Making Ketupat with MYP 2/3
by Dana, MYP 3 / Grade 8 student
Following the celebration of Hari Raya Eid al-Fitr, our class, Bahasa Indonesia Group B, decided to come together and cook ketupat as a way to commemorate the occasion. Prior to the break, we had been studying the theme of “Festivals and Tradition,” so it felt perfectly fitting to not just learn about festivals but to celebrate them ourselves.
We began by watching various videos and learning different techniques for making ketupat. However, we ran into some difficulty finding accurate tutorials. Traditionally, ketupat is made with sticky rice wrapped in coconut leaves, then boiled and cooked in coconut milk. However, many of the videos we found used water instead of coconut milk, which, while still delicious, resulted in lontong—a similar dish, but not what we intended to make.
To prepare, each of us chipped in a small amount of money so our teacher, Ms. Bintang, could buy the necessary ingredients. The next day, once the school bell rang, we began our mission. We washed our hands and made our way into the staff room, which had been transformed into a temporary kitchen.
Ms. Bintang had prepared several steel bowls filled with sticky rice that had been soaked, along with a pot of empty coconut leaf pouches (which we had bought pre-woven into the traditional ketupat shape). Another pot held my personal favorite—chicken rendang.
We split into groups, each sporting a pair of gloves. My friend Khezia and I took a table together and worked quickly to fill as many pouches as we could. From the videos we had watched, we remembered to only fill them about three-quarters full to allow the rice to expand properly as it cooked.
By the end of class, Ms. Bintang and a few others checked our work and found that many pouches were underfilled or not sealed properly. A few of us volunteered to stay back to not help fix them but to further clean up the staff room.
Later that day, during lunchtime, we finally got to enjoy the meal we had worked so hard to prepare. And honestly—it was amazing. That was a great experience that we got, making ketupat, the traditional dish.
