Murtabak

I've been watching lots of masterchef this season and this one dish that was made early on in the competition gave me crazy cravings all the time even though I hadn't eaten it before, it just looked sooo good!

So it's called murtabak and it's a Malaysian street food that consists of a flaky crunchy pastry outside filled with a seasoned mince and egg. I read a few different recipes and adapted one to my needs (what I had in the fridge) and personal preferences.

I'm really excited about how easy this was to make because I always get stuck with what to do with beef mince and end up just using it for bolognese or  chili con carne.

 

Murtabak

Serves 4

Pastry

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup water
2tbsp vegetable oil or ghee
a nice pinch of salt

Filling

vegetable oil
500g beef mince (you could use any kind really)
1 medium onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 small knob of ginger
1 red chili
3 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
 2 eggs
1 cup bean shoots (I had none)


For the dough, combine oil/ghee and flour in a bowl, mix and gradually add water until you form a smooth but firm dough. Don't add all the water at once as you might not need it all (I didn't). Set the dough aside to rest in the bowl covering with a damp tea towel for at least half an hour (make the filling while you wait).

Tip: It says to rest in a warm area and it was a cold night so I turned my oven on the lowest temp briefly to mimic a hot day, turned it off and left the bowl in there with the door shut while I made the filling. Worked a treat!

For the filling, finely chop onion, garlic, chili and ginger and sweat in vegetable oil, add mince and saute breaking up the pieces until browned. Add ground spices, soy, salt and pepper and toss through. Set aside.

Cut pastry dough in to 4 even portions and lightly oil each portion, roll each piece out as thin as you can and stretch out further if necessary. You want it nearly as thin as filo, don't worry if there are some small holes either, just patch them up.

Crack eggs in to a bowl and beat, set aside.

Place pastry sheet in a hot oiled low sided pan (grill, crepe or just a large frying pan will do) and pile with a quarter of the mince mixture and pour on a quarter of the egg. Fold it up like an envelope and fry for 1-2mins on the first side and a 3-4 on the next.

Cut in half an enjoy with a side salad or on its own with a cold beer!

Malaysian Style Pork and Eggplant Curry

This is my favourite curry at the moment to make (and eat), it is soooo delicious and so insanely easy!

I know a lot of curry pastes call for labor intensive crushing in a pestle and mortar but every time I've made this I've just used my trusty old mini food processor and whiz it all together.

Once you make the paste, marinate it with the meat then when you're ready to go cook it all up in a pot with the coconut milk and cinnamon sticks. You can simplify it even further by using chicken for quicker cooking - which I have tried with great success or make it vegetarian/vegan by substituting with tempeh or tofu - also tried and v. delicious (and soy for fish sauce, unless you have the veg. type available).

I found the recipe online somewhere and ended up making some adaptations, then lost the original recipe and had to re-write it from memory (even after some intense googling I couldn't find it again) so I think I can safely assume (hope) that it's been personalised enough for me to take the credits.

Recipe

Serves 6

1kg pork cubed (I like forequarter because it's cheap and has no bones)
1 cup chicken stock
1 400ml can coconut milk or cream
1 large/2 small eggplant cubed
1 1/2 cinnamon sticks

For the paste:

1 onion or 6 scallions/spring onions
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp sized knob of ginger
3 tsp of turmeric
6 birds eye chilies (more or less to taste, or chili flakes if you can't get fresh)
4 tbsp of Chinese five spice
1 1/2 tbsp shrimp paste/fish sauce
2 tbsp tamarind paste
salt and pepper to taste

Chop the bulkier paste ingredients like ginger, onions and garlic in to more manageable pieces (to make sure you don't end up with a big chunk of ginger)

Whiz all paste ingredients in a food processor until smooth. If you only have a large food processor I would recommend either doubling the recipe and freezing half the paste or busting out the pestle and mortar.

Mix paste together with pork and set in the refrigerator for a few hours/overnight.

Saute in large pot until fragrant and paste is cooked. Add cinnamon sticks coconut milk/cream and stock, if sauce is too thick add some water/extra stock. Bring to boil then simmer for 1-2 hours depending on cut of pork or until pork is tender.

Add cubed eggplant 20mins before end of cooking time and simmer until soft.

Remove cinnamon sticks and serve over steamed rice!


Tip: If you're wanting to cut down on cooking time, substitute pork for chicken thighs and add eggplant along with coconut milk etc. cook until eggplant is soft and serve!