What is Devil’s curry, and why is it so evil?
Devil’s curry is the name given to traditional dishes from Malacca’s Portuguese community. It is another name given to the Debal curry, which is usually served during Christmas. The word Debal means leftovers in the local Kristang language, as the dish is made from holiday leftovers in the past.
Nowadays, foods are more accessible, which means we are using fresh chicken, sausages and other vegetables to prepare. The curry is supposed to be very spicy (which I toned down the heat in my recipe), and the color looks fiercely hot and spicy, which is why it is fondly called Devil’s curry.
The star of the curry is the sauce which is made with a multitude of spices. The heat from the chili-fueled spiciness will linger on but will not numb your tongue as the Szechuan-style ‘mala” effect.
Curry Devil (Kari Debal), a Festive Kristang Recipe
Curry Devil or Kari Debal as it’s also known, is a fiery curry that has its origin in Malacca with its Portuguese roots, all the way back to the 16th century
Curry Devil or Devil Curry if you like (but NEVER Devil’s Curry!), is a tangy and spicy Eurasian curry that was traditionally made on Boxing Day using leftover Christmas roast, whatever the meat.
So this might have been turkey, duck, goose, pork, sausages, or whatever else might have been going, including any roast vegetables. Eurasian Devil Curry, like Eurasian cuisine, is a glorious concoction of Asian spices and aromatics and European flavours. What is interesting is that it didn’t really start off life as a spicy curry. It was mildly so, but at some point in history, it got redder and spicier and got the moniker Devil.
Was that a mispronunciation of Debal, somewhere along the line? So these days, when you think of Devil Curry, you think of the fires of Hell, and that the curry is meant to be spicy. Mine is always medium spicy. However, as roast isn’t particularly a traditional Christmas meal in Singapore and Malaysia, families have long made Curry Devil fresh on Christmas Day as the main meal, along with that other must-have dish, Kari Feng.
Every Eurasian family has their own take on devil's curry
Pork, chicken, cabbage and carrots are just some of the things that go into devil's curry
Pamela Hoeden took up cooking late in life, but tasting her Eurasian devil’s curry, you’d think she’d been making it for a lifetime.
Every Eurasian family has their own way of cooking this well-known dish, which is chock-full of meats, vegetables, chillies and a good splash of vinegar and mustard, she explained. The devil’s curry – or kari debal – she makes is thick, spicy and replete with roasted pork belly, chicken wings, sausage, carrots, potato, pickled vegetables and bacon bones.
The dish is one of many in the 73-year-old’s treasured notebook of handwritten recipes. She broke the notebook in years ago by writing on the first page, “Mama, please teach me”
What’s the fiery story behind devil’s curry?
Quentin's curry debal.
Keen for the signature Eurasian dish so spicy it calls to mind hellfire, I voiced my enthusiasm for devil’s curry but was immediately corrected. “Everybody thinks it’s ‘devil’ because it’s hot. But ‘debal’ means leftovers,” Bridget said. “‘Debal’ is patois Portuguese. Because it was so fiery hot, it became more popularly known as ‘curry devil’,” Chef Quentin clarified.
Traditionally made from Christmas leftovers on Boxing Day, curry debal is an inventive dish to use up meat and veggies from the previous day’s meal. “So sometimes they have babi panggang (grilled pork), turkey, whatever you have left,” Bridget explained. For the restaurant though, Chef Quentin makes his curry debal to order using choice cuts of free-range chicken, smoked bacon and cocktail sausages. “Every family will have their own set of recipes, and this is my grandmother’s. Chillies play an important part because we use a lot of fresh chillies and dried chillies,” Chef Quentin said. Making sure the heat and flavour is balanced for guests is always a challenge, but at my request for the dish to be extra spicy, Chef Quentin threw in extra red chillis.
Grandma’s recipe called for a rempah (spice paste) fried with aromatics including red chillies, shallots and ginger. This was added to marinated chicken wings and drumsticks, along with the bacon, sausages, cabbage, cucumber and potato. Lifted with lashings of white vinegar, the brilliant red curry debal (S$32.80) was garnished with crispy slivers of ginger and served smoking hot. White rice (S$2.80) and half a baguette (S$5) were a must for sopping up the fiery gravy.
Devil’s Curry Recipe
Devil’s Curry is a Malaysian dish of chicken curry with vinegar. It’s a special-occasion dish made popular by the Portuguese Eurasian in Malaysia.
This is an authentic recipe originated in the state of Melaka (Malacca) in the peninsula of Malaysia. In the 15th century, Malacca was the most important trading port in Southeast Asia. The Sultanate of Malacca was a powerful empire. In 1511, the Portuguese conquered Malacca and started the colonization era of Malaysia.
Many Portuguese settled down and married local women and formed the Cristang/Eurasian community in Malaccca. Devil’s Curry or Curry Devil is a special occasion dish for them. It’s also called Kari Debal or curry Debal.
What is Devil Curry or Curry Debal?
Devil, as in the Fires of Hell! That’s exactly what Curry Devil is, and it is meant to be very spicy!
The Eurasian Devil Curry traces its origins back to Malacca, in Malaysia, to the time of the Portuguese occupation in the early 16th century. This Portuguese influence and consequent intermarriages is probably the biggest European influence still felt in the 2 countries, after the British. However, many families in Singapore and Malaysia who don’t do roast for Christmas, make this with fresh chicken and sausages, and it is served on Christmas Day itself.
Curry Debal is usually served with plain boiled rice. But growing up in Singapore and Malaysia, I can tell you that many informal, buffet style parties would have rice and French baguette. Whatever curry was on the table, in fact – Eurasian, Indian, Malay or Nyonya! (You know the drill
Eurasian Devil Curry
Spice up the holidays with our tongue-tingling Eurasian Devil Curry recipe.
Flavourful, marinated meat simmered in tangy, spicy, curry sauce – this is a dish everyone should try for a taste of nostalgic, Eurasian family tradition.
A popular home-cooked meat stew served as a traditional Christmas meal in Singapore and Malaysia, this devilishly addictive dish would leave guests wanting more!
Devil's curry
Devil curry also known as curry Debal in Kristang is a very spicy curry flavoured with candlenuts, galangal, mustard seed and vinegar from the Eurasian Kristang (Cristão) culinary tradition in Malacca, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Indo-Dutch diaspora (where it is known as Ayam ore Daging Setan). It was historically served one or two days after Christmas and on other special occasions.
Kristang cuisine blends the cuisines of Southeast Asia with a western-style cuisine inherited from Portuguese colonial rulers. Debal Curry traces its roots to the Goan Vindahlo which also features vinegar as an important component inherited from Portuguese culinary traditions. Other popular Kristang dishes include Eurasian Smore (a beef stew) and sugee cake.
In the original Kristang, "Debal" means "leftover", as it is often served one or two days after Christmas and made out of leftovers from the Christmas meal. It is now however a regular menu item in Eurasian homes made from fresh ingredients. The similarity of the words debal and devil, probably paired with spiciness of the dish, lead to it being adopted into the English language as "Devil curry". The term "deviled", in reference to food is often used with spicy or zesty food, including foods prepared with mustard as an ingredient.
