Dodol – A Pictorial Timeline

Spurred on my last year’s success at making the dodol, I’ve decide to make it a yearly affair for the family in preparation of the upcoming Hari Raya festivities. I had to make sure I planned it weeks in advance to make sure that I had my complement of helpers from my family members as it would be crazy to try to attempt to make it alone. After much cajoling and less than veiled threats on their physical wellbeing for some, I managed to get all to come back to my parents house last weekend to make our yearly dodol. There was some low grumbling but as the eldest brother I get to throw my weight around at least once a year on this.

This year, we decided to switch things around and make the dodol from black glutinous rice flour (pulut hitam) instead of the normal glutinous rice flour that people normally use. I was told that the taste of the dodol made from the pulut hitam is quite different from the normal dodol so I wanted to see if I would prefer it more than the normal type. Since you can’t really get black glutinous rice flour from your neighborhood shop, I had to ask my mum to get it from one of the Indian spice shops in Chow Kit market. The shop would grind up the pulut hitam into flour that they would sell in bags of 1 kg. I wished that I got a chance to go to the shop as it’s not very often you get to see people grind their own flour, even if they do use a machine to do it.

Once we got the flour, next major items to get would be the sugars and coconut. Since I will be using 2 kgs of flour, I had to get an equal amount in weight of palm sugar (gula melaka) and equal amount in weight of brown sugar (gula merah). For the coconuts, the ratio is coconut milk for 10 mid sized coconuts for every kg of flour used. Since we will be using 2 kgs, I had to get 20 coconut’s worth of finely shredded coconuts. Since the coconut milk to be used in making the dodol has to be freshly squeezed, I had to take it back to be squeezed by hand instead of getting the shop to squeeze which they could for a nominal fee if requested.

Once all ingredients were assembled, it was time to put everything together. I took pictures of the process this year to share on the blog for people who have never seen how it’s made. Had to be a wee bit creative in explaining why I’m taking pictures while making it since I didn’t tell them that I have a blog out here. While there will be pictures this time instead of just the recipe, they are no way as good or as artistic as on the other blogs (*waves hi*) so please don’t compare what you see here with them. I count myself lucky if I could keep the pics in focus even when using an auto-focusing camera.

First step is



Chopping up the gula melaka and mixing it with gula merah with just enough water to mix them together. Drop in a knotted bunch of pandan leaves for aroma and boil on a low flame until all the sugar has melted. Make sure that the mixture is stirred to avoid burning the sugar.



After all has melted and left to cool.



Result of the 1st squeezing of 20 coconut for thick coconut milk. It took me nearly 1 ½ hours to go through it for the first squeezing.

OK .. I cheated and used the blender to make it easier to extract the coconut milk from the shredded coconut. It was still murder on my hand since I’m not used to the type of work required. Good thing that I only have to do it twice a year.



The first thick coconut milk batch goes into the kawah with a knotted pandan leave bunch and a handful of salt to be heated under a medium flame.


After about 2 hours, the coconut milk would start releasing coconut oil which signaled the start of the next stage.


The cooled sugar syrup is then strained through a fine sieve to remove any particles before added to the bubbling coconut milk mix. The resulting mixture is stirred using wooden cooking paddles to reincorporate the coconut milk and old with the sugar syrup. The whole thing it left on the fire until it starts to boil.


In the meantime, the coconut is squeezed for the second time to get a thinner coconut milk to be mixed in with the flour. I prefer to do the mixing by hand as you get to feel if there’s any flour bits that were not mixed together properly. The flour mixed is then strained through a fine sieve to ensure that there were no lumps. I also added a bit of rice flour into the mix so the end result would be easier to cut into pieces and not be as chewy when people bit into it.

Once the mixture in the kawah has started to bubble again, the flour mix is added to the kawah. At this point the whole mixture starts to thicken and the heat begins to cook the flour. This is when the back breaking effort of making dodol starts. You can’t stop stirring the dodol from this point onwards or you’ll end up with a dodol that has burnt bits in it which would be hard to bite into.


