Some Southeast Asian Junk

Devil Curry

This is, more than anything else, the quintessential Eurasian Malaysian dish.  It is a specialty in Melaka, where we had a delicious version of it, where both Straits Chinese and Portuguese communities pass down recipes from generation to generation.  It shows obvious influence of Portuguese, Malay, and Indian food.  It's name comes from its heat: simply put, Devil Curry is spicy.  Not "whew, spicy!" like, but full-bore, "I'm going to regret this tomorrow morning" spicy.  Normally when we get it, I (TP) take it as a challenge to finish it off before my entire brain leaks out of my nose, while JM takes it as a challenge to eat as much as possible while continually saying, "OK, just a little more, it's too spicy."

With the heavy vinegar and mustard components, you have a dish that is oddly reminiscent of Carolina-style barbecue.  Indeed, a related Melaka favorite, Curry Kapitan, is obviously related to the Southern dish Curry Captain.  If you make a not-very-spicy version of this, you could easily pass this off as an American curry dish with an interesting flavor.  This is our take on it.

Devil Curry
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 large onions
8 meaty chicken thighs, well-sprinked with salt
1 Tbsp. mustard seeds
1/4 cup rice vinegar, plus more to taste
3 peeled baking potatoes, chopped into large hunks
water
2 Tbsp. soy sauce
salt

Spice Paste
chilies (see note on chilies at the bottom)
red pepper powder (see note on chilies at the bottom)
black peppercorns (see note on chilies at the bottom)
10 shallots
6 cloves garlic
2 inches ginger, peeled
2 inches fresh turmeric, peeled
8 candlenuts, toasted
1 Tbsp. mustard seeds, lightly toasted and ground

In a blender or food processor, combine all the ingredients for the spice paste.

Heat the oil to medium high heat in a large wok, then add the chicken to brown.  Remove and set aside.  Heat the oil again to medium heat and add the onions, cooking until just beginning to turn golden.  Add the spice paste and fry, stirring constantly, for about five minutes.  Add the whole mustard seeds, fry for a minute more, and then add the vinegar, chicken, and enough water to just cover the chicken.  Bring to a boil, then add the potatoes.  Bring to a boil again, then lower the heat and simmer for about 25 minutes, until potatoes and chicken are cooked through.  Add more water as needed to keep the gravy from getting too thick.  Add the soy sauce and cook 5 minutes more, then add salt and vinegar to taste.  Serve with rice, it looks like this, although we let the gravy get too thick so it's not quite right.

NOTE ON SPICINESS: We have had some truly volcanic Devil Curries.  For a muted version with a hint of heat and most of the flavor, use 1 tsp. red pepper powder, 5 peppercorns, and two chilies for the spice paste.  For a spicier but not yet authentic version, try 1 Tbsp. red pepper powder, 10 pappercorns, and five chilies.  For an authentic version, we don't know what you'd do, but you could try adding a birds-eye chili and upping the red pepper powder even more.  We will probably never try this because we don't want to ruin it, so you'll have to experiment on your own.

Cap Cai

Cap cai ("Chahp Chai") is best known as a Straits Chinese dish popular in Malaysia and Singapore, but more generally, most Southeast Asian cuisines have some sort of version of this dish.  Overseas Chinese immigrants settled all over the region, bringing a dish like this with them.  It is not surprising to
find something with a name like "chap chay" on the menu at Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Filipino, and Cambodian restaurants in the US.  Even in Indonesia, we often found cap cai available at restaurants that had no other discernable Chinese influence at all.  In many Cantonese or Shanghainese restaurants, you may also see this dish written as Char Chap Chye. 

Cap cai is a vegetable dish with just some noodles in it as well.  Done correctly, the dish is something between a soup and a stir-fry...it should be quite wet with a pretty thin sauce.  The taste depends very heavily on tauco and oyster sauce; please do not try to make this dish without using both of these, because it will taste like bland vegetables.  If you are a vegetarian who simply cannot eat oyster sauce, well, it won't taste right.  You can use water instead of chicken broth with no problem, though.  Many recipes include different kinds of vegetables, but the heavy mushroom component here is essential as well.  You shouldn't venture too far from this list of vegetables, although bamboo shoots or a couple baby corns or even some thinly sliced jicama probably wouldn't make too much of a difference.  We add a little bit of egg to thicken up the dish a little bit, but that's probably not authentic.  Leave it out if you like.

