COOKING FROM THE HEART
Raya without cooking is like having no new clothes to celebrate. I don't mean your usual daily cooking but the real massive cooking which could take weeks of preparation until straight down to the actual pounding of the ingredients and cooking in big pots and woks.
First you need to plan what to serve on the table for your loved ones, then you have to do he marketing and stocking up of your freezer before the shopkeepers escalate their prices to take advantage of the high demand and the limited supply. They sure know their economics right!
All this shuttling to the market and dragging the kilos and kilos of purchase home is another skill you must master because you have to scout for the best prices offered to get value for money for your produce and next manoeuvre your fully laden trolley expertly in the standing space wet market. Actually, there is no value for money purchased because you either have to grab what you need fast before they vanish right under your nose from another eager housewife who also needs to buy the item or every stallholder in the market has conspired against you for they are all offering the items you need at the same price. That's unity against your wallet and pocket.
I decided to cook briyani instead of my usual fare of nasi tomato and ayam merah. My search for the best and fresh ingredients brought me to Johor Bharu Smart Market, Geylang market and my ever reliable Yishun market. My maid Tini was made to sit beside me and we worked out the menu for several days, deciding what could be prepared before hand so that we would not be bogged down by cooking and holding the spatula and frying the shallots on the first day of Hari Raya.
Huge pots were taken out from underneath the sink and blending of the onions, garlic and red chilly started early. Next on the list was to prepare the pickles and the serunding which could be kept early. On the eve of the day, the real massive cooking began with six chickens thrown into the pot for the briyani. The sambal tumis was next and the best dish I love most was the sambal goreng pengantin with liver, lung, meat and prawn. Ohlalala..... I know you are screaming on top of your head as to what goes into this traditional Malay dish but once you have got it into your mouth, the smell of galangal and lemon grass tickle your tastebuds that you would forget about your mother-in-law seated in front of you. This dish goes well with lontong and rice cubes with serunding, eaten almost dry.
Cooking did not cease for me on the first day of raya. The morning was occupied in cooking the briyani rice, lodeh and my special fried-ala-Vietnam-cum-Thai prawn. To localise the taste, I added oyster sauce and stripped naked sprigs of curry leaves into the swimming prawn in the chilly padi paste. Actually I don't know where the recipe had come from except from my mind. When I cook, I just concoct my experiment on the spot, throwing dashes of ingredients that I could lay my hands on or grabbing what's available in the fridge. So if you would to aks me for the recipe, I may not be able to repeat exactly what goes into it for most of the time the creation was done on the spot.
I thought I could rest after cooking a storm in the kitchen that morning, but lo and behold there was something which had completely not crossed my mind - my special and high-in-demand sugee or semolina dessert which I prepare without fail for every raya. A quick stir of the semolina flour and full cream milk was done within a record time before the first guests streamed in.
My kitchen would not see any smoke for the next few days. I need my well-earned rest from steaming my face in front of the hot pots and pans. But heck to all of that when cooking comes from the heart for your loved ones to enjoy and appreciate the labour you have put in into the cooking.
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