1 hour into the process – the dodol was still easy to stir and did not look slick to the eyes.


2 hours into the process – it starts getting harder to stir the dodol. You really had to start putting your backs into the process.

3 hours into the process – the stirred mixture darkens considerably. It got easier to scrape off the side of the kawah to be folded into main mix.


4 hours into the process – the total volume of the dodol seems to have reduced to half of what it was but weighs about 5 times from where it started.



5 hours into the process – the dodol looks shinier as coconut oil is released from the heated mixture. The more oil is released in the cooking process, the longer the dodol will last in storage.


6 hours into the process – a reasonable pool of pure coconut oil coming out from the dodol mixture that signaled that the dodol was ready to be taken off the fire. It took 6 of us working in 20 – 30 minute turns stirring the dodol mixture non-stop for 6 hours to finally get the end result. Fortunately we didn’t use a traditional wooden fire to cook it on or else would need to add at least another 4 hours for the cooking time.



The amount of pure coconut oil collected after the process which would be used for cooking.



The dodol was then taken out of the kawah and put into a metal tray to cool down before it can be cut into bite sizes. It would continue to darken as it cooled down and more oil will be released during the process.


Completed dodol. Ready to be cut up into bite sizes and enjoyed as a traditional Hari Raya sweet treat.

Making the dodol was hard work but the end result is quite worth the effort. Not many people can say that they still make dodol the old fashion way. We also got to spend time together as a family to make it since it has to be a group affair instead of an individual effort. They may grumble at the beginning but every bite would be a reminder of how we came together as a family to make it. To say that I am proud of the end result it a bit of an understatement since to me the dodol itself was not just a sweet treat but also represented a link to our family past as well as a reaffirmation of our family bonds.

When I tell people that my dodol was made with love, I know I can really honestly tell them it was.

Supper/Sahur for One

Went to gym tonight forgetting that they are only opened till 10pm on Sunday evenings. I had skipped last Sunday workout since I was in Selayang and worked out on Sunday mornings before fasting month started so I came to the gym tonight oblivious to the shorten hours. I was only able to so my stretching, cardio and abs before I had to rush through my shower and leave the gym with 10 minutes to spare. I guess since I could not come earlier to workout on Sundays, I just have to skip Sundays until the end of the fasting month. That would only leave me with a 4 times weekly gym schedule but it’s just for another few weeks. I’ll come back in full force soon enough especially when I know I’ll have more to burn off after the Raya break.

Supper/sahur tonight was a solitary affair after a weekend of having company to join me for my meals. Honestly, it felt a bit depressing not having company tonight to eat with after the truly enjoyable weekend but I soldier on as I have always done. Tonight’s supper/sahur was even more noteworthy tonight as I found all my favorite dishes at the Sunway mosque Ramadhan food bazaar earlier in the day. Of all the foods, the ones that I bought today (pictured above) would be the closest I would say to be my own version of what comfort food was suppose to be. Tonight’s supper/sahur menu was white rice with fried tempe, batter fried ikan bilis Mayang (anchovies) and lemak pucuk ubi (tapioca shoots in turmeric infused coconut milk).

I would be the first to admit that I have an obsession on all things tempe. I’m like that character in “Forrest Gump” who knows everything there is about shrimp but in my case it was about the humble tempe. I just can’t get enough of the stuff either fired, boiled, barbequed, sautéed or in anyway that it can be cooked. I have been know to just have pieces of fried tempe with crushed cili padi with soy sauce dip with white rice to eat contently for a whole week. Being a fairly good source of proteins, the tempe has always been my go to dish whenever I wanted to avoid any kind of meat. Some people tend to like them very thinly sliced but for my little morsels of heaven, it has to be sliced not too thinly that it would just be to crispy to the bite. Deep fried, properly drained of the frying oil before being stir fired with a little turmeric and chili – I’m just a happy camper when I can get them done that way.

