This month’s Malaysian Food Fest brings us to the state of Sarawak. Known as Bumi Kenyalang (“Land of the Hornbills”), Sarawak is the largest of Malaysia’s States and one of the two States located on the third largest island in the world — Borneo. With little knowledge that I have on Sarawakian dishes, my research brought new understanding and delights into my life.
The Dayak are the native people of Borneo. It is a loose term for over 200 riverine and hill-dwelling ethnic subgroups, located principally in the interior of Borneo, each with its own dialect, customs, laws, territory and culture, although common distinguishing traits are readily identifiable. As Sarawak contains large tracts of tropical rainforest, the food of the natives are hugely influenced by the natural resources surrounding them whether it’s the jungle, forest, sea or rivers. Activities like foraging, hunting and fishing were important for food source.
Among the Sarawak food that I found served in hotels is Dayak Black Pepper Stew, and was fortunately to have found a recipe from Sarawak Ethnic Cuisine by Nimi (a Bidayuh girl from Bau, Sarawak). According to Nimi, if this Dayak dish is to be called a French dish, this should be equivalent to French coq au vin, or boeuf bourguignon. Now this is a dish I’ve to got try.
Nimi said, this stew can be used with many types of meats especially exotic animals such as bats, squirrel, wild boar, pigeon and any animals they can find in the jungle. (eerr.. I’m not sure if I can chow down if I am served bats..) The stewing process certainly helps to soften the tough meat. As the Dayak in general is the main producer of black pepper in Malaysia, maybe that is why black peppercorn is use liberally in this stew, which is a little overpowering for my liking.
The combination of all the ingredients gives a very fragrant aroma during the cooking process. I’m overall very satisfied with the recipe, the meat just falls off the bone and the well balanced flavours made the dish very appetizing. More rice for me please. There goes my low carb diet..
Do you know how to butcher a whole chicken to small pieces? Below is a helpful tutorial from Rouxbe Online Cooking School. I’ve learnt many useful cooking techniques from their videos.
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Or you can buy them online via http://www.pepper-passion.com/
| Dayak Black Pepper Stew |
- 500g Meat (I used chicken, let the exotic animals stay in the forest)
- 5 cloves Garlic
- 5 Shallots
- 5cm Ginger
- 3 tablespoon Black Peppercorn – coarsely pounded
- 1-2 Cili Padi (Bird Eye’s Chillies)
- 1cm cube Belacan (Shrimp Paste)
- Salt to taste
- Cooking oil for saute
- 2 liter water
- Optional: (I add in Asam Keping)
- Any sourish vegetables such as Terung Dayak (yellow eggplant), Pucuk Daun Kedondong (Ambra Leaves) or Pucuk Daun Mengkudu (all slice thinly)
- 1 piece Asam Keping (Dried Tamarind) for added sourish if preferred
- 1 piece Turmeric Leaves for additional fragrance
- A dash of Whiskey
- Pound garlic, shallots and ginger together using pestle & mortar, or food processor.
- Finely chopped bird eye’s chilli and shrimp paste together. [br][img src=”http://www.justasdelish.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/BlackPepperStew-1.jpg” width=”222″ height=”188″ /][img src=”http://www.justasdelish.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/BlackPepperStew-2.jpg” width=”222″ height=”188″ /]
- Heat up pot with 2 tablespoon cooking oil. Saute garlic, shallots and ginger mixture until fragrant on medium high heat. Then add in the shrimp paste mixture.
- Add in meat and stir fry. Lower heat, then cover pot with lid for about 15 minutes. [br][img src=”http://www.justasdelish.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/BlackPepperStew-3.jpg” width=”222″ height=”188″ /][img src=”http://www.justasdelish.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/BlackPepperStew-4.jpg” width=”222″ height=”188″ /]
- Add water and mix thoroughly. Turn the gas to medium low. Cover, and let it cook for about 1 hour until the meat soften, or the water reduced to 1/3.
- Stir-in the black peppercorn, sour vegetables, and salt to taste. Add a dash of whiskey if preferred. Cook for another 10minutes, and it’s ready to be served. [br][img src=”http://www.justasdelish.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/BlackPepperStew-5.jpg” width=”222″ height=”188″ /][img src=”http://www.justasdelish.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/BlackPepperStew-6.jpg” width=”222″ height=”188″ /]
Comments
29 responses to “Dayak Black Pepper Stew”
[…] Black Pepper Stew with Chicken @Just As Delish […]
Suku Dayak has some quite interesting dishes. OMG, I just scratched my head where I have to get pucuk mengkudu. But I do have frozen an dried turmeric leaves. My favourite Asian store in town has imported dried turmeric leaves from Indonesia, the frozen ones were the yield from my turmeric plant.
