Dodol

This is the best angle I can get for a blob of brown goodie. 🙂

I finally got my hands on some delicious dodol yesterday. Each festive season usually has its special food. Unless one get to eat them, the festive season just doesn’t seem complete. Coming from a multi-racial country, we get to eat through the years. From the Muslims Hari Raya, Deepavali, Christmas, Chinese New Year and some other festivities.

Since from young, our neighbours, friends and colleagues of different races will share their goodies. Dodol is synonymous with Hari Raya Aid Fitri. I used to see my Malay neighbours toiling over dodol when I was small. It is a community thingy where a few households will gather together to stir the huge wok for several hours.

I found the dodol having some similarities with the Chinese New Year must-have, the nien kau. Both uses flour and sugar. Both takes a long, long time to cook. But the dodol tastes better because it has coconut milk. See how this gentleman makes dodol from The Star website.

He said the key to making the delicious, smooth-textured and thick dodol lies in using the right amount of santan (coconut milk) which must be thick and creamy.

“That’s my trade secret. If the thickness of the santan is not right, the dodol will not taste good,” he said.

He added that the other ingredients included brown and white sugar, flour and pandan leaves to add fragrance. Mohd Alham, who has been in the business for 12 years, uses a long stick to stir the dodol.

The dodol is formed through continuous stirring of the ingredients in a pot placed over a fire.

To those who has never eaten dodol, be warned. It is very fattening and may cause indigestion because it is made from glutinous rice. Hence, it is sinfully tasty. To foreigners, probably dodol is equivalent in taste to gooey toffee, only better.