Kala Bhuna (Bengali Spiced Beef Stew)

For those of us with ties to Chittagong, Bangladesh, kala bhuna—a spiced beef stew made with mustard oil—is akin to an ancestral calling. Whenever it graced the table in my childhood home in Chittagong, it was nothing short of an event, and I mean that quite literally. The dish is often cooked in massive stewpots by baburchis (chefs) to feed thousands during mezban, Chittagonian celebrations held to memorialize the dead or to celebrate new life. Whatever is left over—often a lot—is delivered to family and friends. The beef is dark, rich, and so tender it looks frayed, and needs little more than plain white rice, sliced cucumbers, red onions, and a hot green chile to become the perfect meal. My family ate it for days, until our stomachs said "no more."

The cooking method involved here is called bhuna, a Hindi and Bengali term that loosely translates to "roasting" or "frying." Traditionally, the process involves coating beef in a spice blend, mustard oil, and sliced onions, then frying and stirring it over high heat to sear the meat and cook the onions and spices. The meat is then simmered over low heat with frequent stirring, close supervision, and the occasional splash of hot water to prevent burning. 

For the most part, the dish relies on the moisture and fat from the beef as its primary source of liquid; over the course of several hours, this turns into a thick sauce that clings to the meat. The result is the dish's signature blackish-brown chunks of beef ("kala" means black in Bengali), tender and almost tattered from hours spent in an onion-rich, deeply caramelized sauce, giving the dish its name: kala bhuna.

While I have deep respect for this age-old technique, one drawback is the need for continuous stirring and scraping to ensure even cooking and prevent the sauce from burning at the bottom of the pot. These days, though, I have neither the time nor the arm strength to sustain that level of effort.

To cut down on some of that elbow grease, my method relies on the oven. After an initial cook on the stovetop to help the meat release its juices, the oven does the heavy lifting. A low-and-slow two-hour braise renders the beef meltingly tender while still holding its shape. The dish is finished on the stove, where the bhuna technique comes into play to reduce the sauce into the rich, dark, caramelized consistency of kala bhuna.

The Mustard Oil Dilemma

Chittagonians insist there is no kala bhuna without mustard oil. It has a high smoke point— crucial to the bhuna technique—and the oil adds a zesty, pungent edge to the dish that it feels almost sacrilegious without. The trouble is that most mustard oil brands sold in South Asian grocery stores in the US are not FDA-approved for consumption. Because pressed mustard oil contains high erucic acid—an element that studies on animals in the 1950s suggested could contribute to heart disease—these bottles are labeled "for external use only."

Yet, millions of South Asians remain loyal to these mustard oil brands and continue cooking with them. Whether you should follow suit or not is entirely up to you; you can also opt for the first and only FDA-approved mustard oil from Yandilla. If you want to skip the mustard oil, you can opt for neutral canola oil instead. If you choose the canola oil route, I suggest adding two teaspoons of black mustard seeds to the spice blend, which helps recreate the flavor of mustard oil. Although not the same as mustard oil, this certainly helps add some of the fiery punch you'd find in a classic kala bhuna.

About the Spice Blend

You'll find the usual suspects of South Asian cooking in the spice blend: cumin, coriander, green and black cardamom, and cloves. But one ingredient that's in all traditional kala bhuna preparations is radhuni: wild celery seeds that have a sharper citrusy, anisey, almost grassy quality. It's a crucial Bengali ingredient found in panch phoron (Bengali five spice) and used in many home-style dishes, including dals, achars, and fish preparations. Although regular celery seeds aren't as piquant as radhuni, they still get the job done. However, radhuni can be purchased from online specialty stores, such as Kalustyans, and at most South Asian grocery stores. 

As with many dishes, there are several renditions of kala bhuna recipes out there. Many of them use whole spices instead of a spice blend, but like my mother, I prefer the latter because it helps create a richer sauce. It's quick to make and easy to store, whether it's for a day or even months ahead.