Ayam Buah Keluak (Chicken in Black Nut Stew) Recipe

 

Few ingredients in Peranakan cuisine have fascinated the public as much as the buah keluak (black nut), and it's easy to see why. Its lore is rather interesting: each buah keluak nut contain hydrocyanic acid and eating untreated nuts is fatal. The process to leech the toxins from the nuts requires weeks of treatment, including a lengthy process of burying the nuts in volcanic ash. After purchasing these nuts, shells and all, you continue the process of purging residual toxins from the nuts by scrubbing the shells and soaking them in water for three to five days, while making sure to change the water daily. For those interested on this topic, this primer is one of the most detailed, well-researched article that I'd come across.  

Another reason for its appeal is their distinctively earthy notes which can be a little polarising. The nuts themselves can also be rather elusive to find. Not every Peranakan restaurant serves this dish, and only a couple of food stalls in Singapore sells these nuts. All of these (well, probably the poisonous part most of all) captured the attention of Peranakan-food enthusiasts. 

I found out that I liked it during my visit to Malacca a couple of years ago. Recently, I took some classes on Peranakan cooking, and finally, went to Tekka Centre to get my hands on buah keluak. But despite the nut's fearsome reputation, you don't need cooking classes before using them, no more than you have to take lessons on Italian cooking before using tomato paste. Really. 

There are two versions of buah keluak available for purchase, one shelled (which requires soaking for several days), and an deshelled version that contains just the pulp (which is also called buah keluak paste). I got the deshelled version for easier handling, which goes for $30 per kilo in Tekka Centre. 

The typical Peranakan braise starts off with making a rempah (spice paste), which is then sautéed over low heat to bring out the aroma, and then combining with the protein and adding liquid to form a stew. Sounds familiar? Well, it's the exact same principles as making continental-style stews. The Spanish and Italians have their sofrito/soffritto, the French their mirepoix, the Germans the suppengrün, and Cajun cuisine has the 'holy trinity'. Across all cuisines, the building blocks for a good stew is mostly the same: onions, carrots and celery, though variations such as peppers, garlic and tomatoes are often used as well. It's no different from Peranakan cuisine, which uses a few other local vegetations. You’ll no doubt become familiar with the ingredients if you even just attempt a couple of recipes - while initially foreign, these ingredients are just their usual suspects and you'll see the same ingredients over and over again in the recipes. 

Buah Keluak pulp. The consistency is almost like playdoh, and mashing it after doing the rempah almost cleans up the mortar. 

A difference between Peranakan stews and continental stews is that instead of mincing the vegetables, Peranakan recipes pulverise the vegetables into a paste before cooking. The traditional approach is with a mortar and pestle, though I believe just about everybody uses a food processor these days. I don't believe using a mortar and pestle gives a discernibly superior product, and you should just use whatever is convenient for you. 

But under the plus-point column for mortars and pestles: when you're working with ingredients like turmeric that stains everything and anything that comes in contact with it, you might not want to blitz the turmeric in your food processor. A dark stone mortar and pestle? You won't even notice the difference.   

Another plus point for mortars and pestles: they're indestructible and endlessly reliable. You'll never experience equipment failure with them, unlike when a certain food processor decided to stop working for me one day...

It is tedious to pound everything with a mortar and pestle, no doubt. Use either. Whichever you find more convenient. Maybe, like what restauranteur Violet Oon had suggested, even both. She recommends to use the food processor for 90% of the way through, then finish it off by hand. And perhaps, grind the turmeric the old-fashioned way?

Ayam Buah Keluak 

Adapted from Violet Oon's recipe

When choosing buah keluak, use the ones that are jet-black and shiny, and never dry. You'll notice that I've given a range of buah keluak to be used. The original recipe calls for 20, which can make the stew too earthy for the newly-initiated. It is a bit of an acquired taste. Start with perhaps 8-10 buah keluak (10 is my sweet spot), and you can adjust the amount as you get more acquainted with this ingredient. 

Ingredients

2 kg chicken pieces

6 candlenuts (buah keras)

20g galangal (blue ginger / lengkuas)

4cm turmeric root (kunyit)

10 fresh red chillies

20g belacan (fermented shrimp paste)

200g shallots

8-20 buah keluak 

1 stalk lemongrass (serai)

½ cup vegetable oil

4+2 rounded Tbsp tamarind paste

1 litre water

2 tbsp sugar 

1 tsp table salt, plus more for seasoning the chicken pieces

Steps

1. Lightly season the chicken pieces with salt, preferably overnight before cooking.  

Prepare the Rempah (Steps 2, 3)

2. Wash the candlenuts. Wash and peel galangal and turmeric, and slice into 1cm pieces. Slice red chillies into 1-inch pieces. Peel shallots and cut into halves or thirds. 

3. In a mortar and pestle, pulverise first the candlenuts, then add galangal and crush. Then add turmeric root, followed by chillies and then the belacan. Finally, add the shallots and crush it, combining the liquid. (The ingredients are pounded starting from the hardest and moving along to the softest, in order to ensure everything gets evenly-grounded). You can also use a food processor for this part, in which case I'll just dump everything in. Set the rempah aside. 

4. Clean out the mortar and pestle as best as you can, and add the buah keluak pulp. Beat it until they form a cohesive paste. Set aside.

5. Using the pestle, strike the stalk of lemongrass until it splinters and releases its fragrance. Set aside. 

6. In a large wok or pot set over medium-high heat, add a thin layer of oil. When the oil heats up, add the rempah (spice paste). Gently cook it, stirring constantly, until the rempah darkens and breaks apart to release oil, about 7-8 minutes. 

7. Slowly drizzle in about half a litre of water to deglaze the pot, then add 4 tablespoons of tamarind paste, the raw chicken, the buah keluak and the bruised lemongrass. Add the remaining the water in, or at least until the braising liquid almost completely covers the chicken pieces. Add in the sugar and salt.

8. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for about ½ hour or so, till the stew thickens up and the chicken is cooked thoroughly. Taste, and adjust with additional 1-2 tablespoons of tamarind paste or sugar if needed. 

9. Serve immediately with rice.