Today I'm sharing with you Malaysian savoury pancake bites or also known as kuih cara berlauk.
These are one of my favourite Malaysian traditional kuih.
This kuih has a light batter or pancake taste with delicious minced beef with curry as the filling.
Let's just dive in, shall we?
What Are Malaysian Kuih
Ufff!! It's something that I struggle even to explain to my husband.
Kuih's meaning is so general. It's a type of food or you can even call it snack, that can either be sweet or savoury.
And yes, we Malaysians have LOTS of kuih.
Kuih also means something that is in bite sizes or something that you usually can just easily grab and eat. And you can basically eat kuih in any time of the day. Breakfast, lunch, tea time or even dinner.
So yeah.. that's how I would explain kuih to you.
And kuih can be of many types and names, of course. Kuih karipap, for example, looks exactly like empanadas but only it's not.
Today's kuih will be kuih cara berlauk. Which if translated literally it would mean.. ok I changed my mind. I will not even attempt to translate it because one; it won't make sense and two; it's just too difficult! Haha!
Making Malaysian Kuih Abroad
This traditional kuih is usually cooked in a special pan that has beautiful shape and design. Unfortunately, I don't have that special pan (oh how I wish I did) so the next best thing is to improvise.
I'm using mini muffin pan for this recipe and guess what? It works perfectly!
So don't deny yourself of this delicious kuih just because you don't have a specific pan. Be free. Be MacGyver.
How To Remove The Kuih From The Pan Easily
Ok, so since we're improvising a bit here so we also need to work differently.
Typically when you use the traditional special pan, you would just use a wooden skewer or a toothpick to remove the kuih from the pan. Simply insert it into one end of the kuih, lift and remove.
Since we like to be a bit rebel and use the mini muffin pan, we need to use a small spoon and run it around and bottom of the kuih to help loosen it from the pan.
Not bad at all, right?
So I really hope you'd give this a try. Trust me, it's delicious!
In Summary
These Malaysian savoury pancake bites are:
- made easy so that expats and others (like you and me) are able to make them at home, wherever you are
- perfect for snacks or appetizers
- easy and fun to make
- perfect recipe to get to know about Malaysian kuih since it's so easy
- AMAZINGLY ADDICTIVE!
Before You Go
Check out some of my other Malaysian kuih also:
- Banana fritters
- Baked chicken curry puff
- Net pancakes
- Pandan balls with coconut sugar
- Peanut pancake turnover
Video
Malaysian Savoury Pancake Bites (Kuih Cara Berlauk)
Ingredients
The Filling
- ½ yellow onion , chopped
- ½ thumb sized ginger , minced
- 1 garlic clove , minced
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- ¼ tsp sugar
- 3.5 oz minced beef (100 g)
The Pancake
- 1 egg
- ⅔ cup coconut milk (160 ml)
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ⅔ cup all purpose flour (85 g)
Others
- ½ red pepper , diced
- ¼ cup parsley (8 g), chopped
- some fried shallot
Instructions
The Filling
- Heat some oil in a pan on medium heat and add in onion, ginger, garlic and some salt. Cook until the onion is translucent. Then add in curry powder, sugar and cook for 30 seconds.
- Now add in minced beef, salt to taste and mix everything well. Continue until meat is fully cooked. Add in ½ amount of red pepper and parsley in, give it a final mix and set aside.
The Pancake
- Add egg, coconut milk, turmeric powder, salt into a bowl and whisk until well combined. Now add in flour and whisk everything until there are no lumps. Don't over mix though.
Assembling
- Spray a mini muffin pan of 24 holes with generous amount of oil. Then divide the pancake batter evenly into 18 holes.
- Spoon in some filling into each hole, followed by some fried shallot.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 375ºF (190ºC) for 15 minutes or until fully cooked. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.
- Use a small spoon and run it around and bottom of the pancake to help release it. Place on a serving plate. Sprinkle some red pepper, parsley on top and serve.
Note
- Don't over fill the holes with the filling. You will have some balance of the filling. Put it on your sunny side up egg or flavour your scramble eggs with it. Yum!
- Refer to my post above on removing the pancake bites from the pan.
Hi Bea, I am a Singaporean living in Germany and I tried your recipe for the first time... my family loves it! It's easy to follow and simply delicious! Thanks so much for your recipe and for sharing it with us!
Hi Jean! I'm happy to hear that everybody loves it! Thank you so much for your feedback XOXO. By the way, we went to Germany a few months back and absolutely loved it! 🙂
It's amazing..such a good idea, I never thought about making it that way, will definitely try it, thank you 👍..btw Bea, I am a Malaysian too and living in Belgium... Happy that I found your website..
Since the traditional way needs that special pan, we expats have to improvise a bit right :D? Welcome to our website, I'm always happy to have a fellow Malaysians here. Thanks Anita!
Hi there Bea last year 2018 I was in Johar Bahru Malaysia, I ate Malay snacks whenever and everywhere yummy, I love this recipe and I love your recipes easy to follow and wonderful👍💖
Oh that's awesome Gillian! It brings a wide smile to me to know that, thank you!