Martabak telur, my favorite Indonesian snack

My first martabak encounter

Probably you know this kind of snack. The kind of snack you associate with holiday or another place where you like to be. For me this is martabak telur. My first encounter with martabak telur was when I was together with my wife at the family in Depok for Idul Fitri. When we drove home we stopped at the street vendor. My indopapa got out of the car and ordered the martabak from the street vendor.

As soon as we were at home in Depok I tried the martabak and that was the moment my addiction started. I really needed to finish the box with martabak. The texture of the martabak is really different from other snacks, it is a bit crunchy on the outside but very spongy on the inside.

I was very surprised that I didn’t knew about this Indonesian snack yet. I already liked Indonesian food very much, but somehow I never had this snack before. Now I know that this snack is almost nowhere available in the Indonesian restaurants here in the Netherlands.

The few times I saw martabak on the menu it was not the martabak telur that I expected. In general 9 of the 10 times you will get the martabak telur mini. Martabak telur mini is also good and tasty. However it’s quit different because the skin is like lumpia and not as like the big martabak. Or if you go to an Indonesian fine dining restaurant there is a big chance that the martabak will be more like pastel.

So everytime I’m in Indonesia one of the first thing I want to eat is the martabak telur. If you are in Indonesia and you cannot find the street vendor immediately don’t worry! You can also just use the GoJek app to order the martabak from where ever you are. Although it can be handy to have someone near you that speaks Indonesian. Because the GoJek drivers most of the times give you call back, but not all of them speak English.

My wife made the martabak telur mini for me which was very delicious off course, but I still wanted to try the regular martabak. So I decided to make it myself or together with my wife. Yessssss, this is team Martabak Telur Amsterdam! Check out our recipé!

Recipe

Let’s see what we need to get to get this started. Don’t worry, there are not really ingredients that you cannot get at the supermarket. I think it’s possible to replace the kerrie djawa with other kerrie if you cannot find it. But I haven’t tried with other kerrie. Also I noticed that sometimes shallots are being used instead of red onion. But this is my recipe and I prefer red union 😉

Ingredients

• 500 grams minced meat
• 400 grams wheat flour
• 400 ml water
• 1 liter of sunfloweroil
• some general minced beef spices
• 8 eggs
• 2 white unions
• 1 red union
• 6 teas garlic
• 5 stalks of spring onions
• 3 teaspoons kerrie djawa
• 4 teaspoons of salt
• 1 teaspoon ketoembar
• 2 small red peppers

Dough, duh!

First things first. Let first make the dough. For this we will need two eggs, two teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons oil, 400 grams wheat flour and 400 ml water.

Now put the wheat flour, the eggs and salt in the bowl. Stir it together while adding the water. When it gets thicker stop the stirring and start kneading untill for 10 till 15 minutes untill you will get nice smooth dough that’s not sticky anymore. If it stays sticky then add some more flour and continue kneading untill the dough is smooth and firm. Now make small balls from around 40 grams each.

Now cover the balls in oil and put them back in the bowl. Now just spread some extra oil over the balls. Then put a damp towel over the bowl and let it rest for at least 20 minutes.

Bumbu

Now it’s time to make the bumbu. Chop up the garlic, the unions and the peppers.

Chopped garlic and unions. Then put a tablespoon of oil in the pan. When the oil is hot enough cook the unions and garlic for about 2 minutes. Then add the meat. Season it with the minced beef spices and cook it untill it’s almost all brown.

Now add the kerrie djawa, ketoembar and salt and stirr and cook it a few minutes more. Have a taste to check if it tastes good. At this moment it supposed to be a bit more salty then you would want. That’s ok, because later the eggs will be added. Now put off the gas and let it everything cool down and then put it in a bowl. Chop up the spring onions and mix it up. Now wait until you can use the dough.

tick…. tock…. tick….. tock…..

Cook!

First get the gear ready. I know normally you would use one big wok to cook the martabak in but I prefer my own way just because I’m stubborn. I will have one pan where I can put the dough in like a pancake, and one other deep pan filled with oil to fry the martabak. So, you can already heat up the deep pan with the oil.

Now mix the bumbu with 4 eggs and stir it really good.

 

Then spread some flour over the kitchen table so the dough will not stick. Put the dough ball on the table and push it flat.Now start spanking it untill it’s flat and big enough. Don’t be afraid to spank too hard. Yeah, this is foodporn baby!

 

It’s time to really cook and fry the martabak. Put a tablespoon of oil in the flat pan and heat it. Put the martbak dough in the flat pan and then add some spoons of the bumbu in the middle. Fold both sides of the dough together and push everything together. This will probably take you a bit of practice.

Now cook both sides of the martabak untill it’s a bit more hard. Then fry it in the deep pan with oil untill the colour is nice brown yellow. If you have done it correctly the outside will be crunchy and on the inside the egg will be cooked.

Martabak cookedThen fry it in the deep pan with oil untill the colour is nice brown yellow. Then get it out of the oil and let it cool down for a short moment so you won’t hurt yourself 😉 If you have done it correctly the outside will be crunchy and on the inside the egg will be cooked.

This is the good part. Get a big knife and chop up the martabak in small pieces. You will smell the martabak when it’s being chopped. Wooohooooo!

 

I would recommend to give the first martabak one to the person you love most. The rest of the martabak you can put on a plate and eat yourself or serve to guests. For example on a birthday.

 

Enjoy!

I figured out most of the things myself how to make this with some help from the internet. Please let me know if you have any recommendations or any suggestions how to improve the recipe. Hopefully next time in Indonesia I can learn how to really make it the Indonesian way.