Ikan bilis Mayang was basically soft boned anchovies fried in batter till they become crispy on the outside. Growing up, the only types of fish that I would eat was the tenggiri (mackerel) since it didn’t have a lot of fish bones and ikan bilis Mayang which I can eat whole with it’s bones. Since the tenggiri was more expansive (grandma use to call it “ikan orang kaya”) of the two, I would most often have batter fried ikan bilis Mayang as my fish dish. It was such a specific fish for me that my late grandma would make it a point to make it every time I visited her. It was also the last dish that she made for me before she was admitted to hospital and died a few weeks later. Since then, I would always be reminded of my grandma when I have the dish and to see it on sale today there was no way I would have skipped it. It’s not just having a dish to eat but have the comfort of me remembering my late grandmother who I miss dearly to keep me company tonight.

Last but not least on the menu tonight was masak lemak pucuk ubi which have always been a favorite of mine. I remember back when we would drive from KL to Johor in our old 1972 Honda Civic hatchback to visit relatives and come back with a trunk full of pisang tanduk, pucuk paku and pucuk ubi. The pisang would usually be from my maternal grandfather’s banana tree grove but both pucuk paku and pucuk ubi would be from the plants growing wild in the back of their old house. It was always an adventure as a child to go with the older people into the secondary forest looking for the wild ferns and tapioca trees. Having them cooked just right after an afternoon of looking for them was just icing on the cake for me. The only caveat for me was that no one put tempoyak (fermented durian) in my masak lemak pucuk ubi dish. I just can’t stand durian and tempoyak (yeah minus marks for my “Melayu”-ness).

I’m content just getting one of the dishes but getting all three from one place for supper/sahur tonight makes me a really happy camper. It was enough for me to throw the plan of not having carbohydrates tonight out the window. The food tonight was slice of home that reminds me of where I come from, what family means to me and gives me the assurance that wherever or whatever happens, I will always have these simple things to make me happy. Nostalgia aside, each morsel was for me to enjoy though it would be better to have someone to share it and the stories behind it with.

Guess there is always a next time to do that.

Lunch at Restoran Peranakan House, PJ

I almost never go out for lunch during the work week with the exception of Fridays when I have to go for lunch near the mosque where I do my Friday prayers. Most of the time, it’s just me and a mug of hot 3 in 1 instant cereal mix in the office. Once in a blue moon, when we have an occasion to celebrate, I do get to go out for lunch with the whole team that I’m working with here. We had one of those occasion on Tuesday when we had a farewell lunch to one of our team who will be leaving the company for what he hopes would be greener pastures.

Restoran Peranakan House (No. 4, Jln SS 23/11, Taman SEA, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel : 03 7804 2778) was one of those quaint gems tucked away in nondescript neighborhoods just waiting to be discovered for the first time. To get to the place, look out for the huge Hong Leong Bank sign on your left as you travel on the LDP highway towards Taman Tun a little ways past the Kelana Jaya Putra LRT station. Turn left into the shop lots area till you reach the traffic light before turning right into another shop lot block. Round the block and you should be able spot their signboard on the road that runs parallel to the street that you entered before. Parking seems to be OK when we came for lunch but we could have been just lucky on that day.

Upon entering the establishment, one would definitely notice how homely the surroundings felt. I appreciate the lack of clutter that this place had relative to other Nyonya cuisine restaurants that I have been to. The focus here was clearly to the quality of the food and less towards the need to provide ambiance for dining. The lunch crowd that was there while we were having our lunch there was quite thin but I attribute it more to the fact that only people in the know would venture out here to this restaurant. It was nice to be able to eat at a place where we could have a decent conversation without having to raise our voices to be heard.

While service was prompt and attentive, the floor staff could have been a wee bit friendlier in terms of appearance. Being able to gauge what the diners might be interested to have and giving recommendation of house specialties would be helpful to diners who were clearly on their first visit to the restaurant. Thankfully most of us were familiar with the type of food so the menu did not become too intimidating to order from. The restaurant did have a good variety of items on the menu ranging from meats, seafood and vegetables. With the 8 of us there we decided to get white rice with Pong Teh Chicken, Baba Chicken Curry, Paku Belacan, Mango Kerabu, Honey Sotong and Braised Nyonya Beancurd. For drinks, we all decided on Fresh Watermelon juice as recommended by our waiter.

