Friday Night is “Laksa Night” at our House …

A trip to the markets to purchase some fresh Seafood & Herbs & then home again to make the paste… It’s the family’s favourite meal time of the week & the kids love it! (mild for them of course

This picture was inspired by the Malaysian Kitchen competition Laksa & Me from their FaceBook page… Go join them!

We won!!! Thanks to all we’ll certainly put the prize to good use!

This is a classic dish found all over Malaysia from the Peranckan culture.  There are traditionally two types of laksa – curry laksa and ayam laksa.  Curry Laksa is a spicy coconut curry soup with noodles while asam laksa is a sour fish soup with noodles.

And although he didn’t give away all his secerets he did say that laksa is region and specific to each cultures base food groups, thus lending itself to many versions of the same dish..

Makes: 320g (1 ) cups
Prep: 15mins
(+20mins cooking time)

6-8 long dried red chilies
8 purple (Asian) shallots, coarsely chopped
5 candlenuts
3cm-piece fresh galangal peeled coarsely chopped
2 stems lemon grass, pale selection only, coarsely chopped
2 coriander root
4 tbs peanut oil
1  tsp finely grated fresh turmeric Or 1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp shrimp paste
1 tsp tamarind paste
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped

Gather your ingredients & put chillies into a bowl and submerge in water, coarsely chop shallots & put aside.

Using a pestel and mortar pound candlenuts down and put aside, do the same with the galangal, lemon grass, garlic, and turmeric (if its fresh)

Add the soaked chillies, the shrimp and tamarind paste (and the ground turmeric if you did not use fresh turmeric) this should ended up in quite a beautiful smelling toxic looking paste doesn’t matter if its still a bit rough but as long as you have given it a good pounding.

Now heat up your wok so that it’s smoking hot and add your peanut oil. Once hot, throw in the chopped shallots and the paste and cook off until everything is cooked through, if you need to add extra peanut oil do so it is the oil that protects the laksa paste from being burnt so more is better at this stage …

Once its nice and soft, remove from heat, place in a heatproof bowl and allow to cool. Once cool, place in blender and blend it all into a nice smooth paste….

This is the base of your lakes paste. Put it aside & get all your other ingredients ready to go.

Ingredients
1 x chicken breasts fillets cut into skinny slices
1 tbs peanut oil
125g (1/2 cup) homemade laksa paste (see recipe)
1 x 280ml can coconut milk
1 cup chicken stock
400g medium green king prawns, peeled
sliced Brocolli complete with stalks
sliced capsicum
handful of snow peas
egg plant
Pinch of salt
500g hokkien noodles (or noodles of your choice)
100g bean sprouts
2/3 loosely packed fresh Vietnamese mint leaves (garnish)
coriander (garnish)
2 tbs fried shallots (garnish)

Prepare all your ingredients – cut up broccoli in generous chunks, slice broccoli & capsicum, thinly slice chicken, dehead & devein prawns.

Fry off eggplant or put on a hot grill just to soften, then place into a 150′ pre oven on a tray for about 20 minutes.

Boil the jug to have some hot water ready to soak the hokkien noodles.

Next step is to get your wok all nice and hot, once it has started to smoke throw in peanut nut oil ,
(If you have kept the prawn heads you can use them to flavour the wok just remember to remove them before you add in the paste),

Now toss in the Laksa paste this should start to sizzle and cook through you want this to become a nice brown colour, if you need to add more peanut oil to prevent the paste from burning do so…

Once it has become a nice golden brown colour, pour in the coconut milk, chicken stock and stir it all though..

You should have a nice looking broth happening now. Allow it to come to the boil then throw in broccoli followed closely by the capsicum.

Add your hokkien noodles to a heatproof bowl and pour over the hot water from the jug to let soften.

Now throw in the chicken and peeled prawns, these won’t take very long to cook through particularly the chicken if its been sliced thin …
lastly add the snow peas…

Get your serving bowls ready – Add the drained noodles, Pour over the lakes broth – making sure that every one gets an even amount of prawns to avoid any disputes, add your baked eggplant on top,and sprinkle over the fried shallots, vietnamese mint, coriander & serve! YummmmmmmOOOOOo

You can add anything you like to this dish .. some fried tofu does a wonderful job of soaking up all that yoummy broth! Enjoy!

Full Recipe at http://www.sbs.com.au/food/foodsafarirecipe/index/id/12/n/Malaysian_laksa_(cheat’s_laksa)

This little treasure is from French Chef Antoine Marllet  - who shares with you his passion for laksa. See how he prepares this special concoction.

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Assam laksa is a sour fish-based soup. Asam (or asam jawa) is the Malay word for tamarind, which is commonly used to give the stock its sour flavor.

