This has to be one of my favourite snacks of all times. Famously known as 'Burger Malaysia', it is not a texture of buns, but more of savoury cakes and traditional filling of cucumber slices and 'sambal' which is fried chilli paste. During my primary school days, despite being given homecooked food for recess, I would buy this from the canteen, it was only 10cent per bun back then, I obviously do not know how much those things cost anymore as it has been a while since I last had this back home.
Having a baby does wonders to your memory I would say, as despite never having this savoury snack for years and years, recently my memory bank went deja-vu and thought of it. I don't think I would ever get the same version in the UK, not even in the Malaysian Hall nearby, or throngs of Malaysian restaurants in London so the best option is DIY, which is all the better for my culinary varieties. It's funny how things that I liked during my childhood days somehow resurfaced again as cravings. Only this time, I tweak the recipe a bit, and changed the filling to whatever we have available at home: roasted chicken and some lamb mince. It turns out nice indeed, but obviously the traditional flavour of sliced cucumber and sambal is lost in the process!
I shall share with you my version of the Burger bun, which is deep fried and henceforth you could fill it with flavours of your choice, and the sky is the limit. Take a pick, try anything, savoury filling is preferable such as roasted chicken with salad, mince, goats' cheese and chutney, tomato and mozarella, there you have it, let your imagination run wild.
That's the version we tried with roasted chicken and some homemade chilli sauce. I think I shall post the chilli sauce recipe as another entry, as it's a sure winner as dipping sauce. Although I wouldn't recommend deep frying for regular meals ( I must take liberty of my position to preach some health awareness eh?), do try out this recipe as a family treat, especially during those rainy days with a sip of an evening tea.
Ingredients
- yield: 10 pieces
- 200g plain flour
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 7g or 1 sachet of instant dry yeast
- 140ml milk
- a pinch of salt
- Vegetable or Corn oil for deep frying
Preparation
- Mix in all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add in the milk and form a dough using clean hands. Leave the dough at room temperature until it doubles in size.
- Knead the dough to let the air out and divide it into 10 small balls. Let the balls rise slightly in size for approx 20 minutes. Deep fry the dough balls until they turn into golden colour.
- Slit the bun halfway (like hot dog bun; without slicing it all the way into 2 parts), add in the filling that you like.
- Serve hot.
Note: traditional Burger Malaysia is filled with cucumber slices and sambal. Maybe I shall post a sambal recipe at later date for those who are interested.
Source thecookingdoctor.co.uk
Food