We didn’t really have to wait long before rice was served with the Paku Belacan dish that was the first to arrive. Paku Belacan is basically wild fern shoots cooked with fermented prawn paste and chilies. The dish was surprisingly good as it combined just the right amount of belacan and chilies that did not overwhelm the fresh taste of perfectly cooked wild fern shoots. The ferns had a nice bite to them but not to the point that it was too fibrous to truly enjoy. The clean taste of this dish went down well with the white rice and set my expectations of what to come.

Next arriving to our table was the Pong Teh Chicken which I have never had before. Cooked in it’s special blend of ingredients, the flesh of the chicken literally flaked away on my fork and each morsel was saturated with the taste of sauce. Despite appearance, it did not look as salty as I would have imagined it since soy sauce seems to be one of the major ingredients in the dish. I would imagine that the dish would have been slow cooked to get the tastes and texture of this wonderful chicken dish. Unfortunately for the Baba Chicken Curry that arrived about the same time in the former dish, the Pong Teh Chicken totally outshined it. Most of us at the table was raving more about the Pong Teh Chicken than the slightly underwhelming curry dish. Having been so used to the Indian style of curries, the less fiery Baba Chicken Curry was a bit too understated for my taste.

The Honey Sotong was quite fun in terms of taste and texture. The thin slivers of fresh squid was dipped in batter and then deep fried to a crunchy consistency before being tossed in a light honey and line sauce. The sweet and sour taste worked well with the squid especially when there was really every little oily aftertaste left after the deep frying process. Tasting much lighter that once would expect a fried dish to be, the Honey Sotong was quickly dispensed with by our clearly appreciative group. Best thing was that since they were quite light of the sauce, the crispy squid stayed crispy till the last bit was taken even when after it was tossed in the honey and lime dressing.

The Kerabu Mango would have been more a success if they would have used a slightly younger mango than the one that they used on the day we went for lunch there. A good Kerabu Mango should be crunchy, subtle tasting but with a bit of a taste kick from pounded bird’s eye chili and peanuts. The one we had could have been improved by having a little more crunchy mango and a little bit more heat from the chilies. The Braised Nyonya Beancurd on the other hand was quite a bit of a let down after the other dishes. It didn’t taste distinctly enough from the others to let it stay in our mind. It was still serviceable beancurd dish to order to round out the meal selection but the one that we had was the least memorable of all the dishes that we had today.

The total bill for our lunch including watermelon juice for the 8 of us came up to a surprisingly cheap RM134. Each item was in the range of between RM 11 – RM 18 price range. I would guess that our meal would be a lot more expensive if we had ordered whole fish and/or prawns. Looking at the pricelist, most of the dishes we saw on the menu were very good value for money. The large order portions were good enough to feed 8 people and that added to the good value. It is always a good day when you find a place that would not do huge damage to you wallet for a good meal. The Restoran Peranakan House is once of those hard to find places that give you good value and great food under the same roof.

I would definitely come back to this restaurant with friends so they can discover this gem of an eatery as well.

Adventures in Dodol – Making

I am very proud to report that my second attempt at making dodol has been a resounding success. Taking the lessons from my previous attempt, I think that I’ve corrected all the things that I did wrong the last time. Since I gave the recipe for the dodol I made the last time, I guess I should put down the corrected one here as well.

For those who are not familiar with dodol, the closest foreign equivalent that I could think of is soft taffy.

Dodol (Malaysian Soft Taffy - makes about 5 kilos)

Ingredients:
1 kg glutinous rice flour
100 g plain rice flour
750 g palm sugar
750 g brown molasses sugar
Thick coconut milk/cream from 10 coconuts
Salt to taste
Pandan (screwpine leaves)

Preparation (prep time: 5 hrs)

Place both palm sugar blocks and brown sugar in a pan and pour in water until it covers all the sugar. Knot about 5 pandan leaves and place into the pot with the sugar for aroma. Boil on a medium heat setting until all of the sugar has dissolved into a thick dark syrup. Remove syrup from heat and let it cool to room temperature.