Vist Zak @ www.FattyCrab.com

Prep: 20 mins
Cooking: 5 mins

2 x chicken breasts fillets
1 tbs peanut oil
125g (1/2 cup) homemade laksa paste (see recipe)
2 x 280ml cans coconut milk
750ml (3 cups) chicken stock
400g medium green king prawns, peeled
Pinch of salt
500g hokkien noodles (or noodles of your choice)
100g bean sprouts
2/3 loosely packed fresh Vietnamese mint leaves (garnish)
2 tbs fried shallots (garnish)

***LAKSA PASTE ***
Makes: 320g (1 ½) cups
Prep: 10mins (+20mins standing time)
6-8 long dried red chilies
8 purple (Asian) shallots, coarsely chopped
5 candlenuts
3cm-piece fresh galangal,
peeled coarsely chopped
2 stems lemon grass, pale selection only, coarsely chopped
2 tbs peanut oil
1 ½ tsp finely grated fresh turmeric
Or ½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp shrimp paste
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped

To make the paste, place the dried chilies in a heatproof bowl, Cover with boiling water and set aside for 20mins to soften,drain and chop them coarsely. Place chilli, escaholt, candlenuts, galangal, lemon grass, oil, turmeric, shrimp paste and garlic into a food processor and process until finely chopped…

This is pretty much the paste made….. Put half a cup of it to one side and the rest into an air tight container (no preservatives) and put in freezer or fridge depending on when you are going to use it again…

Now to start cooking the Laksa….

Now I like to fry my chicken a little instead of poaching it. So it’s really up to you how you do your chicken, but once it is done place it to one side …
Once your chicken is cooked and put aside heat some oil in a wok over a medium-high heat. Add laksa paste and cook , stirring occasionally for about 2 mins or until you can really start to smell that real laksa fragrance, stir in coconut milk and stock and bring to boil, Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered for 5-10 mins…

Add prawns and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes or until prawns start changing colour. Add chicken and cook, stirring for 2 minutes or until hot…..
As this is happening using the same heatproof bowl as before(providing its big enough) place your noodles and cover with boiling water, put aside for 2-5 mins to soften.

Drain and serve out to bowls, throw in a few bean sprouts (and tofu if you choose) and then start serving out that laksa…..
Add a some mint leaves, dried and fresh shallots and serve up…..Maybe a bit of chilli depending on your tastes and enjoy……….

Serves: 4

Prep: 20mins
Cooking: 20mins
4-5 good sized Mud crabs
1 tablespoon peanut oil
125g (1/2 cup) homemade laksa paste (see recipe)
2 x 280ml cans coconut milk
1 1/2 cups of Fish stock
Pinch of salt
500g hokkien noodles (or noodles of your choice)
2-3 loosely packed fresh Vietnamese mint leaves (garnish)
Fresh Coriander (garnish)

***LAKSA PASTE ***
Makes: 400g (2) cups
Prep: 15mins
2-6 fresh banana red chilies
4-6 fresh Spring onions, coarsely chopped
10 Macadamia nuts
3cm-piece fresh ginger, peeled coarsely chopped
2 stems lemon grass, pale selection only, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoon peanut oil
1 ½ tablespoon finely grated fresh turmeric Or ½ tablespoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon of ground Coriander Seeds
1 tablespoon Curry paste of your choice for flavour
2-4 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup of fish stock

Method:
Coarsely chop the chilli, spring onions, Macadamias, garlic & lemon grass then add all this and remaining laksa paste ingredients into a food processor and process until finely chopped…

This is pretty much the paste made….. Put half a cup of it to one side and the rest into an air tight container (no preservatives) and put in freezer or fridge depending on when you are going to use it again…Now to start cooking the Laksa..

First we want to make up the gravy so that it has plenty of time to thicken up, to do this you heat up a decent sized pan to hold all that sauce we are about to make with a bit of peanut oil to begin with too this we add 2-3 tablespoons of our fresh made laksa paste and heat it through to release all the natural flavours once you can start to smell that sauce add to it the 2 cans of coconut milk and the rest of the fish stock, you may want to give that gravy a bit of a taste test now. We decided that it needed just a little more kick to it so we added another smaller tablespoon of curry paste, but this is entirely up to your palette.Now leave this sauce to simmer away and start on the Crabs…

After cleaning all the Mud crabs and breaking them down in to manageable sizes we choose to leave them in halves but pre-cracked the shells around the claws to allow both the flavour in and to let the water that is stored in the claws out, don’t want too much of that crab juice diluting all that beautiful laksa gravy we just so caringly made.Now that the crabs are ready to be cooked.

Preheat your wok with peanut oil so that the oil starts to smoke then throw in as many mud crabs as will fit in and put a lid over the top ( A couple of sheets of Al-foil will do just to keep the steam and natural juices in…) give this a few moments to heat thru then pour in either a touch of water of a splash of beer, we used beer seeing as we where cooking over a barbie and that’s what was close at the time it also gives it just a bit more flavour than water(you can also use some of that laksa gravy if you like).. Place lid back over the wok and leave until the crabs are go a nice orange/red colour.If there is still more crabs to do move the cooked ones into the laksa gravy while you cook the rest. If not then simply pour the laksa gravy over the top of all those beautiful crabs and heat it all up together over a lower heat…

Now you can get those veggies and noodles ready while the crabs soak up some of the sauce. Seeing as our wok is probably overflowing with crabs either steam some vegetables in you microwave or just quickly prepare them in another pan, do the same with your noodles.Now simply serve up the noodles and veggies into bowls and serve up, leave the crabs and sauce in the wok and place in middle of table and add garnish as you like…. Prepare to get messy if you don’t your not doing it right…..

Hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did…….