Spicy Lamb Murtabak #BreadBakers

Spicy lamb murtabak starts with a soft dough stretched super thin, then filled with seasoned ground lamb and cooked till crispy and golden. Start a day ahead to allow time for the dough to rest overnight in the fridge.

This month’s Bread Bakers theme is Indian flatbreads, one of my favorite things to make and eat. If you’ve been reading here a while, you might have seen my spicy onion parathas, keema naan and spicy loli - a breakfast flatbread! - just three that I have shared over the years.

For this post I wanted to challenge myself to a flatbread I ate often in my teenage years in southeast Asia. According to Wikipedia, murtabak was first created by Overseas Indians, primarily Muslims from Tamil Nadu. It’s common street food in Singapore, where I first enjoyed it, as well as Malaysia and Indonesia. The name comes from the word mutabbaq , which means "folded" in Arabic. That will make perfect sense when you see how they are made.

Spicy Lamb Murtabak

If lamb isn’t your thing, substitute another ground protein. Although it’s not traditional, you can even use firm, pressed tofu that has been crumbled, to make these vegetarian friendly. Also vegetarian friendly, and more traditional, murtabak can be cooked with the egg alone. In that case, add a little chopped onion, green onion, cilantro and chili pepper to the egg. To clarify the ingredients list below: To measure the water needed, put your egg white in a measuring vessel. Add water to the 3/4 cup or 180ml mark.

Ingredients to make 4 spicy lamb murtabak
For the dough:
2 1/3 cups or 300g bread flour
1 egg white, at room temperature
Room temperature water to make 3/4 cup or 180ml when measured with the egg white
5 teaspoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons canola or other light oil - for resting time

For the filling:
Small bunch green onions
Small bunch fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon canola or other light oil
1 1/2 teaspoons hot curry powder (I use Malaysian brand Baba but any will work)
12 oz or 340g ground lamb
1 small purple onion, chopped finely
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar

To assemble:
4 eggs
extra oil

Method
In a standing mixer bowl, add in flour, egg, melted butter, salt, sugar and water. Use the bread hook to mix together and then knead for 10 minutes. Leave the dough to rest in the bowl for 10 minutes and then knead for another 5 minutes.

On a greased cutting board, divide the dough into 4 pieces. Form into balls.

Pour the 2 tablespoon of oil into a lidded container and coat each ball generously with the oil and place them in the container. Cover the container tightly and keep in the fridge overnight. If you think about it, turn the dough balls every once in a while to keep them well coated in oil.

Meanwhile, make your filling.

Cut the tough parts of the stems off of the cilantro and discard. Roughly chop the rest. Remove the white parts of the green onions and chop the green parts in circles.

(Tip: If your white parts have little roots, you can put them in a glass with a couple of inches of water and put the glass on a sunny windowsill. The roots will grow longer and the green parts will grow up again, ready to snip off and use again.)

Heat the oil in a large pan over a medium high heat. Put in the curry powder and give it a quick stir. Immediately add the lamb and onion and cook till the lamb is browned, breaking it up into bits as it cooks.

Sprinkle on the cayenne, salt and sugar, along with the chopped cilantro and green onion tops.

Stir well and remove the filling from the heat. Divide into four little piles and leave to cool.

When you are ready to panfry the murtabak, spread some of the oil that the dough balls rested in on your clean work surface. Take one ball and lightly flatten it. Press and push the dough with the heel of your palm to make it bigger. Stretch it quite thin, until it’s about 16 x 16 inches or 40 x 40cm, occasionally spreading some more oil on it to help the stretching. You can also lift up each edge of the dough and gently pull to stretch it even more. I thought this would be hard but it was actually quite easy!

Here’s a video I found extremely useful that shows what I mean: Murtabak by El Mundo Eats

You can see my marble through the dough. That’s how thin you want it!

Add 1/4 of the cooled lamb filling to the middle of your stretched dough, along with one lightly beaten egg.

Fold in edges of dough into center, making a package about 5 x 5 inches or 13 x 13cm.

Use an oiled spatula to very carefully transfer the murtabak to your greased frying pan.

Cook the murtabak over low heat for about 6-7 minutes on each side, pressing it down gently with the spatula. A low heat is essential to make sure the layers of dough are cooked before the outer layer gets too dark.

The dough should be cooked through with lovely brown and golden bits all over. Repeat with remaining eggs, lamb mixture and dough.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to this month’s Bread Bakers host, Renu of Cook with Renu for the fun theme and all of her behind the scenes work.

• Aloo Paratha from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Bedmi Paratha from Ambrosia
• Gobi Paratha by Nam's Corner
• Hyderabadi Parathas from Sneha's Recipe
• Masala Paratha from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Roti from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pathiri - Gluten Free Rice Bread from The Schizo Chef
• Puran Poli from A Messy Kitchen
• Spicy Lamb Murtabak from Food Lust People Love
• Stuffed Bajra Paratha from Cook with Renu

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here.  Links are also updated after each event on the BreadBakers home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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