Add a tablespoon of salt to half of the coconut milk and pour the coconut into a large heavy bottom cast iron wok (the “kawah” in Malay). Knot another handful of pandan leaves and put it in with the coconut milk. Heat the coconut milk on a medium heat and stir continuously to avoid burning the milk. After a hour or so, a thin layer of coconut oil will start raising to the surface and bits of the coconut milk will start to clump together.

Strain in the room-temperature syrup mixture to the boiling coconut milk and continue to stir. Mixture must be continuously stirred at this point to incorporate the syrup and the coconut milk together without burning them. In about half an hour, the coconut milk clumps will dissolve again into the syrup mixture and a thin layer of coconut oil can be seen rising to the surface again. Remove the knotted pandan leaves from the mixture.

While the syrup and coconut milk is being heated, mix the glutinous and plain rice flours with the remaining half of the coconut milk. Mix well and make sure that there are no clumps of flour in the mixture. Once mixed well, strain the mixture through a fine sieve and pour into the hot syrup and coconut milk mixture cooking in the kawah. Take care not to splash the hot mixture when pouring the flour mix in. Stir the mixture well with a wooden cooking paddle to ensure that everything is evenly mixed.

The resulting mixture will almost immediately start to thicken as it is continuously stirred on a medium heat. The sides of the wok should be scraped for the bits that get stuck there as the mixture is stirred. Take care not to let any bits of the mixture to burn as it will leave hard bits in what is suppose to be a smooth texture candy. A “lift and fold over” technique seems to work best in making sure that the resulting dodol is cooked evenly and the texture remains smooth.

The dodol will darken considerably during the cooking process changing from a light mocha color to dark espresso color. The aroma of the dodol should be a mellow sweet smell instead of a sharp burnt sugar smell. The dodol is fully cooked once it can be easily scraped from the sides of the kawah without leaving any bits behind, the dodol mixture can be pulled up from the kawah without breaking and can be rolled between the fingers without burning them. The cooked dodol would also feel slick to the touch and looks shiny to the eyes with the coconut oil that is the by product of cooking the coconut milk for hours. A thin layer of coconut oil should start to pool around the dodol to signal that the dodol was now cooked and ready to be taken off the fire.

Transfer the cooked dodol from the kawah to a flat shallow tray to cool. Remember to spread the transferred dodol evenly in the tray to ensure that it cools evenly and that it would have almost the same thickness when cut. The cooling dodol will also start to release the coconut oil that would pool on the surface. Tilt the tray a bit to drain the excess coconut oil but do not remove too much of the oil as the dodol could be too dry without it.

Cut into bite sized pieces to serve.

Personal observations

Learning from the last time I tried to make dodol, I knew that I had to increase the amount of coconut milk that I used this time around. I also reduced the sugar that I used as I wanted a less sweet version of this Malaysian favorite candy. I guess a good way of remembering the recipe would be 1 part flour, 2 parts sugar and 10 coconuts for 5 parts dodol. It should be the same proportions if you scale them up but I’m not too sure if the same works when you scale down the recipe.

The addition of the plain rice flour to the flour mix was new this time around and was something that was suggested by my mother. By adding the plain rice flour, the resulting dodol was easier to cut and was not as chewy to the bite as it was before. Just a little bit of the plain rice flour really made the difference.

Cooking of half the coconut milk until it started to release the coconut oil also made a big difference in the final result. The dodol that I made this time around was much darker, softer and smoother in taste and touch. I was a bit apprehensive about the growing pool of coconut oil that was coming out of the cooking dodol but after learning that it was how it was suppose to be and that the excess oil would be drained away then it was a welcomed sight indeed.

I can now safely say that I have made the dodol dish that is a close approximation of what my late grandfather used to make. Of our extended family, we are the only one of the family branch living outside of Johor who would still be carrying the tradition of making the dodol for festive occasions. It’s a tradition that I am now very proud to shoulder and carry on knowing that it has a long history behind it. While it might not be the true recipe for the dodol that he used to make, I like to think that somewhere my late grandfather is looking down and approving the way that I choose to honor his memory.