Hi Pepy, thanks for dropping by my blog. Yes, the Dayak has very interesting recipes, learnt a lot from the site Sarawak Ethnic cuisines. Interesting that you have a turmeric plant, makes me wonder if i can grow my own. My ginger plant is starting to grow..
I also grew kencur (cekur in Malaysia), lime basil (kemangi) and temulawak (a family of turmeric). I wonder if I have a big enough space I can grow torch ginger :D:D
wow how nice. can all these herbs in candada? I thought they are tropical herbs
They are tropical plants. Surely they grow slower compare to other tropical plants which grow in tropical environment. When it’s winter I grow them inside the house. In summer I take them out 🙂
[…] Dayak Black Pepper Stew by Shannon Lim of Just As Delish […]
I love all of the Southeast Asian components of this delicious looking dish. It is making me hungry and I must have a bowl of rice with it. Thank you for sharing this dish and thank you for dropping by and commenting on my blog the other day, Shannon.
~ ray ~
Thanks Ray for dropping by and your lovely comments. I love all Southeast Asian ingredients, would go crazy if I were to move to a country that doesn’t have these ingredients 🙂
I love the spiced quality of this dish–looks amazing!
Thank you Squishy Monster! I love spices in my dish too!
3 tablespoons of pepper?! Think I’ll need to sit next to a fire hydrant while eating this 🙂 I might have to reduce the amount of pepper when making this. Hope that doesn’t affect the flavors too much.But then, I’ve never had an authentic stew so maybe that won’t matter too much! It does sound super good for winter tho … nice warm tummy ….
I was gulping down cold water while eating this, and adding more rice. it’s good, that’s why couldn’t stop LOL. Yup, it’s good for winter, but how to get winter here wor.. switching on all the aircond in the house and wear winter coats 😀
Black pepper isn’t used near enough as a primary seasoning so I’m loving this stew! I love a peppery flavor. I can smell it coming off the computer screen! Great recipe!
Now you’ve made it, I can’t quite recall much dish with black pepper as main seasoning. Maybe I’m not such a big fan. Hope you get to try this recipe when your kitchen is ready 🙂
Looks like a delicious and comforting dish! Thanks for the entry!
Delicious it is, not too sure about comforting because the black pepper was overpowering. maybe I’m just not used to it like the Dayaks
Absolutely love this [and by all means let us leave the bats and squirrels in the trees!] – hmm, am certain the shrimp paste makes quite a taste difference and I don’t think a dash of whisky ever hurt any cooking 🙂 !
I bet the Dayaks were thinking why we city people keep & feed animals, then eat them later. To them, hunting is less work 😀
Sounds yummy, pungent, and manageable! Wll try, thanks for sharing. Btw, i love your background props of the hornbill and the flower. Very nice!
Thanks Esther! yes, you give the best description – pungent! was thinking whole day for the description 🙂 I was searching high and low around my apartment for something to represent sarawak, and always my fridge magnet collections come to the rescue 😀
That’s a stew to my liking. I like the ingredients you have added in. I just don’t know what terung dayak etc is and what asam is or what this ingredients taste like.
Bats, that’s interesting and quite something unusual. Squirrels… no. Maybe I ll just stick to chicken as u did. Thank you for the post, was very interessting.
I’m sorry, I missed out the links for the unusual ingredients. I have not used them before too 😀 I have amended.
Terung Dayak is a type of yellow eggplant, found in Sarawak. The link is here http://www.huntersfood.com/2008/12/terung-kuning-yellow-eggplant.html
Asam keping is dried tamarind, taste sourish like terung dayak
yeah, thousands of caves in the rainforest of Sarawak filled with bats. If you can get your hands on wild boar, I think it would taste great.
Hehe I realise they use a lot of peppercorn in their cooking. Well I guess it’s one of the most famous produce coming out of Sarawak… your dish looks great and fairly easy to replicate! 😉
Thanks Yen. I chose this dish because it’s easy hehe. was thinking of cooking sarawak laksa from scratch, but just too lazy
Yummy, yummy!! Well done, looks really delish, although like you….too much pepper also not really my thing. 🙂 Don’t forget to email me this entry!
Thanks Sharon! will email you soon
Eh.. I didn’t see this in her blog. haha, must have been too blinded by her pig stomach dish.
This dish will be something I might consider cooking if I happen to be given some wild boar, curry sounds boring sometimes.
I choose this recipe because it is the simplest dish with all the ready ingredients in my fridge. lazy me lol