Malaysian curry laksa

01 September 2011 | 16:49 - By Alix Clark

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I love soup. It comes in a million varieties, it's easy to make in large quantities (I’m a fan of a well-stocked freezer), and has restorative powers that seem to be greater than the sum of its parts. But I had never made laksa. Oh, I’ve eaten plenty of laksa, with gusto, but it just wasn’t a soup that had made its way onto my cooking roster. But seeing it in all its glory (also on page 20 of our second issue), gave me the motivation to give it a shot.


While I was familiar with all the ingredients, I didn’t have many of them in the cupboard, so I headed to Sydney’s Burwood, where Asian supermarkets abound. I wandered into the Jasmine Food Market and purposefully collected a bag of tofu puffs and some bean sprouts, and then… my mission ground to a halt; the range at Jasmine is extensive and my inability to find any of the other ingredients made me realise how much we rely on recognising packaging when we shop. Or is that just me? Thankfully, a store employee saw my dilemma and quickly filled my basket with the remainder of my list. All I needed was a tin of wasabi peas to snack on in the car and I was done.

Putting the laksa paste together was simple and satisfying – that list of spicy goodness (even the stinky belacan [shrimp paste]) combined to create a wonderful flavour base. I was surprised to see sweet paprika in the ingredient list – it’s not a spice that I would have associated with Malaysian cuisine. I also decided to make a double quantity of the paste, so I could have some in the fridge to make soup in a snap the next time I had a laksa craving. I only have a large food processor (note to Mr Ed, my birthday is coming up – a small food processor would be nice!), and I needed to add a little of the shrimp soaking water to get it to come together. It didn’t process quite as finely as I would have liked, so there were a few stringy lemongrass strands in there.

Once the paste was done, the laksa came together quickly and easily – as simple as boiling water (or in this case, stock) really. Mr Ed is not generally a fan of soup for dinner but he finished his off with a flourish and declared it delicious. I loved all the different elements – especially the tofu puffs and the rice noodles – and the flavours were fabulous. Not too spicy, but certainly plenty going on there. And there was enough left over for seconds – or the freezer!

Now it’s your turn to give us some laksa love! Do you have a variation on this classic Malaysian dish? We’d love to hear about it.






Editor, Feast

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Comments (4)

08 Sep 2011 17:16 AEST

Trish

From:

Malaysian Laksa

You are right Alix. Sweet Paprika is not an authentic ingredient in Laksa. Dried chilli with the seeds removed is used. This can be bought in Asian grocery stores. It has a different flavour from Sweet Paprika and gives it that rich red colour . Use only the white section of the lemongrass. Slice thinly and pound or blend. Thump the whole green section with the back of a heavy knife and add it to the soup for extra flavour. This is the fibrous part which is not used in the curry mix. Cheers

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07 Sep 2011 12:01 AEST

Yvonne Bleach

From:

:)

You're welcome Alix :)

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07 Sep 2011 11:10 AEST

Alix Clark

From:

Thanks Yvonne

Thanks Yvonne - yes, I might have been a bit lazy and not sliced the lemongrass first - thanks for the tip!

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06 Sep 2011 21:46 AEST

Yvonne Bleach

From:

Laksa!

What a fabulous coincidence! I teach Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine here in Perth and just today we did Laksa as one of the dishes in our repertoire. PS. Lemongrass is pretty fibrous but I find that slicing it finely before processing it helps eliminate any long fibrous strands.

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About this Blog

Every two weeks, we’ll be cooking a dish from the current issue of Feast magazine and posting a photo of what we made, along with our comments and feedback from family and friends. We’d love you to join us – post your comments and questions, and let us know what you think.

Alix Clark Alix Clark is the editor of SBS food magazine Feast.

 
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