Next traditional dish that I’ll be tackling next would be my maternal grandmother’s recipe for “dodol pulut hitam” (black glutinous rice dodol).

Passing On The Torch

It took me a while to get back to the swing of things after the long holiday including of course this neglected blog. I finally got some time today to jot my thoughts down.

Other than visiting some of my relatives up in Sungai Besar, Selangor and PJ, most of my Aidil Fitri holidays were spent at my parents house in Selayang. Since we all decided to have Hari Raya in KL instead of making the trip to Johor to be with relatives on my father’s side, we decide to get all the relatives on my mother’s side together at our house. Since that branch of the family were much smaller than my father’s side, it was quite manageable.

The few days leading up to Hari Raya, every one came to our house to make preparations for the day. Being the eldest male around, my father acted as coordinator of the whole thing. Everyone had their own thing to do from making finishing touches to the new window treatments, weaving both ketupat nasi and ketupat palas, baking cakes and cookies, prepping the ingredients for the special dishes that we would always have on Hari Raya morning and cleaning up all the houses.

My job this year was to make the dodol that has not been made in my family since my grandfather passed away a few years back. It was his tradition that his grandchildren would always have a little of his dodol every Hari Raya when he was alive. I remember getting it even while I was studying in the US. He made my father mail me a small container of dodol through express mail the 2 years I had to celebrate Hari Raya overseas. Having it was a piece of home while I was trying to get into the spirit of Aidil Fitri while freezing my behind off in the deep cold of Wisconsin winter.

No one in my father’s family took up the tradition after he passed on. While I don’t blame them for not wanting to since it is back breaking work but I always had a deep appreciation of the thought behind the tradition. It meant a lot for me to get that little piece of home and hearth from him and I missed it now that he’s gone. When I told my family that I wanted to revive the tradition again, while not everyone was particularly enthusiastic about it, they all supported me because it would be wasteful if the old recipe was lost to the younger generation of the family.

The first thing that I had to do was to get together all the equipment needed to cook the dodol with. Since most of my late grandfather’s original cooking equipments are back in Johor, we had to buy new ones to use here in KL. Most of the items I had to buy at a store in Chow Kit that I have never back to in ages. Not only was I surprised to see how much things have changed in that area but I was also astounded by the number of people in the streets in the days leading to Aidil Fitri. It was as if the whole of Kuala Lumpur was there all at once and it was breathless to behold.

Once I get all the cooking utensils together, it was time to get the ingredients together. There are some tips and tricks that my grandfather used and I note them down in the recipe below.

Dodol (makes about 1 kg more or less)

1 Kg Glutinous rice flour
2 Kg Palm sugar (Gula Melaka)
2 Liters Coconut milk (1st extract from about 4 large coconuts)
5 Pandan (screw pine) leaves
1/2 Table spoon salt
Water as required

Instructions

Tip/Trick: The choice of sugar used in the recipe does influence the outcome of the dodol. Palm sugar will make a dodol with a mellower flavor and color. Brown sugar/molasses will darken the dodol considerably. Processed white sugar will result in a dodol that is much sweeter with a sharper after taste. His perfect combination was the secret of my grandfather’s dodol that he didn’t tell anyone. I guess that I would have to experiment with the combination to find out.

Arrange the palm sugar in a pot and fill the pot with water until it covers the top of the palm sugar blocks. Knot the pandan leaves together so they could be easily be removed later and place them into the pot. Place the pot on a medium heat and let the palm sugar dissolve into the hot water. Stir occasionally to make sure that it doesn’t boil over and that all the palm sugar blocks have been dissolved. Once all the sugar has dissolved, let the syrup cool down before the next step.

