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Gulai Kambing - Indonesian Lamb Curry
Celebrate Idul Adha (Eid al-Adha) with this Indonesian lamb curry, a coconut-based curry with soft and tender lamb/mutton that goes perfectly with rice or flatbread.
Kambing (mutton) dishes are commonly served during Islamic festivals in Indonesia, especially to celebrate Idul Adha (Eid al-Adha), or the feast of the sacrifice.
One of the most popular Indonesian kambing dishes is probably gulai kambing, or lamb curry. This is a coconut-based curry dish with a long list of spices. The meat will be super soft and tender, and the umami-rich sauce goes perfectly with steamed white rice.
If rice is not your cup of tea, you can always serve it with your choice of flatbread. Naan or pita would go nicely with the curry.
Ingredients for Indonesian lamb curry
1. Lamb (or mutton)
Mutton is what we commonly use in Indonesia when making gulai kambing.
I use lamb since most grocery stores in the United States carry lamb, and only some specialty markets sell mutton. If you can procure mutton, feel free to replace the lamb with mutton.
2. Coconut milk
Almost all Indonesian curry recipes will need coconut milk, and this lamb curry is no exception.
I use canned coconut milk, which is thicker compared to boxed coconut milk in the US. If you live in Asia, like Indonesia or Malaysia, your boxed coconut milk should have the same thickness as US canned coconut milk.
3. Spices
Like any other Indonesian curries, this dish needs a lot of spices, which make it super delicious.
For the fresh spices, we need shallot, garlic, red chilies, ginger, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves.
For the dry spices, we need daun salam (Indonesian bay leaves), cardamom, cinnamon, candlenuts, turmeric, coriander, cumin, coconut palm sugar, salt, and ground white pepper.
Cooking Indonesian gulai kambing
1. Prepare spice paste
Use a food processor or a mortar and pestle to grind shallot, garlic, red chilies, candlenuts, ginger, galangal, coriander, turmeric, and cumin into a spice paste.
2. Fry spice paste
Heat cooking oil in a pot and sauté spice paste, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, Indonesian bay leaves, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
3.Add meat
Add the lamb/mutton meat and stir until no longer pink.
4. Add coconut milk and seasoning
Add the coconut milk, water/stock, coconut palm sugar, salt, and white pepper. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the lamb is tender and the sauce has reduced by half, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
5. Serve
Turn off heat and serve the lamb curry immediately with steamed white rice, naan or pita.
Other Indonesian curries to try
Indonesian cuisine has so many different curries. If you too are a curry lover, why not give some of these curry recipes a try?
- gulai ayam Padang (Padang chicken curry)
- kare ayam Jawa (Javanese chicken curry)
- gulai telur Padang (Padang egg curry)
- gulai daun singkong (cassava/yam leaves curry)
- gulai nangka dan kacang panjang (jackfruit and snake bean curry)
- ketan kunyit kari ayam
Gulai Kambing - Indonesian Lamb Curry
Ingredients
- 450 gram (1 lb) lamb/mutton meat, cut into bite size pieces
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 1 lemongrass, bruised and knotted
- 2 kaffir lime leaves (Indonesian: daun jeruk)
- 2 Indonesian bay leaves (Indonesian: daun salam)
- 2 cloves (Indonesian: cengkeh)
- 1 cardamom pod (Indonesian: kapulaga), crushed to reveal the seeds
- 1 inch (1/2 stick) cinnamon stick (Indonesian: kayu manis)
- 1/2 can (200 ml) coconut milk
- 2 cup (500 ml) water/chicken stock
- 1 tablespoon coconut palm sugar (Indonesian: gula Jawa)
- 1-2 teaspoon salt, to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
- Grind the following into spice paste
- 100 gram shallot (Indonesian: bawang merah)
- 5 cloves garlic (Indonesian: bawang putih)
- 5-10 red cayenne chilies (Indonesian: cabe merah keriting) (Note 1)
- 4 candlenuts (Indonesian: kemiri)
- 1 inch ginger (Indonesian: jahe)
- 1/2 inch galangal (Indonesian: lengkuas)
- 1/2 tablespoon coriander (Indonesian: ketumbar)
- 1 inch fresh turmeric (or 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder) (Indonesian: kunyit)
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin (Indonesian: jinten)
Instructions
- Fry spice: Heat cooking oil in a pot and sauté spice paste, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, Indonesian bay leaves, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
- Add meat: Add the lamb/mutton meat and stir until no longer pink.
