Brains cooked in a spicy coconut sauce

Name: Brains cooked in a spicy coconut sauce (Gulai Otak)
Cuisine: Indonesia
Ingredients: salt; 2½ cups thick santen (coconut milk); 1 salam leaf or bay-leaf; 1 salam leaf or bay-leaf; 4 shallots; 4 cloves garlic; 1 tsp sambal ulek; 1 tsp ground ginger; ½ tsp turmeric; 3 asam kandis or 3 slices asam gelugur; 3 asam kandis or 3 slices asam gelugur; 2½ cups thick santen (coconut milk); 3 pairs of sheep brains; 10 daun mangkok or about 180 g (6 oz) young leaves of curly kale; 10 daun mangkok or about 180 g (6 oz) young leaves of curly kale; 10 daun mangkok or about 180 g (6 oz) young leaves of curly kale; 3 kemiri (candlenuts); 3 kemiri (candlenuts)

Gulai Otak

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Indonesian Food and Cookery

By Sri Owen

Published 1980

About

This is a traditional Sumatran recipe for cooking brains, which we always mix with daun mangkok. I have made it in London with curly kale, however, and it both looked and tasted good.

Ingredients

3 pairs of sheep brains
10 daun mangkok or about 180 g (6

Asia
Indonesia
Sumatran
Main course
South East Asia
Gluten-free
Spicy

Method

Wash the brains several times in cold salted water and boil them for 5 minutes. Wash the daun mangkok or curly kale, and shred it finely. Pound the shallots, kemiri and garlic in a cobek or mortar until they become a smooth paste. Add the sambal ulek and the other ground ingredients, and mix well.

In a saucepan, put half of the daun mangkok or kale, and on top of this put the brains, cu