Malaysian Savoury Pancake Bites (Kuih Cara Berlauk)

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)

Come and try these Malaysian savoury pancake bites! This recipe is made easier for expats and others outside Malaysia (like you and me). Soft pancake with delicious minced beef curry filling. Yum!

5 from 1 vote

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Servings: 18 pieces

Prep Time: 20 mins

Cook Time: 25 mins

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

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

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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.

Tried this recipe?Mention @elmundoeats and tag #elmundoeats!