I’ve been incredibly busy in the kitchen since very early this morning, right after preparing breakfast for my husband. I started cooking a variety of dishes today as part of a small tradition we observe during the month of Maulid—the month celebrating the birth of the Prophet. On this day, Muslims perform many acts of charity, ranging from monetary donations to giving away food. The food is later distributed at the mosque during the event.
The event takes place tonight; it’s always a lively affair, and these boxed meals are distributed to all the guests who attend. You see, it’s not just me—almost everyone prepares these boxed meals at home, as this marks the beginning of the season of good deeds. These celebrations usually continue across various villages for one or two months. Since our village hasn't held its event yet, we tend to cook a larger spread on this day. Because today marks the peak of the initial celebration, I usually handle the preparations myself at home; after all, the mosque doesn't require a huge number of meals—five boxes are sufficient for this particular tradition.
Since the event is in the evening, I used the morning hours to bake three cakes. One is a purple sweet potato cake, which will be included in the boxed meals later—I’ll share that recipe with you tomorrow. I also baked two other cakes to take as gifts when visiting my two older sisters, as I’m heading over there for Maulid celebrations as well.
I made a caramel cake and a pumpkin cake. They are simple, but both are favorites of my sisters. Today, the cakes turned out beautifully; they rose perfectly, and the caramel cake is rich with caramel. I love that moment when the cakes are finishing up and the whole room fills with such a delicious aroma. The pumpkin cake turned out beautifully too, though it’s slightly smaller than the caramel one—20 cm in size.
Once cooked, I immediately placed them in plastic containers for packaging, ready to be taken to my sibling's place tomorrow. It brings me such joy that I can now make various treats—like the sponge cakes they love—whenever I visit my relative.
After the cake was done baking, I started preparing the box rice. I’d prepared the ingredients ahead of time; I’d already braised the chicken yesterday, so today I just had to fry it. I made “ayam tangkap,” which is fried chicken seasoned with a full blend of spices, including curry leaves, pandan leaves, red onions, and green chilies. You can see in my recipe that I’ve made this before—I fried all the ingredients together.
Next, I also made stir-fried skipjack tuna in curry sauce—I intentionally made it with broth so that there would be at least one soupy dish on the menu. I cooked the skipjack tuna in a creamy, spicy sauce, and it was absolutely delicious.
Next on the menu was tofu with tauco and long beans, as well as Balinese sambal made with chicken eggs. I only made five boxed rice meals, so I intentionally didn’t make too much of anything. I was afraid there would be leftovers at home since it’s just the two of us—me and my husband.
After all the food was ready—exactly 3 hours after everything was cooked—I arranged it on the table and then, one by one, placed each dish into plastic bags. The food had already cooled, so I immediately portioned out each dish. I was so happy that, even though the menu was simple, everything was very complete.
However, after all the ingredients were ready, I also packed the purple sweet potato cake into a bag, along with the sugar pudding to keep it fresh. Everything was quite complete.
And you know, all the dishes were absolutely delicious—even though I forgot to add chili to the long bean tauco, it was still very tasty. I’m happy to be able to share this with you today, and you know this can only happen once a year. Maybe next month at my house, there will be a village Maulid celebration with an even wider variety of dishes. Stay tuned, and I’ll share the menu of the food I prepare for the Maulid celebration.
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About The Author
Welcome to this blog, I have a real name "Nurul", who comes from Indonesia. I have several hobbies, reading, writing, gardening, I also love food and cooking, even art related. And the most interesting one is spending the whole day traveling. From those hobbies, I will some inspiring content for all of you, I hope you like my blog, please and reblog this post if you like it!.
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