The Murtabak Topic

[Pan]

Murtabak have come up in several threads around the site, most recently this one, but until now, there had not been any thread dedicated solely to them.

What is the history of murtabak? They are of Indian origin, I think? Which states of Malaysia are known to specialize in murtabak? Kelantan, Melaka if I remember correctly, and? Where are they most popular? Do you like murtabak? If so, what kind?

I don't ever recall having had murtabak during my first visit to Malaysia, from 1975-77. I don't remember them ever being served in Kg. Merchang, Terengganu, and no-one told us to look out for them anywhere else we lived or travelled on that visit. In 2003, I had some in the Pasar Malam in Kota Bharu. I thought they were OK but found them overly oily, and they were tough on my stomach. Did I just go to the wrong place? Clearly, many people love murtabak, but the things that I really loved in the Pasar Malam were the Ayam Percik (a dish I had known and loved before) and some of the kueh. Can you convince me to give murtabak another chance someday?

[andiesenji]

Murtabak have come up in several threads around the site, most recently this one, but until now, there had not been any thread dedicated solely to them.

What is the history of murtabak? They are of Indian origin, I think? Which states of Malaysia are known to specialize in murtabak? Kelantan, Melaka if I remember correctly, and? Where are they most popular? Do you like murtabak? If so, what kind?

I don't ever recall having had murtabak during my first visit to Malaysia, from 1975-77. I don't remember them ever being served in Kg. Merchang, Terengganu, and no-one told us to look out for them anywhere else we lived or travelled on that visit. In 2003, I had some in the Pasar Malam in Kota Bharu. I thought they were OK but found them overly oily, and they were tough on my stomach. Did I just go to the wrong place? Clearly, many people love murtabak, but the things that I really loved in the Pasar Malam were the Ayam Percik (a dish I had known and loved before) and some of the kueh. Can you convince me to give murtabak another chance someday?

←

Here is a recipe that should be close to the ones I tried at a restaurant.

Here is another recipe that is just a bit different.

I tried both beef and chicken - I think they also had lamb. There was a similar one with fish but as I recall the name was slightly different.

On the menu the item was listed as Roti Murtabak and came with a couple of dipping sauces.

The person who took us to the restaurant had lived in Malasia for many years doing research on old rubber plantations, and was then teaching at one of the Claremont Colleges.

The dish probably was adapted from Indian Muslim foods sometime in the past but the spice mixtures are somewhat different, at least according to some of the recipes and restaurant critiques online, so it seems the Malay people have made it their own.

[v. gautam]

The murtabak probably has a Muslim ancestry, because in West Bengal,India,it is known a Mughlai Paratha. Charmaine Solomon gdecribes it as godamba roti in Sri Lanka and gives a recipe in her bookon Asian cooking.

Returning to the Bengali version, with which I am most familiar, it is the quality of the dough, rather than the filling,that distinguishes the excellent from the mediocre. The filling in all cases comprises beaten duck eggs, minced onion, minced green chillies, ditto fresh ginger root, and a tiny amount of cooked goat mince.

The true artistry lies in the shaping of the dough, a lump of which is pinched off, and slapped down on a sheet of marble slick with mustard oil. With deft outward flicks of the wrists, the lump soon flies into a thin transparent sheet resting on the marble board. A few tablespoons of the beaten eggs are ladled in for the 'single' order, double that for the 'double'.

Then the two sides are folded towards the center, not quite meeting. The same is done with the top and bottom. You have in the middle, then, a little rectangle, where the egg is in a liquid pool, as well as being enclosed between dough to the sides and top and bottom. This ensemble, 8 inches x 8 inches, pool side up, deftly is transferred to a griddle, and pan-fried until egg is set;then turned over and very lightly browned.

The desired goal is a sort of chewy, stretchy yet tender dough with a crisp top encasing a tender chili/ginger-suffused egg omelette. The meat is elided in the Bengali redaction. the combination of mustad oiland ghee [clarified butter], dough consistency/crispness/tenderness, egg seasoning/tenderness defines the Mughlai paratha.

