This week, moslems all over the world celebrate Lebaran Day after a month of Ramadhan, the holy fasting month.
And this auspicious day will not be complete without its famous, extravaganza delish cuisines, including here in Indonesia.
In Indonesia this year, since we do not mudik or go back to our hometown thanks to Corona Virus pandemic, many of us have to prepare the traditional Lebaran cuisine on their own. Well, we can obviously order it from many restaurants and food vendors that provide them, but for me, it is so special I feel like I have to cook them myself!
In indonesia, if I may say it generally, the traditional menu on Lebaran day usually comprises of
- ketupat (rice cake wrapped in specially-woven coconut leaves),
- rendang (the world wide famous spicy beef with coconut milk, cooked in long hours until the meat and the spices are tenderly blended),
- opor ayam (chicken stew with coconut milk, my kids favorite!),
*- kari ayam (*chicken kari
- sambal goreng ati (spicy potato and beef liver, sometimes mixed with beans to give extra green colors),
- semur daging (Indonesian sweet beef stew, slowly cooked and delishly added with palm sugar to have extra kick) and
- sayur ketupat or some know it as sayur godog (Indonesian spicy vegetable soup, with beans, carrots, corns, green jackfruit and more).
Not to mention the cookies! My fave is always be the kaastengel**s or the cheese cookies and nastar*,* the butter cookies with pineapple jam inside. Other famous munchies include kue putri salju or the butter cookies blanketed with sugar powder, and kacang bawang, or garlic friend peanuts. Well, even writing them down here is mouthwatering for me LOL.
Of course, in many part of Indonesia, there are so many traditional cookies or dishes prepared for this special occassion. For example in Lampung, we have Kue Maksuba, layer cakes rich in flavors made of yolk, sugar, and butter. You see, sometimes one month hard works in term of diet and healthy food is gone because of all these wonderful food we have at the end of the day.
I love cooking all those special food although it took hours of works. But to me, it’s the labour of love. Not to mention the fact that many of the recipes are passed from generations so it feels great to actually revive my grandma’s and even great grandma’s wonderful recipes. Such an incredible experience indeed.
So that’s the food we cook, serve and enjoy during the big day.
How about you?
Do you have special food for special time as well?
… Indeed it takes hours even days to prepared, but all pay off. We need to keep this tradition to the younger generation.
… You just like professional chef 
