Murtabak

A mince stuffed pan fried bread

• CuisineMalaysian
• CategoryLamb
• CourseMains

Ingredients

• 500 gmsPlain flour
• ½ cupMilk
• 6Eggs
• 2 tbspGhee


• Mince Stuffing
• 500 gmsLamb mince
• 200 gmsOnion, chopped
• 2Green chillies, sliced
• 1 tbspGinger, minced
• 1 tbspGarlic, minced
• 10Curry leaves
• 2 tbspMeat curry powder
• ½ tspChilli powder
•  Salt

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onion and sliced green chillies
2. Fry till onion is soft
3. Add minced ginger and garlic and curry leaves and stir
4. Add lamb mince and fry till not pink anymore
5. Add meat curry powder, chilli powder and salt and fry till cooked
6. Set aside to cool
7. Mix flour, milk, 1 beaten egg, ghee and ½ cup water
8. Mix in processor for 20 minutes
9. Rest for 1 hour and process for another 20 minutes
10. Roll into 5 balls, spray with oil and rest under a wet cloth for 2 hours
11. Roll or flatten into a large rectangle or oval about 50 x 40 cms
12. Place a small square of mince in the centre of the rectangle
13. Pour a beaten egg on top
14. Fold all four sides in turn
15. Place on fry pan with some oil
16. Fry both sides till cooked

One of the popular Malaysian dishes is Roti Pratha. I found the term a little confusing - roti is a plain flat bread. Paratha is a flat bread as well but uses a lot of oil in the dough. Portmanteauing the two just did not make sense.

The Malaysian Roti Pratha is similar to the Kerala Paratha - lots of oil, repeated layering to give a crisp, flaky, multi-layered bread. It is also called Roti Chanai - chanai is the Malaysian word for pulled. The layering is achieved by rolling or tossing it till paper thin and then folding it. This is repeated more than once.

Murtabak is the stuffed version. Unlike the stuffed parathas from India, the stuffing is a lot thicker - it is most of the thickness. Making thick and flaky Roti Prathas is a challenge but we can keep it simple here. The murtabak need not be that layered or flaky - just crisp. The key is incorporating lots of oil - ghee in the dough, oil while making it, oil when frying it. Keeping the heat low helps cook the egg in the filling and lets the outside crisp up. You can hold it on its side for a minute on each edge to fry the sides.

The first step is making the dough and resting it. Once it is processed (more than once), make balls and spray with oil and cover with a wet cloth so that it does not dry out.

As it needs to rest a while, it is time to make the mince stuffing. This has to be as dry as possible.

With me, the dough is a bit trial and error, mostly error. This time, stretching the dough was not working - it was not elastic enough and holes were opening up. Flipping it to make it thinner was totally out of question. So I took the coward's way out.

Take a large 40x30 cms sheet of baking paper. Oil generously with oil spray. Put dough on the paper and carefully stretch to a rectangular shape. Add mince and pour the beaten egg all over.

Now fold one edge, paper and dough over. Carefully peel the paper off, leaving the dough in place.

Now repeat the same on the other side.

It gets easier now to repeat the same with the other two edges and you end up with a nicely folded Murtabak ready for the frying pan.

Now pick it up, paper and all, and flip and put on a well oiled warm frying pan. Now just carefully peel off the paper without ripping the top. A small rip can be easily pinched together and fixed. Let it fry for a while - there are several layers of dough and the raw egg is also on this side. Once one side is done, flip it over. This side has only one layer and should cook faster. The Murtabak is so thick that the edges may not cook well - hold it on its side till cooked and repeat on all four sides.

There you have it - a nice, thick Murtabak (have I mentioned crisp?), nicely cooked on all sides. It is a bit on the smaller side. A full size Murtabak is about 25x25 cms. That would need an unfolded size of 70x70 cms!