Gulai Nangka Muda

Malaysian young jackfruit and beef in a rich coconut gulai with meat-curry spices, chilli, lemongrass, galangal, and asam gelugor, once a must at the old village wedding feasts

Origin: Peninsular Malaysia

From the journey of Jackfruit.

Gulai is the Malay name for a curry enriched with coconut milk, and gulai nangka muda, young jackfruit gulai, is one of the classics of the Malay kitchen: chunks of boiled young jackfruit simmered with beef, often daging tetel, the gristly trimmings that give the gravy its body, in coconut milk spiced with a meat-curry powder, chilli paste, and a blended paste of shallots, garlic, ginger, and galangal, soured with asam gelugor and scented with lemongrass. Everyday versions are made with dried anchovies or salted fish in place of the beef. It is a dish of the old village feasts. 'In the old days', a Malaysian recipe writer recalled in 2018, 'at any kenduri, above all a wedding kenduri, there had to be gulai daging tetel with young jackfruit'. It is a favourite, too, for breaking the fast in Ramadan. The jackfruit itself has been on the peninsula for at least six centuries: Ma Huan listed it amongst the fruits of Malacca when he came there with the Ming fleets in the early fifteenth century.

Ingredients

Beef

  • 700 g beef (daging tetel or brisket), cut into small pieces
  • 1.2 litres water

Jackfruit

  • 400 g young jackfruit (nangka muda), peeled, cored, and cut into chunks, or 1 x 400 g tin of young jackfruit in brine, drained

Blended Paste

  • 8 shallots
  • 5 garlic cloves
  • 3 cm ginger
  • 2 cm galangal

Gulai

  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 2 star anise
  • 4 green cardamom pods, bruised
  • 3 tbsp meat curry powder (rempah kari daging), mixed to a paste with a little water
  • 2 tbsp chilli paste (cili boh)
  • 1 litre coconut milk (santan)
  • 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised
  • 3 cm galangal, bruised
  • 2 slices of asam gelugor
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 1 tsp sugar, or to taste

Method

  1. Simmer the beef in the water for 1 to 1½ hours, until tender. Keep the broth.
  2. Meanwhile oil your hands and knife, prepare the jackfruit, and boil the chunks for 20 to 30 minutes, until soft, to draw out the sap. Drain. Tinned jackfruit needs only a rinse.
  3. Blend the shallots, garlic, ginger, and galangal to a paste.
  4. Heat the oil in a large pot and fry the cinnamon, star anise, and cardamom until fragrant. Add the blended paste and fry until it smells cooked, then add the curry-powder paste and chilli paste and fry, stirring, until the oil separates.
  5. Add the beef with a ladle or two of its broth, then the coconut milk, lemongrass, bruised galangal, and asam gelugor. Simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring now and then.
  6. Add the jackfruit and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes more, until it has taken up the gravy. Season with salt and sugar and serve with rice.

Notes

For an everyday version, leave out the beef and add a handful of dried anchovies or a piece of salted fish with the coconut milk. Malaysia's other young jackfruit dish in the atlas is masak lemak cili api nangka muda, the fiercer gravy of Negeri Sembilan.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

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Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
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