, Rendang, Dodol and Kuihs.  It is a day of celebration and gathering for the villagers.

The gang visited Kampung Dusun Tua once again on the 14^th of October 2013, a day before the celebration, to “bergotong-royong” with the villagers to cook variety of traditional Malay dishes such as Rendang Daging, Rendang Ayam, Ketupat, Lemang and Dodol. It was indeed a new a experience for us to cook, and further more, to cook for the whole kampung. That’s pretty much a lot of people.

The day began when we departed from UCSI University North Wing at 830am, crusing along the multilevel buildings of the city. Buildings after buildings, they all seem to lesser, and more greenery along the road. We knew we are reaching Kampung Dusun Tua.

Kampung Dusun Tua Multipurpose Hall

We arrived in the Kampung Dusun Tua Multipurpose Hall Batu 15 at 9:00am, greeted with warm welcomes and a hearty breakfast before we heat up the stove for cooking. Then, we were further briefed of what exactly is our task and who are our team mates. There were generally 5 teams making 5 types of delicacy, dodol, rendang chicken, rendang daging, lemang & ketupat. However, for both the rendang chicken and daging, there were sub groups preparing the ingredients. For example, the group preparing the onions and the group who had to clean the beef and chicken. Well, you can’t cook it straight away, they are freshly made, thus need cleaning.

When architecture meets ketupat

Helping the other groups to clean the meat

How to wash rice for 100 people lesson

In the process, not only to get things done faster with extra hands, we did learned something new for ourselves. It was an experience that we would not have in our daily city life. 

As time passed, Encik Fauzi, our Dodol making master arrived at 11:00am with the biggest wok we have ever seen in our entire life. It is known as "Kawah" in Bahasa which literally translate to crater in English. The kawah rest on top of with a make shift stove made from steel rims and angles. 

The kawah to cook for the whole village. They were 3 of them.

The makeshift stove

Once, the stove has been set up by En. Fauzi, the cooking begins !

Firstly, he explained to us about the ingredients to make dodol and what to expect from making dodol. Continuous stirring for 5 hours. 

The Ingredients for the dodol are :

Tepung Pulut (Glutinous Rice Flour)

Gula Merah ( Brown Sugar)

Santan (Coconut Milk)

Gula Putih (White Sugar)

Air (Water)

Garam (Salt)

Pandan Leaves

and according to En.Fauzi's recipe, he would then add tahi minyak, which is the stir fried coconut oil to darken the colour of the dodol and gives it a more shining looks when it is cooked.

sketch of dodol ingredient and equipments

The following are the steps for making the mouth watering dessert.

Step 1 – Set kawah in placed. Pour a bucket of water in.

Step 2 – Add in the flour 7 packs of 1kg flour. Stir well.

Adding the flour

Flour and water mixture

stirring the mixture until smooth

Step 3 – Start fire. Heat up the ingredient.

Step 4 – In 8 packs, approximately 5 litres of coconut milk.

Adding the coconut milk. smells good know?

Step 5 – In 6 packs of 500g white sugar.

Step 6 – Continue stirring for 30 mins

En. Fauzi ensuring the mixture is blend smoothly

Step 7 – In liquid brown sugar, approximately 2.5kg.  add Pandan leaves.

Liquid brown sugar

Yes, we are making dodol. Not coffee latte.

Step 8 – add in tahi minyak for greasiness texture and shining outlook.

Step 9 – Keep stirring for 4 hours. Yes, continuously stirring for 4 hours.

In the process of stirring the dodol, it gets thicker and harder to stir. When sugar is added, the dodol becomes soft again and we need to stir until it hardens again. This process repeats every time a new ingredient is added. The purpose of the continuous stirring is to ensure that the bottom part does not burnt and to ensure the entire mixture is cooked evenly. Pausing in between will only cause the dodol mixture to be burnt, spoiling its taste and aroma. Therefore, it is a hard work and requires a lot of patience to ensure the delicacy is cooked to perfection. Plus, it requires a lot of strength to stir the dodol, that explains that men are in charge of cooking the dodol. However, that's not always the case.

Stirring dodol is for men? Vivien said "Bring it on"

Howie to Kean Jie - No talking, keep stirring.

Waiting for our turn to stir

Timothy who came and helped out after the dodol gang was exhausted

Whenever you are tired from stirring, you know your friends alway got your back.

And lunch break, taking turns to have lunch.

The dodol is almost harden entirely after 4 hours of stirring.

And its out of the kawah

Using banana tree branch soaked in cooking oil to remove the dodol

Removing the dodol is another hard process due to its high viscosity and stickiness.

Every last bit of the dodol

Voila ! its done !

Moving on was cleaning of the kawah through the usage of grinded coconut powder, the kawah is then allowed to cool down before cleaning.

En. Fauzi, our dodol master

 We would like to express our gratitude to En. Fauzi for such a wonderful experience in making dodol.

Watch this video for 4 hours. That's how we made dodol

Class of Architecture History and Culture 3, July-Nov 2013 with the Dusun Tua committees

All looking handsome and beautifully clad in traditional attires. Baju Melayu for the guys and Baju Kurung for the ladies. Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha from all of us !