Mughlai paratha almost always is a restaurant treat, and is served with a bland potato 'curry';or, for special occasions, a dry braised chevon dish called kasha manghsho. I believe "Babu" in New York is said to serve an estimable version of the latter.

[Pan]

Based on your description, mughlai paratha sounds great! I'll have to check on the location of Babu -- is that the restaurant near Houston St. that initially let patrons decide how much to pay for their meals?

[v. gautam]

If you are are curious about what my description in the previous post entails, a good friend of mine filmed these marvellous sequences in detail and posted them on another site :

[http://www.anothersubcontinent.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2701&hl=singapore&

st=30

http://www.highlyirrelevant.com/singaporefood/]

The Singapore version of the Mughglai Paratha is apparently called Roti Paratha, and this is different from the frozen roti pratas[sic] we are able to buy here in the US.

Note the 'twice cooked' variation in the Singapore style as opposed to the Bengali redaction.

Re: Babu in Manhattan, Pan, it used to be pay what you feelit is worth;no longer. I have heard, (no personal experience) that the Luchi, kosha mangsho, and tomato chutney are true to their bengali originals.They do not serve Mughlai paratha, asfar as i can tell.

[Pan]

Apparently, only members can view threads on anothersubcontinent.com, but thanks for the link to the photos! The result does look something like a murtabak, but bigger. Paratha in Malaysia used to normally be unfilled and an alternative to roti canai (cooked on a griddle and topped with different sauces, to the taste of the customer). Is filled paratha in vogue in Malaysia nowadays?

[Shiewie]

Hi Pan

Murtabak was available in KL in the 70s (my memory only goes back till then too ) - my favourite was at the now extinct Restoran Zam-Zam in the Bukit Bintang area ... served with a curry on the side and slices pickled onions that were stained pink - an after-school treat.

It's of Indian-Muslim origins and many Indian-Muslim eateries in Malaysia still bring their roti cooks (murtabak and rot-canai specialists) over from India.

Don't think murtabaks are a specialty of any state, you get them anywhere there are southern Indian Muslim eateries... ok probably less common in East Malaysia than the Peninsular as the Indian population is lower in East Malaysia.

Murtabaks used to be served only at Indian-Muslim eateries and used to be a standard size of around 8 - 9 inch square piece of layers of flaky on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside dough filled with a mixture of minced beef / mutton / chicken, onions and eggs fried on a big flat griddle. They have since been adopted by the Malay community and are now widely available at pasar malams (night markets) and Ramadan markets as mini murtabaks, round discs of around 5 inches in diameter.

Uhm ... the Malaysian roti canai and Singaporean roti paratha are the same thing - sort of like unfilled murtabaks, usually round (though now some make 'em square). Some serve them whole, while others are smashed them up (the roti is laid on the counter and roti cook smashes is by bringing his hands together on the side of the roti, thurn the partially smashed roti by 90-degrees and repeating the smashing process.

There are also filled roti-canais - roti telur (egg-filled roti canai), roti-sardin (sardine and onion-filled roti), roti pisang (banana filled- roti) are some of it. The roti pisang can be eaten savoury with a curry or sweet with a drizzle of condensed milk.

I prefer a plain roti canai, served with dhall curry - the roti has to be the smashed up version if possible, if not, I usually tear up the roti into little pieces and somethering it with the dhall before eating it.

My favourite roti memories - on road trips back from the east coast after visiting my grandfather for Chinese New Year, we'd stop by an Indian Muslim eatery in the little town of Mentakab for a tea break of smashed up (cut up too) roti canai and mutton curry... all this stirring up of food memories is making me feel every hungry .

The plain roti-canai is sometimes also cut into pieces and stir-fried with curry (chicken / mutton) - was introduced to this by a friend who is of Sri Lankan Tamil origins who calls this kalu roti.

edited - to add roti memories

Edited January 16, 2006 by Shiewie (log)

[Shiewie]

ecr / Robyn has some pretty pics of roti cooks in action here and here.

[Pan]

I just realized that the fried flatbread I was thinking of as an alternative to roti canai was actually chapatti, not paratha.