Fresh and dried shiitake mushrooms are available at most gourmet groceries, and black jelly mushrooms are normally available dried at Chinese groceries.  Black jelly mushroom is our English translation of the Malay term, which is probably a translation from a Chinese word.  It refers to the fungus Auricularia polytricha, sometimes called wood ear fungus in the US.  Us both mushrooms fresh if you can find them.

This makes enough for two dinner portions, or for four to six side dishes.

Cap Cai
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch fresh ginger, minced
2 Tbsp. tauco
2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, halved
1 cup black jelly mushrooms
1 cup green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 large carrot, cut into thin rounds
1 cup chicken stock or water
1 cup loosely packed broken bihun
1 large egg
1 block tofu, thinly sliced crosswise
2 cups Chinese cabbage, slice crosswise

Start by heating the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add the minced ginger and garlic and stirfry, stirring constantly, until very fragrant, making sure that they do not brown.  Add the tauco and oyster sauce and stirfry for 1-2 minutes more, until very fragrant.  Add both groups of mushrooms, green beans, carrot, and water or stock, raise heat to high, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat again and cook for 10 minutes, adding water to ensure a soupy consistency.  Add the broken bihun and cook for five minutes more, again adding water to maintain the consistency.  Crack the egg and add to the wok, and mix thoroughly so that the egg thickens the mixture.  Add the tofu and Chinese cabbage (again, adding water if necessary), and simmer for three minutes until the cabbage has wilted.  Ladle into soup bowls and serve, or into a serving dish as a side dish.

Popiah

Popiah are a very popular Malaysian dish, the local version of an eggroll.  However, unlike almost all eggrolls and lumpia (the Indonesian wrapped snack), popiah are usually not fried.  In that sense, they are more like Vietnamese spring rolls, and are a refreshing snack when you aren't in the mood for something heavy and oily.  Of course, like Vietnamese spring rolls, popiah can be fried.  We never have had the fried kind, though, and the best popiah stands that we've seen do their briskest business with the non-fried kind.

Let us emphasize, though, that they are not just Vietnamese spring rolls in Malaysia.  They differ in two ways.  To begin, the wrapping is different.  Popiah, like lumpia, have a wheat-flour and egg wrapper that has a different text and taste than rice-flour and no-egg Vietnamese spring roll wrappers.  More than that, the filling is different.  As far as we know, most Vietnamese spring rolls contain chicken or beef or shrimp or pork, rice vermicelli, and usually some sort of herb like spicy basil and/or mint.  Sometimes they can have carrot and/or cucumber in them.  You serve them in a clear and sweet vinegar- peanut-chili dip.  Popiah are very different, beginning with a warm jicama-based filling and continuing with a thick soy and peanut sauce that is spread inside rather than served alongside as a dip.  In some versions, as you will see below, they also betray a silly British influence of mayonnaise.

We'll conclude with some etymology.  The word in Malay for jicama is sengkuang.  This, we believe, comes from singkamas, the Tagalog word, which in turn came from Spanish, jicama, which was appropriated from Nahuatl (a native Mexican language), which had the word xicama.  That's some nice colonial food history for you.  Jicamas are native to Central America, but that has not stopped it from becoming an integral part of local cuisine.  For some reason, in Indonesia, we also have seen the word bangkuang in addition sengkuang.  We don't know why this would be.

Popiah: Basic Recipe
20 popiah skins (or eggroll wrappers, if popiah skins are unavailable)
1 large jicama root, at least 1 lb, peeled and shredded
1 can bamboo shoots, chopped
2 Tbsp. kecap manis
1/2 tsp. salt
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large carrot, julienned
1 cucumber, peeled and seeded, julienned
1 cup of shallots, thinly sliced and deep fried
1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts, finely (but not too finely) chopped

Popiah Sauce
1/2 cup kecap manis
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 Tbsp. salted peanuts
4 large chilies (see note below)

Optional Additions (see end of recipe below)
1/2 lb boneless chicken (cut into strips), shrimp (peeled and deveined), or a mix of the two
1 cup fresh crab meat
1/2 cup mayonnaise (yes, mayonnaise)
1 cup loosely chopped Boston (a.k.a. bibb or butter) lettuce

For the basic recipe, start by heating the oil over low heat in a wok.  When hot, add the garlic and saute for a minute or so, making sure that the garlic does not brown.  Add the shredded jicama and the bamboo shoots and stir through, then add salt and stir through again.  Heat through until bubbly--if there's not enough liquid, add a bit of water.  Cook, stirring occasionally, over low heat for about 20 minutes.

