KETUPAT AND HARI RAYA

The ketupat is a savoury rice cake wrapped in woven coconut leaves. It is one of the food most commonly associated with Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. It is served to guests who visit the many "open houses" throughout the country. I learnt to weave the casing for ketupat when I was teaching in Kampung Kinjang. My colleagues taught me and until today I still remember how to weave the casings. However, I find that quite a number of my students (boys and girls) do not know how to weave the casings. Since it is the season, I would like to do a post on this traditional Malay dish and the kampung craft of weaving its casing.

Materials for weaving ketupat casings.

The stick which forms the spine of the leaves is removed with a paring knife so that the leaves are split in two ribbon-like pieces. The young leaves of the coconut plant are used. These young leaves are light yellow in colour with green edgings down the long outer sides of the leaves. The length of the coconut leaves is just right for ketupat weaving. The wider the leaves the bigger the ketupat casing will be. The instructions given below is for the traditional ketupat - somewhat square in shape. Another type of ketupat casing is woven in the shape of an onion - called ketupat bawang. Nowadays, for decorative purposes, ketupat casings may be woven in multicoloured craft ribbons.
How to cook & serve ketupat.

The ketupat casings are filled with uncooked rice at the top opening of the casing. It is filled two thirds or three quarters full. The more water absorbent Chinese rice is preferable to the Thai variety as the Chinese rice makes a more compact ketupat and the texture of the ketupat is also smoother. A whole bunch of filled ketupat is then put into a big pot of water and boiled for about 3 hours. The ketupat are then cooled. Serve ketupat cut across diagonally twice with the casing still intact. Remove the casing after cutting. Ketupat are traditionally served with Sayur Lodeh, Serunding, Sambal Tumis, Soto or Satay. Because of the long hours of boiling, the ketupat will keep well and may last a few days even without refrigeration.
Weaving Tips
Briefly stated the ketupat weave comprises three vertical and three horizontal interlocking loops. The two ends of the split coconut leaves end up together at the diagonal opposite ends of the ketupat casing: the 2 narrow ends finish together diagonally opposite the two broad ends. The opening of the ketupat (into which rice is filled) is located at the top end where the broad ends of the leaves are located.

For the illustrated instructions, please log on to:

http://web.singnet.com.sg/~hsh17/sect1ketupat.htm

http://groups.msn.com/FoodiesCorner/kbarchive.msnw?action=view_list&row=26&viewtype=2&sortstring=

I have also put up the instructions on ketupat weaving on the English language notice board in school.