I've had roti telur and I think I've had roti sardin (if not, something similar), but I don't think I've had roti pisang. It's interesting that it can be savory. A thread was recently started about bananas in savory dishes.

More on-topic, though, I now realize that what I had were mini murtabak, and that I should probably go to a southern Indian Muslim place if I want to increase my odds of getting a good murtabak. Would that be a Chettiar eatery? How do you recognize a _southern_ Indian Muslim place?

[trillium]

You might enjoy this thread from 1998 on rec.food.cooking where we were discussing this very thing (including roti prata vs. canai): How the prAta was murtabA'd.

regards,

trillium

[v. gautam]

"I just realized that the fried flatbread I was thinking of as an alternative to roti canai was actually chapatti, not paratha."

Pan,

Sorry to be a nitpicker, but as Indian food terms migrate all over the world, sometimes it is useful to keep the original meanings clear.

Chapatis or phulkas are that subset of the roti family that are NEVER fried; they are griddle cooked dry and puffed over an open fire.Subsequently, they may be brushed with butter or ghee.

Parathas, on the other hand, are the type of flat bread that ARE pan-fried on a griddle.

The reason for keeping the signal-to-noise ratio as favorable as possible as we are inundated with masses of information becomes poignantly important,say in the case of your Chennai Garden dinner. My heart was in my mouth when you went there on that very special occasion but sort of failed to order what might have been stunning examples of their special strengths, e.g. the paper dosas, bondas, chennai iddlis etc.

It was as if you had gone to a special Sichuanese restaurant and had taken care to order a Beijing specialty [Navratan Kurma, even the spelling conflated a southern redaction with a northern combination], and some Cantonese plus some 'generic' Chinese dishes [with perhaps a single exception!]. Sadly, you suffered a mediocre experience on a special occasion from a good restaurant through neglecting its natural taxonomy!

Hope you do not mind my presumption in setting straight these taxonomic details, because from taxonomy, one is alerted to the regional cuisines, and able to appreciate each region in its full glory.

I am an old fuddy-duddy and so-and-so, and when I see threads like the Khao Soi, the same issue of taxonomy and placement loom large for me. My maternal family numbered among themany Indians settled in the erstwhile Burma, now Myanmar. This particular Khao Swey was known as Panthe Khao Swey or Muslim Khao Swey, the 'Muslim' descriptor as important as in Mussaman curry paste to designate a unique style and seasoning, and never left out of the dish's name.

Edited January 16, 2006 by v. gautam (log)

[ecr]

As long as we're talking murtabak (among other things), you can find a couple pics of the prep here.

I was surprised at how liquid the filling is when it hits the wrapper. It's quite a skill to be able to enclose it so quickly and thus avoid leakage.

[Pan]

[...]The reason for keeping the signal-to-noise ratio as favorable as possible as we are inundated with masses of information becomes poignantly important,say in the case of your Chennai Garden dinner. My heart was in my mouth when you went there on that very special occasion but sort of failed to order what might have been stunning examples of their special strengths, e.g. the paper dosas, bondas, chennai iddlis etc.

It was as if you  had gone to a special Sichuanese restaurant and had taken care to order a Beijing specialty [Navratan Kurma, even the spelling conflated a southern redaction with a northern combination], and some Cantonese plus some 'generic' Chinese dishes [with perhaps a single exception!]. Sadly, you suffered a mediocre experience on a special occasion from a  good restaurant through neglecting its natural taxonomy![...]

←

Off-topic, but I'm pretty familiar with Madrasi cuisine and recommended to my date that she order Madrasi food, but she preferred to order Navratan Kurma, and I was not about to order her around. I ordered Iddly, Meddhu Vadai, and an Utthapam (and OK, Mulligatawny, which is not a southern specialty). She had the mediocre experience, more because she disliked the specialties I ordered than for any other reason; I had a good experience.

In Kuala Lumpur, the mamak vendor who made my breakfast most every day for a month or so stood outside the Pasar Chow Kit with his griddle, making roti canai or chapatti on it, depending on what the customer ordered. Yes, words can change meaning when fusion occurs.