Sieve the glutinous rice flour finely into a appropriate size mixing bowl. Dissolve the salt into the coconut milk and add to it the cooled sugar syrup after removing the knotted pandan leave from it. Sieve the whole mixture into a container to remove any tiny bits of the coconut shell that may have been scraped along and bits that did not dissolve. Add the liquid mixture little by little to the glutinous rice flour and stopping to mix the mixture thoroughly in each step until all the coconut milk has been added. Add plain water into the mixture as needed so it has a smooth milk consistency but not too watery.

Tip/Trick: I found that working the mixture with my bare hands was the easiest way to make sure that there were no lumpy bits. I didn’t use a hand mixer but I guess that it could help here as well. Sieve the mixture through a few times if necessary but I found that I didn’t have to do that at all when I use my hands.

Tip/Trick: Some dodol recipes recommend mixing only the syrup and water with the glutinous rice flour at this point and to cook the coconut milk on a medium fire first until it starts to release the coconut oil (pecah minyak) before adding the mixture to it. I was told that this method cuts down the cooking time and makes the dodol much easier to handle as it starts to thicken. I didn’t try this tip since I wanted to do it the way my grandfather used to do it to see if I could recapture the same taste.

After making sure that there are no lumpy bits of flour left in the mixture, pour it into a heavy bottom cast iron wok before it is placed on to a medium high fire. My grandfather used to insist on cooking his dodol on a wood and coconut shell fire but I used a gas stove instead which helped to cut the cooking time from his usual 10 hours down to about 4. The mixture has to be stirred constantly using a wooden cooking paddle to ensure that it does not stick to the bottom of the wok. Having a constant flame helps in making sure that the dodol doesn’t burn so you need to watch the heat even when using a gas stove.

The first 2 hours will go fairly easily as the mixture start to thicken and grow darker in appearance. Once it thicken, it’s very important that none of it sticks to the wok surface or you will end up with dodol with hard bits in it. The best way to stir the dodol at this point is with 2 people folding the bottom half of the mix from each end of the wok up. It would be too hard for one person to cope alone at this point. My grandfather’s dodol making has always been about family, community and cooperation as well as making the delicacy every year.

If all goes well, the dodol mixture will thicken to consistency of chewing gum or warm taffy. I’ve noted that dodol continue to harden even after it taken off the heat so take it off earlier if you like to have softer dodol. The dodol is ready when you could pull off a bit from the wooden cooking paddle without burning your fingers and roll it into a small ball that doesn’t stick to your fingers. It should feel smooth and slick from the coconut oil.

Once taken off from the fire, the dodol should be poured into a flat tray to cool off before being cut into bite sized strips and served. If prepared correctly, the dodol could last for at least a month if placed into an air tight container. That is if no one finishes it earlier.

My attempt at dodol making this year didn’t come out as well as I had hoped it would since it was not as sweet or as dark as I remember my late grandfather made it. It was also a bit more chewy than I would have liked it since I over cooked it instead of stopping when I should. I guess for a first timer I could have done worse but at least that now I have the mistakes that I know I will correct the next time I try the recipe again which might be much earlier than I would expect now that I’m the bearer of this tradition in the family.

I’ve always been very big on family traditions and for me to honor this particular one was something that made the Aidil Fitri this year more memorable.

My Love Affair With Food

(image curtesy of Ben & Jerry's.com)

I recently found out that the local 7-11 store near my place carries Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and ever since then I’ve been getting a pint a week from them. Unfortunately, they don’t come cheap. A 1-pint tub of Ben & Jerry’s cost about RM 24 compared to a local brand costing under RM 10. However, I gladly pay the premium just to get my hands on what I always believed to be the best ice cream on the face of the planet. B&J’s ice cream are so much more flavorful than the local ice creams that each bite is just an orgasm of taste that’s hard to resist. They also have much more imaginative flavors than your average local ice cream.

