Dodol

Making dodol can be a fun community affair.

THE recipe is quite simple. You just take brown and coarse sugar, pulut flour, freshly squeezed santan and water, and toss them all into a huge cauldron in no particular order.

Then light the fire and stir the mixture continuously with a wooden paddle until it is as thick as industrial glue.

Black and irresistible: After five hours of instense stirring, the dodol takes on an elastic quality. Kak Timah makes about 7½ kgs of dodol per day to sell.

What are we talking about? Making dodol, of course!

Would Ramadan and Hari Raya be the same without dodol’s aromatic wafts of brown sugar and coconut milk?

Ramlah Arshad, a 53-year-old housewife who resides in Taman Datuk Harun in Petaling Jaya, thinks not.

For the past five years this stalwart mother of four, known as Kak Timah in her housing area, has been making dodol not only for Hari Raya, but weddings as well. And she has her own philosophy of why dodol is such a significant delight to the Malays.

For one, making dodol can be a fun community affair because it requires teamwork.

“When people get together it inadvertently fosters closer ties,” she reasoned, speaking in Bahasa Malaysia.

This usually begins when neighbours hear the sound of the paddle scraping against the steel cauldron and come out to investigate what’s cooking.

This encourages conversation and, as the mixture thickens, the volunteering of helping hands to join in the stirring of the dodol.

“Indirectly, having burnt dodol is a sign of a lack of unity either among the community or a household because it means that there were not enough hands to keep the stirring going.,” said Kak Timah. Making dodol can take up to five hours.

In this dodol maker’s case, her husband Md Sapie Badri, a 57-year-old retired machine operator, helps her when the going gets tough.

“Once the fire is lit, you cannot cease stirring. If even a small part of the bottom gets burned, the cauldron of dodol will have an unpleasant burnt taste.

“Unless one is willing to put out the fire to rest, the stirring must never ever stop. So, one needs to be prepared to endure an aching shoulder,” revealed Kak Timah.

But she added that she has not experienced any aching muscles from the dodol making process.

“It’s like exercise. Furthermore, one tends to forget everything during dodol making because you have to focus on the task at hand,” she pointed out.

The making of dodol requires more than a single pair of hands.

And there was another good thing about making dodol the “gotong royong” way.

“As everybody is concentrating on the task at hand, there is no time to think of ill feelings or past grudges,” smiled Kak Timah.

Kak Timah learned how to make dodol from her late mother, Ehsah Alias, when she was a child in Kampung Sungai Besar at Sabak Bernam in Sekinchan, Selangor.

The idea to turn her dodol making skills into a small home business had come about when friends and family began complimenting her for her soft but sticky brand of dodol, which was unlike the harder versions sold in shops.

Today, Kak Timah whips up at least 7½ kgs of fresh dodol daily at her customers’ requests for wedding parties, gift hampers and, of course, for consumption during Ramadan and Hari Raya.

Though her best selling flavour remains the traditional dodol, she has also come up with other varieties like dodol durian and dodol kerisek (fried desiccated coconut).

As for future plans, Kak Timah hopes that she will be able to market her dodol more extensively.

“My husband’s friend is trying to get my dodol onto the shelves of petrol station shops, which we hope will come true,” said Kak Timah.

If it works out, perhaps Kak Timah will consider employing the use of a machine to do the stirring?

“Oh, that will be much, much easier for me and my husband, of course. But on second thought, I worry if my dodol will still taste and feel the same...” pondered this traditional dodol maker.

Kak Timah can be contacted at 017-308 5699.