Beef slow-cooked with a complex spice paste until dark, intensely flavoured and almost dry. The signature beef dish of Chittagong, named for its dark colour.
Kala bhuna is the signature beef dish of Chittagong, the name kala meaning 'black', referring to the dark colour the meat develops during the very long cooking. The dish is essentially a bhuna (dry-fried) beef cooked for 2 to 3 hours with a complex paste of spices including cumin, coriander, fennel, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, mace, nutmeg, chili and mustard oil, until all the moisture evaporates and the meat is coated in a dark, intensely concentrated spice paste. The long cooking and the spice blend give the dish its distinctive dark colour and extraordinary depth of flavour. Kala bhuna is served at Chittagonian weddings, Eid celebrations and family feasts, and it is one of the most intensely flavoured beef dishes in all of South Asian cooking. It is eaten with porota or rice.
Dark, intensely spiced, fall-apart beef coated in a thick, concentrated spice paste, each piece bursting with flavour. The depth is extraordinary: layers of spice, heat and savoury meat built up over hours of cooking.
The technique is a very long bhuna (dry-fried) braise with a complex spice paste. The spice paste is made by dry-roasting and grinding whole spices (cumin, coriander, fennel, fenugreek, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, mace, nutmeg, black pepper, dried red chili) into a fine powder. The beef is browned in mustard oil, then the onion-ginger-garlic base is added, then the spice paste and yogurt. The pot is cooked uncovered on medium-low heat for 2 to 3 hours, the liquid gradually evaporating, the spices concentrating and darkening, until the meat is tender and coated in a dark, sticky, intensely flavoured paste. The uncovered cooking is essential: it is what concentrates and darkens the dish. No water is added beyond the initial yogurt and the meat's own juices.
Variations
Some use mutton instead of beef. A version with potatoes added in the last hour is common.
On the Palate
Where Kala Bhuna Chittagong sits in the Bangladeshi flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
5 steps · 40 min
- 18 min
Dry-roast 2 tbsp cumin, 2 tbsp coriander, 1 tbsp fennel, 1 tsp fenugreek, 1 cinnamon, 4 cardamom, 6 cloves, mace, nutmeg, 1 tsp black pepper, 4 dried red chilies; grind to a fine powder.
Watch outDry-roast the whole spices before grinding until they smell toasty — raw ground spice tastes dusty and flat, and this paste carries the whole dish.
- 26 min
Brown 1.5kg beef in 100ml mustard oil; add 3 chopped onions, ginger-garlic paste.
- 35 min
Add the spice powder and 100g yogurt; stir to coat.
- 48 min
Cook uncovered on medium-low heat for 2.5 hours until dark, dry and intensely flavoured.
Watch outCook uncovered on low for hours until it's dark, dry and sticky — this slow reduction is the bhuna; rush it and the sauce stays pale and thin.
- 54 min
Serve with porota or rice.
