Finally ... Kolak Ramadhan

Alhamdulillah, finally I can enjoy Kolak when I have iftar wih my friend, Widi, on Saturday. I really want it since the first day of Ramadhan. I could buy it,  I found it almost everyday coz Kolak is a kind of special dish on Ramadhan that is why many people or shops sell it on this Holy Month. But I want to make it myself and do not want to buy it. Unfortunatelly, I don’t have much time even on my days off on Saturday and Sunday … there are always some things that prevent me to make Kolak.

Now, as we enter the final week of Ramadhan, I can’t take it anymore.  When I have my iftar with Widi in Pasar Raya on Saturday, and I saw Kolak there … I decided to forget about making Kolak by myself and I buy it though it’s very expensive, 15.000 rupiah for a small bowl of Kolak. Fiuhh … whereas in fact, with that amount of money we can have a full pan of  Kolak if we make it by ourselves …  

As I said before Kolak is kind of special dish in Ramadhan. Actually, we can also make Kolak not in Ramadhan as a dessert.  It’s kind of sweet compote made of fruits like cassava, banana, sweet potatoes and toddy palm fruit ( you can choose one of them or mixed them) stewed in coconut milk and palm sugar ( Javanese Sugar  or gula jawa),  add a little salt and screwpine leaf-the fragrant leaf of a type of pandanus used to flavor desserts and cakes.    

It’s not very difficult to make Kolak. You can serve it warm or cold as desired. For information,  though Javanese Sugar (Gula Jawa) means Palm Sugar, yet it’s differ from the Palm Sugar that people know in Western market. So it’s hard to find a real Javanese Sugar in Western countries. However, we can use Palm Sugar to substitute Javenese Sugar. In Indonesia, Javanese sugar is mostly used to make the Kolak looks more attractive with its brownish colour. 

*** pic from here