A very popular Nonya standard, which is reflected here by the folded bottom right-hand corner to bookmark the page! It’s also one of my all-time favourite dishes.
Notice how grandmother has added the local term ‘buah keluak’ to the original ‘opium-fruit’, and changed the chicken to pork. This in a more shaky hand and ball-point pen indicating that it was done much later than the original writing (which used fountain pen), perhaps in the last few years?
The mysterious sak-luk makes another appearance. [NB: See answer on 'Unfamiliar Ingredients' page.]
Once again, you’ll have to ‘agak-agak‘ your own quantities – good luck!
If you’re looking for a detailed recipe for Buah Keluak curry, including tips on the special process of preparing the buak keluak fruit, check out http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2007/09/ayampork-buah-keluak.html
Hi, I have a recipe for this dish that I just tried out a couple of weeks ago. Taste quite alright. The proportions are as follows: fresh red chillies, 1 tblsp belachan, 5 candle nut, 300g shallots, 200g garlic, a few slices of “blue ginger”, about 2cm of tumeric ginger, all these pounded together(rempah). 10 buah keluak, 5 chicken thigh, litre of assam juice for use later in the cooking process. 5 tblsp of oil for the frying of the rempah. some salt and sugar to taste.
For the buah Keluak, you could try soaking it with assam skin for a day before trying to make an opening. I use the back of a chopper to make the opening, dangerous but effective. after which, I would mix the buah keluak with about 200g of minced prawn and stuff it in again, do not stuff it too full as it would be able to absorb the curry.
Fry to rempah until slightly brown, then add in the chicken thigh, fry for about 5-10mins, then add in the assam juice. bring it to boil(for the assam juice, you could add more or less of depending on how assam you want the dish to be), add in the buah keluak and simmer for another 25mins or so. stirring occasionally to make sure that the bottom is not charred. When all is done, add in salt and sugar to taste, and we are done.
Enjoy!!
forgot about the lemongrass. 3-5nos(only the white part) to be pounded together with the rempah. The proportion that i have mentioned can serve around 6-8 people.
Hi Jaslyn, thanks a lot for sharing your recipe here!
[...] France”), reprinted and annotated by her granddaughter. The recipes are an interesting mix of local and colonial, and the commentary is scholarly rather than [...]