Beef slow-cooked with chui pepper (a unique dried spice from the Sundarbans), mustard oil and garlic. A regional specialty of Khulna, found nowhere else in the world.
Chui jhal (also called chui pepper) is a dried spice from the bark of a climbing vine that grows only in the Sundarbans mangrove forest of Khulna-Barisal, and the beef dish cooked with it is one of the most regionally specific dishes in all of South Asia, found nowhere else in the world. The chui pepper looks like a small black twig and has a complex, warm, slightly numbing flavour unlike any other spice, somewhere between black pepper, cinnamon and Sichuan peppercorn. The beef is slow-cooked with chui pepper bark, mustard oil, garlic, onion and a minimal amount of chili, the long braise allowing the chui's unique oils to permeate the meat. The dish is served only in the Khulna region and is virtually unknown outside it, making it one of the most geographically specific dishes in the database.
Deeply savoury, fall-apart beef with a warm, complex, slightly numbing heat from the chui pepper, unlike any standard chili. The mustard oil gives a sharp base, the garlic sweetness, and the meat is tender from the long braise.
The technique is a long braise with a unique regional spice. The chui pepper bark is lightly dry-roasted to release its essential oils, then broken into pieces. Beef is browned in mustard oil with garlic and onion, then water is added along with the chui pieces, turmeric and a little chili. The pot is simmered covered for 1.5 to 2 hours until the beef is fork-tender and the gravy thick and glossy. The chui pepper infuses the entire dish during the long cook, its warm, numbing flavour penetrating the meat fibres. The dish must be made with fresh (not dried) chui bark when available, as the flavour is more intense.
Variations
Some use mutton instead of beef. A version with potato is a home variation.
On the Palate
Where Chui Jhal Beef sits in the Bangladeshi flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
5 steps · 30 min
- 14 min
Dry-roast 10g chui pepper bark until fragrant; break into pieces.
Watch outDry-roast the chui bark just until its oils turn fragrant, then break it up — that quick toast wakes the warm numbing aroma that infuses the whole braise.
- 26 min
Brown 800g beef in 4 tbsp mustard oil with 8 garlic cloves and 2 sliced onions.
- 38 min
Add the chui pepper, 1 tsp turmeric, salt and water to cover; bring to a boil.
- 46 min
Simmer covered 1.5 to 2 hours until the beef is fork-tender and the gravy thick.
Watch outSimmer covered the full hour-plus until the beef gives to a fork and the gravy turns thick and glossy — the long cook is what drives the chui flavour deep into the meat.
- 54 min
Adjust seasoning; serve hot with rice.
