Peranakan · main

Ayam Buah Keluak (Chicken with Fermented Black Nuts)

Ayam Buah Keluak (Chicken with Fermented Black Nuts) reads umami 7.9, richness 6.5 and salinity 4.8 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Peranakan main, about 75 hr 8 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 7.9 · Richness 6.5 · Salinity 4.8 · Marine & Briny 4.5 · Funk & Ferment 4.5 · Allium 3.7 · Sweetness 3.3 · Earthy 3.1 · Citrus 3.1 · Sourness 2.8 · Herbaceous 2.4 · Nutty 2.0 · Heat 1.6 · Bitterness 1.5 · Smoke 1.5 · Floral 1.3 · Warm Spice 1.3 · Fruity 1.2

What's in it (16)

Time & effort: about 75 hr 8 min (2 hr 38 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 125.3 kcal, 8.1 g protein, 9.1 g fat, 3.3 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (8 steps)

  1. Deal with the nuts first, and take the warning seriously. Buah keluak is the seed of Pangium edule and is lethally poisonous raw: it contains hydrogen cyanide precursors, and the traditional processing of boiling and then burying the nuts in ash for around forty days is what detoxifies them. Only ever buy nuts that have already been through this, which is how they are sold. Scrub them under running water with a stiff brush to remove all the caked mud, then soak them in cold water for 3 days, changing the water twice daily. Discard any nut that feels light, rattles when shaken, or smells sour rather than earthy.
  2. Crack the soaked nuts open at the flat end by tapping with a small cleaver or a pestle. Dig out the soft, near-black kernel with a teaspoon; it should have the texture of thick mud and smell like truffle, tamarind and dark chocolate at once. Mash the kernels with the minced pork, 1 tbsp of the tamarind water and 1/2 tsp of the salt, then stuff the mixture back into the empty shells and set them aside. The stuffed shell is the point of the dish: it holds the filling together and gives eaters something to spoon out at the table.
  3. Pound or blend the soaked chillies, shallots, garlic, candlenuts, turmeric, galangal, sliced lemongrass and toasted belacan into a fine rempah. Peranakan cooking is defined by this paste and by the patience it takes; a coarse rempah gives a gritty, thin gravy.
  4. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium-low heat and fry the rempah for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring regularly. This is the pecah minyak stage, when the paste stops smelling raw, darkens two shades, and the oil separates and floats. Nyonya cooks judge the whole dish on it, and it cannot be hurried above medium-low without scorching.
  5. Add the chicken and the bruised lemongrass stalks and turn everything for 8 minutes until the chicken is coated and the surface has set.
  6. Pour in the water and the remaining tamarind water, add the palm sugar and remaining salt, bring to a simmer, then nestle in the stuffed nuts. Cover and cook at a lazy simmer for 60 minutes, turning the nuts once, until the chicken is falling from the bone and the gravy is dark, thick and oily.
  7. Rest off the heat for at least 30 minutes, and ideally make it a day ahead: the nut flavour keeps leaching into the gravy and the dish is much better on day two. Serve with rice, and eat the nut kernel by scraping it out of the shell with the handle of a teaspoon.
  8. Substitutions: Indonesian grocer can stand in for the buah keluak nuts.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.