Kg Putat’s traditional taste with a twist

BENEATH the stage at the Kampong Putat Recreational Herb Garden, a group of women chatted amiably as some of them rolled dough with a rolling pin while others mixed multi-coloured batter in seven different bowls.

These women are part of Kampong Putat Consultative Council’s Women’s Bureau and they are hard at work demonstrating how tumpi, a local pancake, and Kuih Baulu Pelangi (Rainbow Baulu cakes) are made.

The Tumpi Rangup Kg Putat (Kg Putat’s Crispy Tumpi) and the Kuih Baulu Pelangi are the village’s one-village-one-product (OVOP).

I was there during the visit by the Kg Birau Women’s Bureau and took the opportunity to talk to the chairperson of the Kg Putat Consultative Council’s Women’s Bureau, Tirahmat Hj Mahali.

The idea to have the tumpi and the baulu as the village’s OVOP was planted when the village held aTahlil and the baulu and tumpi were presented as gifts for those attending the function, according to Tirahmat.

It was the District Office’s invitation to join the ASEAN Expo at Bridex in October 26, 2013, that started the establishment of the Food Unit of the Women’s Bureau and, to differentiate themselves from the OVOP of other villages, they decided to make the baulu and tumpi the village’s OVOP.

Twelve to fifteen members of the bureau, made up of mostly housewives, worked on making the products for the village.

“At first the kitchen under the stage was not a proper one. It didn’t have ventilators, fans or even a proper oven,” said Tirahmat.

Slowly as the efforts to make these products viable for the village, the bureau and the council members drew up the paper work to request for proper equipment to increase the productivity and the output of the council. They were given a bigger oven, a small industrial food mixer and fridges to store the ingredients and the completed tumpi.

Tirahmat explained that the baulu is called the ‘Rainbow Baulu’ because of their eight different colours, each with its own flavour. The colours yellow, blue, red, green, brown, purple and orange, represent the flavours of banana, blueberry, strawberry, pandan, chocolate, yam and orange, respectively. The eighth is uncoloured to represent the original flavour.

Sugar and eggs are whipped together before adding flour. The resulting batter is then separated into seven or eight portions, depending on the colours that are needed, and then coloured and flavoured. The baulu takes around 15 to 20 minutes to bake.

For the tumpi, there are two types made by the village’s women’s bureau – the plain and the spicytumpi. Both uses water, eggs, oil, garlic, and flour, with the spicy tumpi having spring onions and chopped bird’s eye chilli.

The ingredients are properly mixed in a bowl, weighed and apportioned onto plastic sheets before rolled flat and then stored in the freezer to be sold.

The products are usually sold at events, expos, District Office invitation or direct orders. For those interested, the numbers are: 8866134 (Chairperson), 8953065 (Treasurer) or 8624425 (Advisor).