Daging Masak Lada

Medium·35 min active + 55 min resting

Bruneian black-pepper beef — beef slow-braised with a heavy hand of crushed black pepper, shallots, garlic, ginger, and soy until tender and coated in a dark, peppery, faintly sweet gravy.

Daging masak lada — 'beef cooked with pepper' — is a Brunei-Malay home dish that leans hard on black pepper, braising beef until dark and peppery-hot. It is everyday cooking, the kind made from the spice rack and the day's beef.

Spoon up daging masak lada and the beef is dark, tender, and glossy, coated in a thick gravy that's all crushed black pepper. Bite: deeply savory beef, the black pepper sharp, woody, and warming (not chili-hot), the soy and shallots giving a faint sweet-umami roundness, the ginger lifting it. A simple, peppery Bruneian home braise over rice.

Crushed (not ground) black pepper gives a coarse, aromatic, woody heat distinct from chili; frying the shallot-garlic-ginger paste first builds an aromatic base. Long braising tenderizes the beef and reduces the soy-and-water into a dark, peppery, clinging gravy.

Variations

With chicken instead of beef. With more pepper. With chili added for heat. With a splash of oyster sauce. Drier. With potatoes.

On the Palate

Where Daging Masak Lada sits in the Bruneian flavor cloud

Cook to learn

Use coarsely crushed — not ground — black pepper and fry the aromatic paste first, then braise low and long until the soy and water reduce to a dark gravy that clings; the pepper's woody heat is the dish, so don't powder it into dust.

Techniques

Braising Pounding

Ingredients

Serves 4

How it's made

8 steps · 35 min active + 55 min waiting

1
8 min
Cut 700 g beef into chunks; season with salt.
2
6 min
Pound or blend shallots, garlic, and ginger into a paste.
3
4 min
Fry the paste in oil until fragrant.
4
1 min
Add 2 tbsp coarsely crushed black pepper and stir 1 min.
Watch out
The kitchen should fill with a sharp, woody pepper aroma — that bloom off the hot oil signals it's ready for the beef.
5
6 min
Add the beef and brown it in the paste.
6
3 min
Add soy sauce, a little sugar, and water to half-cover.
7
62 min
Cover and simmer 60 min until the beef is tender and the gravy is dark and thick.
Watch out
The gravy is done when it turns dark and thick enough to coat the beef and cling to a spoon.
8
2 min
Adjust seasoning and serve with rice.