To make the sauce, boil the garlic in water for about one minute until hot and just starting to soften.  This takes some of the edge off of the flavor.  In a food processor or with a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic with the peanuts until smooth.  Combine with the soy sauce and mix until smooth.  NOTE: You can make a spicy version of this by adding the four large chilies, stems removed, while mashing the garlic and peanuts.  A more authentically spicy version would also add a handful of Thai bird-eye chilies.  We have seen it served both in the phenomenally-spicy and the non-spicy versions, but our very spicy version is better for Western palates.

To construct, take a popiah skin and place it on a place.  Smear on about a teaspoon of the sauce.  Top with a small bit of carrots and cucumber, then sprinkle on about a half-teaspoon of chopped peanuts and shallots each.  Add a tablespoon of the warm jicama filling and roll up like a burrito.  Serve immediately with extra sauce for dipping.

This is the basic version that we normally get.  You can also get something called salad popiah.  To make salad popiah, remove the carrots and replace with a bit of crab meat and lettuce, and smear on a bit of mayonnaise in addition to the popiah sauce.  We know that this sounds kinda gross, but really, it's actually quite tasty, even if you leave the crab meat out.  There is also a version that has a bit of meat in it.  To make this, decrease the jicama by half, and add chicken/shrimp/both to the garlic first after it been frying, and then cook until done, and then add the jicama and bamboo shoots and proceed as before.

Sroto

Sometimes you want the tasty friend chicken that you get in Java, and sometimes you want the hearty soups that you find all over Indonesia; in this recipe, you get both.  Yes, this is a Javanese dish that introduced us to the glorious possibility of combining fried chicken with soup.  This recipe is also a great example of how to make a soup with lots of different parts to it.  When you eat it, you get lots of different flavors and textures all at once: savory broth, crispy chicken, sweet and spicy sambal, crunchy peanuts, sour lime, the works.

This makes enough for 4 people.  It has many steps but is very much worth your while.

Soup
1 lb. chicken legs and thighs, skins removed
4 cups water
2 salam leaves
2 inches galangal, peeled and crushed
1 tsp. salt
oil for deep frying
2 Tbsp. oil
1/4 lb bihun
1 cup bean sprouts
4 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
1/4 cup unsalted raw peanuts, deep fried until deep golden brown
20 shallots, peeled, thinly sliced, and deep fried
1/3 cup celery leaves, finely chopped
4 limes, quartered

Spice Paste
1 tsp. pepper
6 candlenuts
4 cloves garlic
2 inches ginger, peeled

Sambal
20 chilies
1/4 cup unsalted raw peanuts, deep fried until deep golden brown
2 Tbsp. kecap manis

Start by combining chicken, salam leaves, galangal, and salt in a pot with the water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes, or until you have a nice flavorful broth and the chicken is cooked through.  Remove the chicken and let cool.  Once the chicken has cooled, heat 2 inches of oil over high heat until almost smoking, and fry the chicken until nice and golden brown.  Remove and let cool again, then tear the meat into rather thick shreds.

While the meat is cooling, make the spice paste by making a smooth paste out of all the ingredients with a mortar and pestle or in a blender or food processor.  Set aside.  Next, cook the noodles in boiling water until soft.  Divide the noodles into four bowls along with the bean sprouts, shredded meat, and eggs. Next make the sambal by mashing the chilies and deep fried peanuts to make a coarse paste, and then adding kecap manis to thin it out a bit.

Returning to the spice paste, heat the 2 Tbsp. of oil in a wok or large skilled over medium heat, and add the spice paste.  Fry until very fragrant, not letting it brown too much.  Add the reserved chicken broth to the spice paste and, bring to a boil, and then simmer for 10 minutes.  Switch off heat and remove salam leaves and galangal.

To serve, ladle the broth into the bowls and garnish with shallots, deep fried peanuts, celery leaves, lime juice, and sambal.

Karipap

If you say the word karipap aloud, you might be able to figure out what it means.  That's right, curry puff.  This is a classic example of food with Indian and Portuguese influences that has become a staple part of the Malaysian cuisine.  In Indonesia, the guys on the street selling fried things (gorengan) usually have bananas, tempe, tofu, and sweet potato.  In Malaysia, the gorengan sellers have bananas, sweet potato, taro, and karipap, and sometimes other unidentifiable--but tasty--treats.

