Murtabak Perantau - Beef Murtabak

Murtabak is Malaysian traditional kuih(for appetizer or dessert food). I was growing up having this delicious murtabak for breakfast or dinner. Murtabak can use chicken or beef as filling. My favorite murtabak is the beef filling. The beef is cook with spices and then mix with egg before spread it onto the murtabak skin. The traditional way of making murtabak is to wrap the beef filling with homemade roti canai. Please correct me if the original murtabak came from India. I say that because I see many Indian restaurant or stall in Malaysia sell murtabak.
Murtabak is easily find at Pasar Malam or night market.

Since I am not good at making my own homemade roti canai, I need to find the substitute for this delicious murtabak skin. I am glad my new friend Yati from KgDale introduced me to this murtabak version called murtabak perantau. This recipe is using the popiah skin as the wrapper. Other name for this skin is lumpia as shown in the picture below. The Malay version of the recipe that Yati gave me came from http://www.noorma.tk/ .

This is the skin I use to wrap the murtabak. I bought this lumpia/popiah skin from the frozen section in Asian store. The next time I see this skin, I must buy and stock it.
Murtabak is good to eat with curry gravy or with red onion pickle. This is a simple version of red onion pickle. Slice 1 medium size red onion. In separate bowl mix well 1/3 cup white vinegar and 3 teaspoon sugar. Dash a pinch of salt. Pour the vinegar mix onto the red onion and set it aside. To get really nice red color for this pickle onion, dash a drop of red coloring.

Boiled some potato and diced it.

I use about 2 cups of minced beef.

1 tablespoon curry paste

2 tablespoon chopped onion

In a big pot, saute the onion with 1 tablespoon cooking oil. Then add the beef. Stir until beef is cooked. Then add the cooked and diced potato.

Lastly, add curry paste. Seasoned it with a pinch of salt. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool down.

Mix the beef filling with 1 egg.

Spread the mixture nicely onto the lumpia/popiah skin.

Fold on one side.

Then fold on the right side.

Fold on each end.

Make a square as in the picture above.

On a skillet or pan drizzle some olive oil and heat it on medium heat. Lay the murtabak in the pan. Cook on both sides.

Serve this murtabak warm with the pickle onion or with curry gravy. Enjoy!

Popiah Basah (with Lingham's sauce)

I took my car for inspection today. Since the workshop was already near the Asian store, I stopped at Little Saigon to get some spices, black soy sauce and Oyster sauce. One my way back, I stop at another asian store, Kim's Oriental. I walked isle by isle. I saw durian 2 pieces for $5.99. That is pricy. I didn't buy. I picked up a box of my favorite bee hoon instant noodle. There are 30 packets inside the box and it cost me only $6.80. I bought 5 packets of spices of Indo brand. A packet of ketupat Nona and shrimp crackers.

I kept on walking until my eyes caught the Lingham's chili sauce. I could not believe this. I bought 2 bottles for now. I kept on walking hoping to see kipas udang soy sauce by any chance. But hopeless.

I bought kohlrabi, my favorite bulb that has mild cabbage taste since they are all look very fresh.

I also buy popiah basah wrapper and kuih bom. The filling of the kuih bom ( the ball with sesame seeds) is mung bean paste. They are not too sweet but good enough to my taste.

So, for my dinner today, I assembled a simple popiah basah.

Fillings:

1 kohlrabi (julianned)

1 stick of carrot (julianned)

1 cup of beans sprout.

Sauce:

3 tablespoon Lingham's Chilli Sauce

1/2 teaspoon oyster sauce

1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon ketchup

Mix all the ingredients for the sauce. Taste to your liking. Lingham's chilli sauce is very hot for me. That is why I added ketchup a little bit.

In a pot, boil water and add salt. Blanch kohlrabi, and carrot for about 3 minutes. Toss and put aside. Blanch beans sprout for 1 minute. Toss and combine with the rest of the filling.

Spread about 1/2 teaspoon of the sauce thinly on the wrapper. Put a tablespoon of the filling at the edge and roll one time, then fold on both side first before rolling the rest of the wrapper.

Serve immediately.