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Martabak Telur
Serves 4 Prep 1 hr 30 min Cook 25 min Total 1 hr 55 min Type Snack Origin Indonesian

Martabak Telur

Indonesia's late-night street snack: a paper-thin dough wrapped around beaten eggs, spiced minced beef and spring onion, pan-fried flat.

Serves 4 Prep 30 minutes (plus 1 hour dough resting) Cook 25 minutes (in batches) Units Rate

Overview

A simple flour-water-oil dough rests for 1 hour (gluten relaxes; will roll paper-thin). Filling: beef mince cooks with shallot, garlic, ginger, curry-leaf, ground spices till dry and aromatic; cools; mixes with beaten eggs, spring onion and chopped coriander just before frying. Dough divides; each portion stretches paper-thin like a strudel; filling spoons in the centre; the edges fold over to make a flat square parcel; pan-fries for 3 minutes per side. Cuts in quarters; eats with chilli-pickle sauce.

Ingredients

Dough

  • 300 g plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons neutral oil (plus 4 tablespoons more for resting and stretching)
  • 180 ml warm water

Beef filling

  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1 onion (small, finely diced)
  • 4 garlic cloves (minced)
  • 20 g fresh ginger (minced)
  • 300 g beef mince
  • 2 teaspoons Curry Powder (Indonesian or generic)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Egg mix (combined just before frying)

  • 4 eggs (large)
  • 4 spring onions (sliced thin)
  • 20 g fresh coriander (chopped)
  • ½ teaspoon salt

Frying

  • 4 tablespoons neutral oil

To serve

  • Sweet soy chilli sauce (kecap manis + sliced chillies)
  • Cucumber slices
  • Pickled chillies in vinegar

Method

Stage 1 - Dough

  1. Combine flour, salt, 2 tablespoons oil and water; mix to a shaggy mass.
  2. Knead 8 minutes to a smooth elastic dough.
  3. Divide into 4 balls; submerge in a small bowl of oil; rest 1 hour at room temperature (the oil soak makes the dough stretch beautifully thin later).

Stage 2 - Beef filling

  1. Heat oil in a wide pan over medium-high.
  2. Cook onion, garlic, ginger 4 minutes until soft.
  3. Add beef mince; break up; brown 5-6 minutes.
  4. Stir in curry powder, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper.
  5. Cook 2 more minutes until dry-fragrant.
  6. Cool to room temperature.

Stage 3 - Stretch a dough ball

  1. Lift one ball from the oil; flatten on a well-oiled work surface.
  2. With oiled hands, stretch the dough outward, working from the centre, until it's a paper-thin square about 40 × 40 cm.
  3. The dough should be translucent (you should see the work surface through it).
  4. If it tears, patch with a tiny piece of dough from the edge.

Stage 4 - Fill

  1. Crack 1 egg into a bowl; add a quarter of the spring onion and coriander; whisk briefly with a fork.
  2. Stir in a quarter of the cool beef mixture.
  3. Pour the egg-beef mix into the centre of the stretched dough, in a square about 15 × 15 cm.

Stage 5 - Fold

  1. Fold the left side of the dough over the filling.
  2. Fold the right side over.
  3. Fold the bottom up over.
  4. Fold the top down over.
  5. You should have a square parcel about 18 × 18 cm with seams on the top.

Stage 6 - Pan-fry

  1. Heat a heavy pan over medium-high; add 1 tablespoon oil.
  2. Lay the parcel seam-down; cook 3-4 minutes till crisp golden.
  3. Flip carefully; cook 3-4 minutes on the second side.
  4. Lift onto a board; let rest 1 minute.

Stage 7 - Cut and serve

  1. Cut into 4 squares with a sharp knife.
  2. Serve hot with sweet soy chilli sauce, cucumber and pickled chillies.

Notes

  • Oil-soaked dough stretches thin: the 1-hour oil rest is what lets you roll without flour, the dough becoming as elastic as strudel pastry. Skip and the dough tears.
  • Cool the filling before adding egg: hot filling cooks the egg before it goes in the pan.
  • Don't overfill: the parcel will split as you flip if the filling is too thick.
  • Square folds, not round: martabak is square. The fold pattern gives the iconic flat packet.

Storage

  • Best straight from the pan.
  • Reheats poorly in a microwave; brief warming in a hot dry oven (200°C, 4 minutes) is acceptable.
  • The components (dough balls, filling, egg mix) keep separately 24 hours refrigerated; fry to order.

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