A mild, rich beef curry from Muslim Mindanao, the meat simmered until tender in coconut milk thickened with peanut and warm curry spices. It sits somewhere between an Indian-style curry and kare-kare — nutty, gently sweet and barely spiced — and is often eaten with a spoonful of palapa stirred in for heat. Cooks of the Tausug and Maranao communities both make versions of it.
Kulma reflects the spice-trade ties that have shaped Muslim-Mindanao cooking for centuries, sharing a name and a family resemblance with the South Asian korma carried along Indian Ocean routes. It is widely associated with the Tausug of the Sulu and Zamboanga area, and is also cooked among the Maranao; in both communities it is a special-occasion dish, served at Ramadan gatherings and feasts rather than as everyday fare. Like all Moro cooking it is halal.
The sauce is pale gold and thick, clinging to each piece of fork-tender beef. The first taste is nutty and creamy from peanut and coconut, then warm curry spice rises gently behind it — there is almost no chili heat unless palapa is added. Spooned over hot rice, it is comfort food, soft and mellow.
Coconut milk does two jobs: its fat carries the fat-soluble curry spices and tints the sauce, and its proteins, with the ground peanut, emulsify into a thick, creamy body as it reduces. Long, slow simmering breaks the beef's collagen down into gelatin, which is what makes the meat tender and gives the sauce its silky weight. Keeping the heat gentle stops the coconut milk from splitting into oil and curds.
Variations
Beef is most common, but chicken and goat are also used; some cooks add potato and carrot to stretch the dish, while leaner versions skip the peanut for a thinner coconut sauce. The amount of chili varies — many keep it mild and let each diner add palapa to taste.
On the Palate
Where Beef Kulma sits in the Filipino flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 5
How it's made
7 steps · 25 min
- 110 min
Cut the beef into chunks and brown it in oil with onion and garlic.
- 23 min
Add ground ginger, turmeric and curry powder and fry briefly until fragrant.
- 340 min
Pour in coconut milk and enough water to cover, then simmer gently, partly covered.
Watch outKeep the coconut-milk braise at a gentle simmer, never a hard boil; a rolling boil splits the milk into oil and curds instead of a silky sauce.
- 48 min
When the beef is nearly tender, stir in peanut to thicken the sauce.
Watch outSimmer long and slow so the beef's collagen breaks down to gelatin; that's what turns the meat tender and gives the sauce its silky weight.
- 515 min
Add potato and carrot if using and cook until soft.
- 610 min
Season with salt and, if you like, a little shrimp paste; simmer until the sauce is thick and clings.
- 74 min
Serve over rice with palapa on the side for those who want heat.
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