catalyst

Salam.

Have you ever participated in cooking in 'bulk'? I mean in a large quantity like preparing foods for wedding receptions. ('kampung' style we used to cook in 'gotong-royong' instead of calling for catering)

I did learnt new things from these people especially things that we used to get it theoretically in classes but seldom having the opportunity to experience it in hand.

Just to share with you my personal experience when I was involved with my local community.

At one time (during the last Ramadhan),I was sweating myself cooking at my 'Qariah masjid' for the iftar which later,the foods will be distributed to the local community.

I do have some skills in the kitchen,but preparing foods in the large quantities really different and quite difficult.It wasn't an easy job to estimates the quantities of each ingredients e.g. salt,'santan' and even water for the rice which to be cooked in the 'jumbo rice cooker'.

Alhamdulillah all the 'mak cik-mak cik and pak cik-pak cik' helped me a lot.They were not mean to guide and teach.

There was a time when I was stirring the 'gulai daging' using the 'paddle' and suddenly I found a spoon inside it. I pulled it out and obviously thought I was the savior for finding the 'unnecessary thing' inside the 'gulai kawah'.

Suddenly one mak cik shouted and asked me to put the spoon back inside the 'gulai'.After been explained,the spoon immersing again in the 'gulai'.

This wasn't 'berlakon'.I was stirring the 'lauk' while been supervised by these pak cik-pak cik.Credits to my bro for this pic.

That mak cik told me that the spoon is acting as a catalyst.It helps to increase the heat so that the meat inside the 'gulai' will easily soften. It increases the rate for the meat to be soften per time.

It was actually a new thing for me.( but I'm curious a bit.I'm a afraid there is other chemical reaction between the stainless steel spoon and the heat.Is there any harmful reaction emitted from it?)

Wallahu'alam.

*Never underestimates 'orang-orang kampung'. Although they didn't learnt it in class,the have numerous experiences in hand which we couldn't find them in classes.

Question: If you are about to wash 5 sacks of 10kg 'beras', how would you do then?Initially,I thought it is by transferring the 'beras' into smaller pots and start washing it.However it consumes lot of times as it requires few cycles to wash the whole 5 sacks.

Answer: A pak cik (during the 'cooking event')taught me by 'stabbing' few small holes at the sacks using a small thing like a pen. As the 'kampit beras' is plastic's made, it is easy to make holes. Then,pour water inside the sacks and it will wash the whole 'beras' and automatically the water will flow out from the holes.Repeat it for few times until the 'beras' is totally washed.-The 'beras' is ready to be cooked!