Shakira Khatam Al-Quran.

My other half and myself were so happy and thrilled that Shakira has finished her Al-Quran reading, all 30 juzuk (or chapters). Of course coming from a strong religious background, my other half pride himself for completing his Al-Quran at an year early age of 8-9 years old. Whereas yours truly only started reading at the age of 11.

I promised Shakira when she complete her Al-Quran I will prepare pulut kuning and chicken rendang. We will sedekah to our neighbors and her religious teacher.  When I mentioned earlier " I will prepare..." it actually mean I will cater someone to prepare the pulut kuning. I have never cooked pulut kuning before and I have no intention of learning how to cook one.  I find it very tedious. Went around asking if anybody can prepare pulut kuning on the eve of raya, but no takers.  They must have found me crazy. Here, a day before raya, people will be busy preparing ketupat, nasi impit, lemang and rendang and we have this one crazy lady asking for pulut kuning.

I am not a huge fan of pulut kuning. Even when I completed my Al-Quran, I asked my grandmother to prepare bubur gandum instead. Now that Shakira has finishes hers, I want to make pulut kuning just like what it should've been.

Nak tak nak, I have to do it myself. Niat dah pasang and I must fulfill it before raya which is 2 days away. I looked through recipes, and ways to cook pulut kuning on You Tube and even Blogs. Memang suspend sangat because you just do know exactly how its supposed to turn out.  But alhandulillah,.....menjadi jugak.

Five cups of beras pulut soaked over night with water, turmeric powder and 2 pieces of asam gelugor (tamarind). Why tamarind? it is said that your pulut kuning akan nampak cantik dan berkilat.

Preparation started on Tuesday night (2 days before raya).  After the soaking process, I set the pulut a side and began on my chicken rendang. One and half chicken used to make my rendang.  In order to encourage my children to eat rendang, I reduced the amount of chili. They love it. This is how my rendang looks like during the cooking process.

The finished product. Not too dark, well actually at 2 am no shops are open to get kerisik. Just used with whatever balance I have in the fridge.

I refrigerate the rendang. Finally at 3 am I'm off to bed since I still had to go to work that morning. 7 am I woke up and off to work. It's only half day work and realized I need to changed my two front wheels. Left office and went to the workshop had my 2 front wheels replaced. Once that's done, on the way back, stopped at our local grocerer to get stuff to prepare Assam Laksa for pagi raya. Then arrived home to start my pulut kuning.

After the first 20 minutes of steaming the pulut. It is yellow but don't know why the color did not came out in the photo.

After another 25 minutes of steaming.

Taa... daa... the finished product with my chicken rendang packed in containers.

Hahahaha...it is amazing what one can come out with when you put your mind into it.  Presentation, ok. Taste, pun ok jugak.  Thank you to all (my FB friends) who encouraged me throughout this process.