Fudge

It's been passed down through the family ever since her grandmother learned it from the British Women's Institute in Temerloh, and adapted it to her own taste. It's a staple of Hari Raya fare, slightly different versions in each household. And now her mother has written down the recipe for her in an eclectic mix of Malay and English so that she can try making it herself for the first time. A rite of passage.

First two tins of sweetened condensed milk.
Mix it with half a cup of cocoa.

I hand her my plastic measuring cup, but she said that it refers to the Chinese tea cups they have at home. So much for standardisation.

In another bowl, go two senduks of mentega .*

Then take one of the empty milk tins and use it as a measure for three tins of gula pasir.** Cream the sugar and the butter together.

Then heat the butter and sugar in a pan and when the sugar melts, add the other ingredients with a couple of teaspoons of vanilla essence. Keep stirring until it thickens enough to see the bottom of the pan. Test a tiny bit in a glass of ice water and see if it sets.

Spoon the mixture into greased trays and let it set. Then cut up and keep in an airtight container. Eat all the little bits that stick to the pan.

Don't count the calories!

*Mentega is butter. A senduk is a Malay rice scoop and two senduks worked out to be about 500g.
**Refined sugar. (Literally sand sugar.)