66. Laksa Lemak

• March
• 1

8:28 am Curry Dish, Dinner, Home Cooking, One pot dinner, Pasta/Noodles, Spiced it up

First time I tried this, it tasted like curry noodle to me, with some difference. Tasted it in Singapore around 2003, and when I moved to England, I decided to consult a few recipes and wing it.

Thankfully, it turned out OK, and I even cooked this for like fifty people last year for Pumpkin’s birthday.

LAKSA LEMAK

Ingredients

• 300 g chicken pieces (no bones if u don’t like it)

Rempah (ground these to make a paste)

• 2 lemon grass — serai
• 2 thumbsize galangal(sliced thinly) — lengkuas
• 2 thumbsize ginger — halia
• 6 candlenuts — buah keras
• 4 garlic — bawang putih
• 5 shallots — bawang merah
• 6 dried chillies or 2 tbsp ground chilli powder
• 2 slices shrimp paste — BELACAN
• 1 tbsp tumeric powder or 2 thumbsize pieces fresh tumeric
• 2 tbsp coriander powder — serbuk ketumbar

• 4 pieces dried asam jawa — washed
• 4 ozs dried prawns, ground finely — udang kering
• 2 TB fish curry powder (make into a paste with 4 TB water)
• Some daun kesum
• 1 L chicken/prawn stock
• 450 mL thick coconut milk
• Salt to taste (reduce this if using nam pla)

Method

1. Heat a frying pan till hot, add in 6 tbs oil and stir fry rempah on low fire till fragrant and chilli oil oozes out from the mixture.
2. Add in ground dried prawns and stir fry mixture for another 2-3 mins. Then add the curry paste. Keep stirring on low till pecah minyak (the oil oozes out again from this).
3. Add the chicken pieces. Stir, fry in the mixture for 3 minutes, then turn up the heat, add in prawn/chicken stock (1L) and coconut milk (1 can or 450mL) and the asam keping, then bring to boil.
4. Add nampla and salt to taste. Lower the fire and simmer for 10 minutes stirring continuously. Add daun kesum before turning off the heat.

Garnish

• 1/2 lb fried fish cake, sliced
• 1 pack fish ball
• 1/2 lb bean sprouts
• 1 lbs laksa noodles or spaghetti (like laksa johor punya)
• 20 stalks laksa leaves (daun kesom), washed and shredded
• 1 packets of tofu puffs, cut into slices
• 4 eggs boiled and quartered
• Sliced bird’s eye cili (cili padi)

To Serve

1. Blanch noodles and beansprouts in hot boiling water and drain. Place individual serving bowls and arrange fish cake, tofu puff and egg slices on top.
2. Pour the steaming hot soup over the noodles and sprinkle generously with daun kesum and cili padi if one would enjoy it hot.

Note
I was too lazy to add another thing, the SHRIMP. If anyone chose to add this, u could either peel the prawn and add it during the last minutes of cooking, or just leave the whole skin on. Don’t forget the chicken pieces when lading the hot broth into the said bowls. YUM

This is how I made my curry laksa, based on what we have at home. Ideally, dried tofu should be added to it.