Basically, a karipap has dough that is not unlike a pie crust, wrapped around a curried potato mixture, and deep fried to deliciousness.  When cooking, be sure to work quickly.  After stuffing the curry puffs and folding them, fry them as soon as possible rather than waiting.  If you wait, they are liable to become unstuck when you fry them.  Here's a picture of a gorengan stall, and here's a picture of our own efforts.

Dough
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
5 T water

Filling
1 lb. baking potatoes, peeled and diced
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
4 shallots
2 inches ginger, peeled
1 Tbsp. fennel seeds, toasted
2 cinnamon sticks
1 heaping Tbsp. meat curry powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. palm sugar
1/4 cup water
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil
oil for deep frying

First, make the filling.  In a blender or food processor (or with your trusty mortar and pestle), grind the fennel seeds into a coarse powder.  Add the onions, garlic, shallots, and ginger, and process into a smooth paste, adding a bit of oil if necessary.  Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat, and then add the cinnamon sticks.  Cook until they are very fragrant, about 1-2 minutes, and then add the paste.  Saute gently, making sure that the mixture does not brown, for about 3 minutes.  Add the curry powder and saute for three minutes more until the mixture is very fragrant.  Add the salt, sugar, and water and bring to a boil.  Add the potatoes and bring to a boil, and then lower the heat and simmer, stirring often, until the mixture is very dry, about 20-30 minutes.  If the mixture gets too dry before the potatoes are very soft, add a bit more water.  When done, let the filling cool.

While the filling is cooking, make the dough.  Combine the flour, salt, and oil to make a mixture like bread crumbs.  Beat the egg together with water and add to the dry ingredients, mixing constantly to form a dough not unlike something for a pie crust.  Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes to make sure it is very smooth, and then cover with a towel and let rest for 15 minutes.

Heat a skillet or wok with about 3 inches of oil in it over low heat until quite hot.  Divide the dough in half and roll very thin.  Using an overturned bowl or a cookie cutter, cut out circles in the dough with a diameter of three inches.  Place one teaspoon of filling in the middle, rub a bit of water over the edge of the circle, and fold over to form a half moon.  Crimp the edges to make it look pretty.  You can re-roll the scraps to make additional puffs.  Gently lower the curry puff into the hot oil and deep fry just until it reaches a dark golden brown.  Remove and drain on paper towels before serving. 

Bah Kut Teh

This is a recipe for a classic Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese soup.  The name literally translates into "pork bone tea," but it's better if you think about it as "pork ribs soup".  It's really good and has an interesting flavor.

The first thing you need is a bit of seasonings.  These are what make the soup unique.  You need a quarter ounce of Codonopsis dangshen, a quarter ounce of Solomon's seal (yu ju), a quarter ounce of Ligusticum wallichii (chuan xiong), about ten black dried dates (hei zao), a quarter ounce of Rehmannia glutinosa (gan di huang), and about ten dried Chinese wolfberries (gou ji zi).  You, of course, will not find these in the supermarket.  Go to your local Chinese grocery store with this list, though, and we are pretty sure that you'll find them.  You might even be able to ask for Bah Kut Teh spices with that name and find them pre-packaged.

Let's say you can't find them.  Well, this is total blasphemy, BUT, you could do a lot worse than using a couple dried dates, a handful of dried cherries or dried cranberries, a couple of slices of ginseng, and some fresh galangal.  UPDATE: There is no excuse.  You can order bah kut teh spices online here.

Bah Kut Teh
12 cups water
10 unpeeled garlic cloves
bah kut teh seasonings
1 1/2 lbs pork baby back ribs, separated into individual ribs
10 dried shiitake or Chinese mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 5 minutes and drained
1/4 lb. whole button mushrooms
3 heads Chinese cabbage, blanched
1/2 lb. firm tofu
oil for deep frying
1 tsp. sugar
chopped cilantro and dark soy sauce to garnish

Bring the water to a boil and add the garlic, spices, pork ribs, and mushrooms.  Bring to a boil again, then lower head and simmer for 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, press the tofu between a couple sheets of paper towels until most of the water has been removed.  Heat the oil until very hot.  Cut the tofu into large squares, and add to the oil.  Deep fry until deep golden brown and crisp.  Remove and drain.

