Doling out mum’s dodol recipe

Ramadan order: Zamri stirring a wok of dodol while his workers assist in preparing the dodol mixture.

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Nothing beats a mother’s recipe, and that holds true for Zamri Sulaiman when it comes to making dodol.

Until this day, Zamri, 47, sticks to the authentic and traditional way of making dodol, cooking it in a big wok and using firewood.

“We use logs from rambutan and rubber trees as firewood.

“Our tagline is that it has to be cooked the traditional way without preservatives. We grind our own sticky rice to make the flour instead of using ready-made flour.

“We call it ‘dodol Tok Nah’ as that is what my mother is affectionately known as in my kampung, but the recipe came from my grandmother, ” he said when met at his mother-in-law’s home in Kampung Kuala Mengkuang, Penanti, near here.

Zamri said he had been making dodol commercially for the past 15 years.

“Prior to this, we only made it for our kampung during certain occasions. I decided to aim bigger as I wanted to share my family’s wholesome recipe. My late father had this belief that you must only give people what you would consume.

“I like my food healthy and natural, so I make sure people get to enjoy my dodol that has no preservatives, ” he said.

Zamri said four people would help him stir the dodol.

“We stir it for two to three hours.

“Today, we are using five large woks. One wok can produce 30kg of dodol.

“Last Raya, we had a demand for 100 large woks but could only make 70. This year, we are targeting to make 200 woks, ” he said.

Zamri said his customers come from as far as Perlis and Kuala Lumpur. He also has distributors in Johor Baru.

“The workers work in shifts in the morning and evening. We started making dodol from the first day of Ramadan.

“I usually make dodol three to four times a week throughout the year but in smaller quantities compared to during Ramadan.

As it is now Ramadan, I have to make larger quantities to meet the demand, ” he said.