B&J’s were the only ice cream that I used to eat during my stay in the States. When I came back, I tried to find a place that carries them but for the longest time, I could only find them very rarely. Even when I did find them, it would be just a few tubs of plain flavored tubs of chocolate or vanilla which didn’t seem worth buying since there were tons of cheaper chocolate or vanilla ice cream. The 7-11 store that I’m buying them from now carries “Cherry Garcia”, “Chubby Hubby”, “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough” & “Chocolate Fudge Brownie” flavors that I don’t remember having before. I have to say that my current favorite flavor is “Chubby Hubby” but unfortunately for me they really just fly off the ice cream section every time fresh stocks come in. I think I have a rival in my quest to get a tub of “Chubby Hubby”

Finding a supply of B&J’s ice cream again reminded me of all the foods that I missed from the time I was living in the States. I guess that I could try to recreate some of them locally but I wonder if they would be the same. I thought that for today’s entry, since I don’t really have anything more interesting to write about, I’ll list some of my favorite foods that I missed.

BTW ... I’m not telling which 7-11 store carries B&J just in case mine is the only one who carries them. Don’t need more competition for the ice creams.

Toasted Garlic Bagels

Of all the food I had in Madison, this is the one that I missed the most. I used to go to this bagel shop just across from Randall Stadium at the corner of Regent St and Monroe St every chance I get and buy them by the dozen. I never had one before I came to the US and I instantly fell in love with it the first time I had one. I remembered that the shop carried a wide variety of types but my favorite was garlic with garlic flavored cream cheese. Having garlic breath for the rest of the day was worth each warm toasted slice although I guess that it didn’t really endear me to non-garlic eaters. Unfortunately for me, bagels are almost unknown here and I’ve only found them again once a few years back in a local sandwich food chain that have since stopped operating. Someone told me that I could get frozen bagels flown in from US from a shop in Ampang that specializes in food for the expatriate population on Ambassador’s Row there but I have not been able to track down the place till today.

Jelly Filled Doughnuts

For some strange reason, I never liked jelly filled doughnuts before I went to the States. I guess it was because they get too messy to eat compared to powders or glazed doughnuts. My first Wisconsin winter quickly change that for me. There was a doughnuts shop about 2 blocks away from where I stayed and they would have freshly baked jelly filled doughnuts and something they call “bear claws” at the start of almost every hour of the day. They usually use either apple, blueberries or strawberries as fillings but sometimes they would go wild and have something like apricot or peach instead. I remember that the smell of freshly baked doughnuts would waft into my room at the middle of a cold winter’s night and immediately get my stomach juices flowing. To this day, I would always remember biting into a freshly baked peach bear claw as one of the best things about winters in Madison.

Cajun Seafood Gumbo

I’m a big fan of spicy food and the closest that I got to real American spicy food was either Cajun or Tex-Mex cooking. While I had both types of restaurants close to where I lived, I found myself attracted more to Cajun cooking than Tex-Mex and more to seafood gumbo than other Cajun dishes. There was this deli about 2 blocks from my apartment that served the best seafood gumbo I ever head. The owners were very friendly to me and even walked me through all the different types of Cajun dishes when I first came to their shop. Needless to say that I became fast friends with them to the point that I could ask them to cook up a special extra spicy batch of seafood gumbo on the days that I would go there for dinner. For the 3 years I was in Madison, their seafood gumbo was one of my favorite comfort food. I remember begging them for their gumbo recipe before I left to come back to Malaysia but they laughingly told me that they don’t need the competition if they decide to expand to this side of the world.

Chicago-style deep dish pizza

I have yet to find any place in Malaysia that has this style of pizza. The one that I remember most fondly was the spinach – garlic – cheese deep dish pizza that they used to sell at a small Italian family owned restaurant a few blocks away from where I used to stay in Madison. They made the pizza about the size of a dinner plate and was at least 3 inches deep. A whole pie would usually last me about a day if I don’t go crazy and finish it in one sitting. The thing was that it actually tasted better served cold the day after an overnight in the refrigerator. My favorite college breakfast was a cold slice of deep dish pizza bought the day before with black coffee which also explains the ever increasing waistline while I was there.

I don’t know if I will ever get to sample these foods again short of actually making a trip back to Wisconsin but one can never know. I never thought that I would find B&J’s in KL and now I have so stranger things have happened.

Or I could always try to find the recipes on the Net and try them out when I have a proper kitchen.