Add the sugar to the pot and remove from heat.  Divide the Chinese cabbage and tofu into 4 large bowls, and ladle the soup on top.  Sprinkle with roughly chopped cilantro leaves and serve with dark soy sauce in little bowls for dipping.

Gulai Ikan

Gulai is a term that refers to dishes served in a curry-like sauce, and ikan means fish.  It has obvious links to Indian influence throughout the archipelago, but it strictly local.  If you go to a Padang-style restaurant in Indonesia or a homestyle Malay restaurant in Malaysia, dishes like this will feature heavily on the menu.  We've Westernized it a bit to be more of a meal in itself (with rice) by adding tomatoes, okra, and green chilies.  Doing so makes it more Indian-like, but if you wanted to be really authentic, you could just leave these out.  This is just about our favorite dish that we've made since we got here. Reasonable people could find enough food here for four people, but the two of us ate it up ourselves.  The secret is really fresh fish, of course.  You want a medium-texture white fish (not cod, not swordfish; maybe something like flounder or snapper) for this recipe.

The herb that we use here is daun kesum, or long-stemmed mint.  You almost certainly can't find that in the West, which is why we've included lemon basil and regular mint instead.  It's close, but no cigar.

Spice Paste
3 garlic cloves
3 shallots
1 inch galangal
1 inch fresh tumeric, or one tsp. ground
1 stalk of lemongrass
1 tsp. fish curry powder
1 1/2 tsp. coriander seeds
1 tsp. black peppercorns
1/4 tsp. salt

Fish Curry
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 stalk of curry leaves
2 cups of tamarind water
2 medium tomatoes, cut into six pieces
10 okras, stem ends chopped off
4 green chilies
1 torch ginger bud, halved
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 pound fish (flounder or snapper)

Make the spice paste by combining all the ingredients in a food processor and blending until smooth. If you use a mortar and pestle, be sure to finely chop the lemongrass first or you'll never break down the fibers.

In a large skillet or wok, hit the oil over low heat.  Add the spice paste and the curry leaves and fry, stirring often, until very aromatic and the oil starts to separate, about 8 minutes.  Add the tamarind water and bring to a boil.  Add tomatoes and ginger bud, reduce to a simmer, and cook uncovered for 5 minutes.  Add the fish and simmer for 5 minutes more.  Add the okra, chilies, and coconut milk and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove curry leaf stem and ginger bud.  Serve over rice.

Nasi Kerabu

Nasi means cooked rice, and kerabu means vegetable mixture, so this dish means herbed rice salad.  It's very good, and would make a nice dish for a potluck or a picnic.  We find the original version a little dry, so we've added 4 Tbsp. of vegetable oil to keep the salad nice and moist.  You want to serve this at room temperature, so make sure that you leave enough time for the rice, coconut, and fish to cool down completely before mixing everything together.

We should admit that this is a Westernized version of the herb mixture.  The herbs that we use are crazy and probably not available in the US.  They included long-stemmed mint (daun kesum), Asian pennywort (daun pegaga), aromatic ginger leaf (daun cekur), and wild pepper leaf (daun keduk).

Nasi Kerabu

1 cup fresh grated coconut
1/2 cup dried fish (ikan bilis)
3 cups cooked rice
1 stalk of lemongrass, very thinly sliced
1 torch ginger bud, very thinly sliced (optional)
1 shallots, very thinly sliced
1 inch ginger, very thinly sliced
1/2 inch galangal, very thinly sliced
1/2 inch fresh turmeric, very thinly sliced, or 1 tsp. ground
1 bunch of celery leaves
1 bunch of cilantro
1 bunch of mint
1 bunch of watercress
10 kaffir lime leaves
4 Tbsp. vegetable oil, plus 2 Tbsp. more for frying
salt and black pepper to taste

Heat a large pan over very low heat.  Add the coconut and toast it, stirring constantly, for 20 minutes.  It will turn golden brown and dry out.  Let cool, and then grind it to the texture of fine breadcrumbs in a food processor or with a mortar and pestle.

Heat 2 Tbsp. of oil in the wok, and add the dried fish.  Fry, stirring often, until golden brown, about 5 minutes.  Let cool, and then cut into small pieces.

Pick the leaves from the stems of the herbs.  Roll up the leaves into little bunches, with the lime leaves on the outside.  Chop very finely, creating very thin julienned herb strips.

