Brains Cooked in a Spicy Coconut Sauce (Gulai Otak)

This is a traditional Sumatran recipe for cooking brains, which we always mix daun mangkok.

3 pairs of sheep brains

10 daun mangkok or about 180 g (6 oz) young leaves of curly kale

3 kemiri (candlenuts)

4 shallots

4 cloves garlic

1 tsp sambal ulek

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tspv turmeric

3 asam kandis or 3 slices asam gelugur

2 ½ cups thick santen (coconut milk)

salt

1 salam leaf or bay-leaf

Gulai-Otak

Wash the brains several times in cold salted water and boil them for 5 minutes. Wash the daun mangkok or curly kale, and shred it finely. Pound the shallots, kemiri and garlic in a cobek or mortar until they become a smooth paste. Add the sambal ulek and the other ground ingredients, and mix well.

In a saucepan, put half of the daun mangkok or kale, and on top of this put the brains, cut in halves. Then add the rest of the greenstuff together with the asam kandis or gelugur and salam leaf. Dissolve the pounded ingredients into the santen and add this to the contents of the pan. Cook slowly on the top of the stove for 25 minutes or until the sauce is quite thick.

Discard the pieces of asam kandis or gelugur and salam leaf before serving. Serve as hot as possible.