After a stressful and hectic work week, I was craving something tasty, but with a little bit of a difference, to make for our tea. Jason had gone home early from the high school he teaches at with the flu and had a sore throat. What a coincidence it was to discover the latest edition of Dish magazine in my email box with the perfect recipe for Laksa in it! Like Jewish Chicken soup but Thai and made with seafood! I’ve never made a laksa from scratch but the recipe was easy to follow and quick to make.
First assemble your ingredients for the laksa paste.
Laksa paste ingredients.
1 small red chilli, de seeded
1 stalk of lemongrass, centre only
6 coriander stalks
4 cloves garlic , chopped
2.5cm piece ginger, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons shrimp paste
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons rice bran or peanut oil
To make the paste, put all ingredients bar the oil in a small food processor, blend whilst adding oil. You could also pound the ingredients in a mortar and pestle if you feel like working out that stress 😉. I just put everything, including the oil in my little processor and whizzed away. It turned out just fine.
Now you can assemble all your other ingredients for the soup.
4-6 button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon peanut or rice bran oil
1 1/2 cups of fish stock
2 kaffir lime leaves , thinly sliced
400ml coconut milk
2 teaspoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
Pepper and salt
115gm rice noodles
12 large raw prawns, peeled
100gm firm fleshed fish, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 cup bean sprouts
Fresh coriander sprigs to garnish
In a medium saucepan over a low heat, gently cook the sliced mushrooms in the oil for one minute. Add the fresh laksa paste and cook for another minute or until it smells fragrant.
Add stock, kaffir lime leaves, coconut milk, fish sauce, lime juice and ginger. Gently simmer for 7-10 minutes , then taste and season if needed with sea salt and black pepper.
While the soup is cooking, soak the rice noodles in hot water as per packet instructions. I soaked the vermicelli rice noodles I used for no more than five minutes. Drain thoroughly.
Add prawns and fish pieces to soup and cook till the fish is opaque. Drop in the sprouts and remove from heat.
Divide the noodles between serving bowls. Ladle the soup over noodles and garnish with coriander.
This was such a satisfying dish to make and eat. I’m sure you will all enjoy it as much as we did.
Bon appetit!
cathyandchucky 
This is a very professional looking post Pinkiii. I am most impressed with the recipe, the photo’s and the results. How stinky was that shrimp paste eh? I keep mine double bagged in the fridge along with my asafoetida which has 4 bags and still manages to smell like Tom cat wee (ew!) Makes you wonder who first thought of putting something that smells THAT disgusting in their food…desperation breeds some interesting results methinks! Gorgeous recipe and love the paste. I am going to make it for Stevie-boy ASAP. The weather here has chilled right down. We got 3 weeks of summer (sort of) and that was it for the whole year! Not complaining mind you, just a bit surprised. Almost ready to light Brunhilda and it’s usually about 30C here at this time of year! Perfect weather for soups 🙂
Thanks Fronkiii. I’m relishing the cooler mornings that are starting to feel like autumn over here. I’ve been working rather a lot lately in my “off” weeks as my offsider Marlene’s mother at 93 is getting sicker and she (Marlene) will be going in for hip replacement surgery soon. So I’m rather exhausted of an evening of late. This recipe literally just popped into my email box so after work yesterday I went and got all the gear and we had a most satisfying tea. Yeah the shrimp paste is ponky and turns the laksa paste an unappetising shade of baby poo but the taste it delivers is so important. Next time I make this, I’ll try it vegetarian style with just some tofu instead of meat.
You can always add nice ‘meaty’ veggies like sweet potato or pumpkin. I don’t eat a lot of tofu. If you have problems with your hormones, might be best not to eat too much of it. Snow peas are wonderful in Laksa and I adore 2 kinds of noodles in it, more satisfying deliciousness and hearty comfort food inducing food coma potential :). Don’t work too hard Pinkiii. You are very kind to take up the slack for Marlene 🙂
That looks delicious…and very coconutty 🙂
It was coconutty 😄. I don’t know why I felt it would be difficult to make as it was so easy!
Looks like a delicious dinner. And cooked from scratch as they say. Always best.
So creamy and mouthwatering! wow!
Thanks Liz 😃