[v. gautam]

Are there any true Murtabak makers present in the S.E. Asian restaurants in the US today? By which I mean Murtabak specialists who can flip the dough into the air and turn it into paper thin sheets?

Question 2: Would any of our Makan experts, especially those now prowling the field in S.E Asia, be interested in a bit of detective work to discover what is the technique/science behind preparing the dough so that it is able to do what it does: flare out so spectacularly?

This inquiring mind has wanted to know for decades! Will someone please put it out of its misery?

Charmaine Solomon, in her book on Asian Cooking, has a recipe for Godamba Roti (the Sri Lankan name for Murtabak) which involves immersing the dough balls in oil for some time! That is her short-cut truc for the home cook. Have not had the courage to try it.

g

[trillium]

Malay Satay Hut in Seattle has a guy that does roti canai by flipping it in the air a lot and getting it pretty wide and thin. They're opening a place in here in Portland too. But they don't do what we call murtabak, just roti canai, which isn't as flakey and is more eggy then what we call roti prata (notice I'm qualifying my nomeclature).

I stared a lot at the guy making roti at the Muslim roti place in Krabi, Thailand, which had the best savory, flaky, roti prata, in Thailand (a lot of it I found dreadful, with bright orange margarine and sweetish, except in Trang and this one place in Krabi). They kept the balls of dough soaking in some sort of oily solution near the warm propane grill, and kept them covered with a wet oily cloth. I have pictures I'd be happy to show you if you email me, I'd prefer not post them on eG and lose the copyright, since my friends took them, not me.

Kasma has an article and recipe for rotihere.

regards,

trillium

Edited January 25, 2006 by trillium (log)

[ecr]

I know little to nothing about bread making, but I would suspect that roti are super-kneaded so that the elastins (is that the term?) are much more highly developed than in a regular bread. I've not observed dough balls sitting in oil here in Malaysia, but oil does seem to play a big part in the dough's being able to be stretched so thin without tearing. The dough is kneaded on an oily surface and then rubbed with oil before they're set aside, and then when it's time to roll them out yet more oil is applied to the work surface.

This guy in Kota Baru used an interesting technique of letting his dough balls rest with air trapped inside to lighten his roti. They definately were by far the flakiest I've ever had.

[Pan]

Thanks for the link, ecr. I've looked at your blog before and really enjoy it.

[v. gautam]

Thank you so very much trillium and ecr.

I think you both have confirmed the clue provided by Charmaine Solomon, and trillium, what you describe coincides exactly with my childhood memories of watching the murtabak craftsmen at work.

I have summarized for my own clarity what we seem to agree on:

dough: initial conditions yet unknown, flour type, shortening, water temp. i.e. boiling water dough etc.

kneading conditions/tempeatures: unknown

Post-kneading:

oil: dough balls glistening, slick, or soaked in oil

resting: dough balls recovering under specific conditions of warmth and humidity

heat: of a tropical climate: be it calcutta, thailand, s'pore, colombo, m'sia

more heat: proximity of waiting dough balls to the heat source

bench: smooth marble or stainless steel slick with oil

skill: long practice

Some things have become clear thanks to you guys. Now I will wait to actually get to Portland someday and ask(!) about the flour and the rest.

g

Edited January 28, 2006 by v. gautam (log)

[trillium]

Don't forget the smashing part too. The guy I studied would stack them up in a towel and then do this fluff and smash routine before serving them. Looks like ecr's guy is doing something similiar too.

regards,

trillium

[Yajna Patni]

The fluff and smash thing sounds like what they do to the paratha things they make in Trinidad. They are called bussup shut. which is busted up shirt. They are very very flakey, and when they come off the Tawa you put them in a cloth and kind of pump and fluff which seperates the layers so they almost fall apart.

[PCL]

Playing devil's advocate, the discussion has focused a lot on the roti itself. What about the filling?? I love murtabak, and have always wondered about the filling. As in many cases to do with food, I'm an avid consumer, but I await enlightenment on the details...