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients.  Toss with the vegetable oil, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Dhal, Malaysian Style

Here's a recipe for dhal, Indian-style lentil stew.  It's a bit different than then North Indian dhals, which are the kinds that you find in the States.  For one thing, it's thinner.  Also, this has a bit of a Malaysian twist to it due to the presence of coconut milk and tamarind.  It's excellent, and is the traditional accompaniment for roti chanai.

Dhal, Malaysian Style
1/2 cup lentils
3 1/4 cups water
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1 red onion, chopped
1 carrot, sliced into thin rounds
1 small eggplant, cubed
1 tomato, chopped
2 chilies, thinly sliced (optional)
1/2 cup tamarind water
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. chili powder
5 curry leaves (optional)
3 shallots, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
oil
salt

Rinse the lentils, then place in a pot with the water and turmeric and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.  Add onion, eggplant, tomato, and carrot and cook for 20 minutes more.  Add chilies, and cook for five more minutes.

While the lentils are cooking, combine coconut milk with a pince of salt and the tamarind water.  Place in a small saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes.  In a small skillet, heat a bit of oil over mediam heat.  Add the cumin and mustard seeds and fry for 30 seconds, then add chili powder, shallots, garlic, and curry leaves and saute until golden.  Add to the tamarind/coconut mixture.

When lentils have finished cooking, mix in the coconut milk with the spices.  Add salt to taste. Serve with roti chanai or spoon over rice.  A picture will be forthcoming.

Roti Chanai

This is a signature Malaysian Indian dish, and in general, a signature Malaysian dish.  We're not quite sure how to translate the name.  Roti means bread, but the word chanai eludes us.  One thought is that it's an alternate spelling for Chennai, which is a city in India.  If you've ever been to a Malaysian restaurant in the United States, you've probably seen this as an appetizer.  Basically, it's a fancy, folded, flaky, fried bread, served with dhal or sometimes a pink onion relish (or both).  Here in Malaysia, you can also find it served with chicken or mutton curry. We tried to make it the other day, and were very pleased with the results.  We were less pleased, of course, with the ingredients.  Who knew that so much butter/ghee could go into one dish?  And then, after all that butter, you have to saute it in oil.

This makes enough for four people to gorge themselves on four rotis each.  We haven't included our recipe of Malaysian-style dhal, but we will soon.  If you make it and have leftovers, they are pretty good in the microwave, but they will be a little soggy.

Also, for all of you roti chanai hawkers and authentic roti chanai chefs reading, we know this isn't actually the way to make it.  We know that we are cheating with the second dough and all.  But really, we just don't understand how those guys do it.  It's a talent that we have yet to learn, like throwing murtabak.

Dough 1
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
4 Tbsp. butter or ghee, softened to room temperature
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk
5 Tbsp. water

Dough 2
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter or ghee, softened to room temperature

Vegetable oil
Salt

First, make Dough 1.  Mix together the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.  Mix in the butter till distributed.  In a cup, beat together the milk, egg, and water.  Slowly add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients, a bit at a time.  As soon as the dough just begins to bind, stop.  Knead the dough on a floured countertop for 15 minutes.  Divide the dough into 8 balls and let rest for two hours, loosely covered with foil. Make Dough 2 by combining flour and butter.

After dough 1 is done resting, lightly flour a countertop.  Take one ball and flatten it with your fingers to form a chubby disk.  Place 1/8 of Dough 2 in the middle of the disk, and then wrap the rest of Dough 1 around it to form a ball with Dough 1 on the outside and Dough 2 on the inside.  Roll out the dough ball to form a large square.  Then, gently roll the dough towards yourself so that you form a long tube.  Pick up the tube and turn it 90 degrees so that it is facing away from you longways.  Roll this tube longways again, making it nice and thin and very long.  Now, roll this tube up longways, and cut in it half.  You should now have two dough rolls that look like cinnamon rolls.  Place the cut side of each one down and roll it out until nice and thin.  You should now have two rolled-out dough pieces with lightly-visible swirls.

Heat 2 tsp. of oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  When hot, add a dough piece and fry on each side for 3 minutes, taking care not to burn it.  If desired, lightly (lightly!) sprinkle each side with salt.  Repeat with other dough piece, and then for the other 7 dough balls, to make a total of 16 rotis.