Hari Raya Aidil Fitri Syawal 1431 H - Sept 2010

A Glimpse of Its Preparations

Hari Raya was aroumd the corner. The last week of Hari Raya has always been as busy, especially in the kitchen.

I was quite determined to make something different from last years' hari raya. I made my own cookies this time round. The time and effort for
doing it really need some management more than baking cakes. But I was quite determined; managed to bake 5 types of cookies,
cheese stick (changed it to a horse n tractor shape);

Peanut butter cookies, which I did twice;


Sagu keju (cheesy sago) which was quite tricky but managed to get the shape in place;


Nastar or pineapple tart which is a hit;


and,
Sagu Ketan Hitam (black glutinous rice w/ sago) that made my hands quite stiff in the end :D

Well, you see, if you get the right consistency you will be able to squeeze it easily through a tip from a triangle bag. But if not, you will need some inner energy to get it out. But it was delicious...!!

D-2 (two days b4 hari raya) I made two types of layer cakes. Lapis Prune and Lapis Pelangi (originally Lapis Sarawak). I did the Pelangi first and it took me more than 4 hours including preparation.

The same day, very late at night I started cooking "Rendang". It is a signature dish from my ancestors in West Sumatra. The taste is very unique and so is the method of cooking it. Can you imagine standing 4 hours in front of the stove while stirring without a break for the first two hours? I have done it a few times though, and if last time I used to take turn with someone else, this time round I really did it myself. I stood and stir from 11 pm till 1 am all by myself. Continued cooking until the meats are tender before leaving it to continue a few hours later. Well, can't say 'tomorrow' though, because it was ALREADY the following morning :)). I went to sleep at 3.30 am, woke up at 5 for sahur (early breakfast before starting to fast). Then I continued to process the Rendang until it was dry enough.

You may want to ask, why does it take a long time to cook Rendang? Well, if you imagine, when I started I used 8 litres of coconut milk for 2 kg meat. The end result should be a dried and dark coloured gravy and meat cubes. Drying of the gravy can normally be done gradually, as how I did it. But I only paused when the meat are tender, so the following process was straight to drying the gravy. For me it took around 6++ hours to get the result I wanted.

And that's not all. After done with the cooking, I made two brownies. One for my MIL and another one for my hubby's uncle & aunt. When done with the brownies, I made my last trays of cakes. Two Japanese Style Cheese Cake of Yasaboga.
My hubby was quite restless, because I didn't seem to be ready for going for our last break-fast at my in-laws place. But I made it in time . Wow, such a 2-day marathon!