Monday 4 April 2016

Mutton In Black Sauce (Kambing Masak Hitam)


Some things are not meant to be translated. Daging Masak Hitam. Black Cooked Meat. That didn't come out right. Meat Cooked in Black Sauce. That would be most appropriate but it's quite a mouthful. So Daging Masak Hitam it is. Or in this case, Kambing Masak Hitam.

I have never eaten a masak hitam dish so it is a curiosity to me. A few months ago, I read an article in The Star, The Peranakan Melting Pot, written by Nurilkarim Razha. This Nurilkarim fellow is the winner of the 2015 Rage Food Fight

In his article, he wrote that "Peranakan" is, I quote "the celebration of our cultural melting pot". Then he proceeds to give a DIY recipe for daging masak hitam. Ah! I removed that page from the newspaper and kept it for a time when I could experiment.


The first step is to marinate slices of beef or lamb with ground shallots, ginger and garlic. No measurements were given so I had to do this free hand. 

I did not have any beef or lamb but I had some frozen mutton cubes in the freezer. That will do. There was about 800g of it and I just estimated that I needed 10 shallots, a generous thumb sized ginger and 5 cloves of garlic. Then I took out my mortar and pestle and went pound pound pound!

Nurilkarim, this better turn out right.

Then I added one teaspoon of turmeric powder, 1 heaped tablespoon of fennel powder, 1 packet of Baba's meat curry powder and 1 cup of kicap manis (sweet soya sauce).

The mutton cubes were marinated with this mixture overnight.


The next day, I dumped the marinated mutton into the slow cooker and added some oil, asam gelugor and one cup of water. I let it cook until the mutton was tender. 

There was quite a lot of liquid released after cooking, so I removed the meat and reduced the gravy over the stove. When the gravy was quite thick, I added onion rings and let it simmer for just a little while more.

Messy real life food that is served at home.
The smell was wonderful and the taste was awesome! I defrosted one portion of my Nasi Tomato to eat with this Kambing Masak Hitam


Delicious! I am so glad that I tried this recipe. This being mutton, the gamey smell was quite strong but it is acceptable to mutton lovers like me. This recipe is a keeper and you can tweak it to your own taste. 










Kambing Masak Hitam
Recipe source : Guided by Nurilkarim Razha's article in The Star

Ingredients :
- 800g mutton cubes
- 10 shallots
- 1 generous thumb sized ginger
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 heaped tablespoon fennel powder
- 1 packet meat curry powder  (25g)
- 1/2 cup sweet soya sauce
- 2 pieces asam gelugor
- 1 cup water
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 sprigs curry leaves
- 3 onions, cut into rings

Method :
1. Pound (or blend) shallots, ginger and garlic into a paste.
2. In a mixing bowl, add mutton, the pounded paste and turmeric powder, fennel powder and curry powder. Miz to coat mutton with the spice paste.
3. Leave to marinate overnight.
4. Put the marinated mutton in a slow cooker (or a pot over the stove) and add sweet soya sauce, asam gelugor, water and oil.
5. Braise until mutton is tender and the gravy is reduced.
6. Add curry leaves and onions rings and simmer for another 5 minutes.
7. Check for seasoning and serve.

Note : I used a slow cooker and noted that 1 cup of water is too much because the meat released some liquids. I separated the meat from the gravy and simmered the gravy over the stove until it reduced to half.

29 comments:

  1. So appetizing that i can eat a lot of it.... hehe...

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  2. Ayam masak merah or daging masak hitam, yes, tried.. But kambing masak hitam, never tried.. I've only eaten before the mutton curry mamak style, those nasi kandar one, kambing masak kuning? Haha.. That one, nice.. But your one, wah, best giler ! The sauce looks so thick and creamy, I think if I take this and fried chicken and white rice, RM12 gone terus..

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    1. Masak hitam usually with beef but since I don't have, I hentam with kambing hee..hee... When I go to mamak or banana leaf, I will sure cannot resist the mutton.

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  3. Looks like too complicated for me to make. Think I'll just stick to getting my fix at the warung... :/

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    1. Good idea, save the hassle hee..hee..

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  4. Daging masak hitam is a Sarawak dish, very very nice...nicer than masak merah. Next time I can get you the instant sambal paste, very easy to use and to cook. They sure do not give very nice names to the very nice delights here...like kek belacan (and no, there is no belacan inside, just that it looks like it) and kek Negro.

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    1. It's usually darker than that though...the ones here. I gave my Perak friend, Elin, a tub of the paste once...and she loved it!
      http://www.elinluv.com/2012/04/daging-masak-hitam-sarawak-with-bario.html

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    2. Oh, that's very generous of you! hee..hee.. Yes, masak hitam is delicious. I popped over to Elin's and her's using the paste you gave her sure looks good. Can't wait to cook this again but I will try it with beef.

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  5. I do enjoy eating daging masak hitam once a while....but with beef, not mutton. It looks so easy when you make it! ;D

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    1. It really is easy! I was wowed and broke the rules by eating rice for lunch and dinner hee..hee...

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  6. With this dish, one can keep replenishing the rice again and again... Not everyone can cook mutton, the strong smell is there unless you know how to cook it very well and I know you do!!

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    1. The ginger and spices helped tone down the smell. It was really delicious!

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  7. I believe I would love mutton being cooked this way! I often eat lunch at the mamak shop nearby but they cook mutton in other curry styles.
    Your experiment looked good and yummy to me. How to lessen the smell to suit me??

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    1. The ginger and spices help to lessen the smell. It was good because the spice mix blended so well with the strong taste of the mutton.

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  8. That looks yummy!

    Can I come over? ^^

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    1. Can, can! I have some more in the freezer!

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  9. Hi Phong Hong, I believe you must have a very satisfying meal compared to your tapau meals. Worth the trouble. Looks so tempting with the rice.

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    1. Kimmy, it was more than satisfying! But I ate too much rice :(

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  10. Can FEDEX some to me? Hee hee

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  11. Mutton, I don't eat. But the gravy is something I love, eat with plain white rice is already very yummy!!

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  12. I like the strong taste of mutton so this dish is so delicious! Since you still have some in your freezer, I am going to self-invite myself over to your house for dinner, hehehe. Oops, I don't know where your house is.

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  13. Hi phonh Hong: l am in Singapore going to Ipoh for 2 days,KL? Any suggestions where to instead of staying in KL l thought of going PJ instead . Need some advise and interesting places to go and eventually down to Malacca and back to SG. I am traveling backpacking simple

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    1. Hi Christine! You'll have to google that because I am hopeless when it comes to hotels and such. My life revolves around my office and my home hah..hah...

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  14. This is what I call the ultimate Asian comfort food! So rich with the beautiful sauce, and those onions are incredibly tasty, and the meat must melt in your mouth, delicious!

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    1. Oh yes, mixed with rice, it's heavenly!

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