- Add coconut milk and seasoning: Add the coconut milk, water/stock, coconut palm sugar, salt, and white pepper. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the lamb is tender and the sauce has reduced by half, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
- Serve: Turn off heat and serve the lamb curry immediately with steamed white rice.
Notes
- (1) Use Fresno chilies for a milder curry, bird-eye chilies for a spicier curry. You can also use dried chilies.
Comments
Love the color of the curry. It looks a lot like our Indian curries, but the ingredients are different. Totally yummy looking dish!
The long list of spices does resemble Indian curry, isn't it? Oh, and I love Indian curries, which reminds me that it has been ages since I made one :)
actually what color for Indonesian lamb curry yellow or brown
Hi Vishnu, ideally it should stay yellow, but if you overcook it slightly making the sauce reduced a bit much, it will became brown.
Indinesian lamb curry is green colour
Is it okay to omit the kaffir lime leaves? Or is there a substitute you would recommend?
Hi Star, if you cannot find kaffir lime leaves, please use lime zest. I use a ratio of 1 kaffir lime leaf = 1 teaspoon lime zest.
I noticed this recipe calls for thin coconut milk (santan cair) while other recipes on your website call for thick coconut milk (santan kental). What is the difference?
Hi Steven, for those who still prepare their own coconut milk from freshly grated coconut, we get our thick and thin coconut milk like this:
(1) Mix freshly grated coconut flesh (using 1/2 a coconut) + 250 ml hot boiling water, mix, once the temperature cools until it is not too hot to handle with hands, press this mixture through a sieve to get about 250 ml of thick coconut milk. This is called 1st press.
(2) Repeat step 1 from the same grated coconut flesh from step 1 to get another 250 ml of thick coconut milk. This is called 2nd press.
(3) Repeat step 1 again from the same grated coconut flesh from step 2 to get 250 ml of thin coconut milk. This is the 3rd press.
Some people will say only the 1st press yields thick coconut milk, but some considers the first two presses as thick, and only the last (3rd press) as thin.
If you buy canned coconut milk, the regular one is to me not thin enough and not thick enough. For thin coconut milk, I add the same amount of water to the regular canned coconut milk, so for example, from a typical 400 ml canned coconut milk, I add another 400 ml water, and I get 800 ml thin coconut milk. For thick coconut milk, I usually opt to buy canned coconut cream. I hope this clarifies the difference between thick and thin coconut milk. :)
PHENOMENAL. I especially love curries that you can soak bread into, and this is one is just that! Those aromatics mixed with coconut milk are the perfect blend :D Thanks for sharing!
Wow, this lamb curry was so delicious and easy to make! A new dinner favorite.
I'm a huge fan of lamb as a protein, and it looks like all of these flavors go so perfectly together! Next time I have a craving for lamb, I'll be trying this recipe :)
I just love homemade Indonesian food! One of my favorite comfort foods. :)
What a wonderful meal! The spices are intoxicating. The colors make a lovely presentation.
If there is no lamb or mutton in my area, is there any substitute for lamb? Thank you.
Hi Clarissa, you can use beef too. Try choosing beef cuts that are good for stewing/braising.
Cooked this last night with lamb belly and left it in oven for 1.5 hours. Hardest part is collecting the ingredients. Even with without cinnamon and palm sugar still best tasting gulai I’ve cooked. Thank you for sharing the comprehensive traditional recipe.
Could you make this in a slow cooker?
Hi Cristel, it should be doable to cook the curry in a slow cooker. I suggest frying the spices first until fragrant before transferring it to the slow cooker pot. Then you can add the remaining ingredients and cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 8 hours.
totally different taste from indian ingredients! . best made from goat meat actually or otherwise lamb.. but best made of goatmeat. and yes of course I do know Indonesian food.. jakarta is my birthplace..
Um... it is an Indonesian curry, and not Indian curry, so it is normal that Indonesian curry will taste different from Indian one. And yes, you can use lamb (from sheep) or better yet mutton (from goat), or perhaps we have different namings for these meat?
Hi Which part of the coriander is to be used , is it seeds or root . Looking forward to trying this delicious curry soon.
Hi, we use the seeds for this recipe. Specifically, we are using coriander seeds in powder form, or ground coriander seeds.
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