Singapore Recipe: Laksa (Curry Noodles/Mee) Inspired by Katong Laksa 叻沙

Singapore Recipe: Laksa (Curry Noodles/Mee) Inspired by Katong Laksa 叻沙

Laksa is a popular Peranakan spicy noodle soup dish, available in different variations depending on the country of origin. Although you can find this noodle soup in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, the ingredients used in each country is somewhat different. In general, laksa consists of rice vermicelli with chicken or seafood, served in spicy coconut-based soup.

If you like to make this recipe at home, we recommend you to watch our Youtube video first to get the general idea before cooking.

Ingredients:
Serves 8-10pax

Ingredients for soup stock
====
600g of prawn heads
3L of water
1.5L of coconut milk
2.5 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
70g of dried shrimps (soak in 1 cup of hot water, drained & minced)
Rempah paste (blended)
– 300g of shallots
– 5 pieces of garlic
– 5 pieces of red chilli (deseeded)
– 20 pieces of dried chilli (rehydrated)
– 3 pieces of lemongrass (use only its stem)
– 6 pieces of candlenut
– 20g of fresh tumeric
– 80g of galangal (blue ginger)
– 1/4 cup of water
– 1 tablespoon of grounded coriander powder
– 20g of belachan (roasted)

Other ingredients
====
Appropriate amount of yellow noodles or rice vermicilli
Beancurd puff
Fishcake
Prawns
Hard boiled eggs
Fresh cockles
Beansprouts
Laksa leaves – minced

===
Steps:

  1. Add 3L water in a big pot and bring it to a boil.
  2. Soak the dried shrimp in 1 cup of hot water for about 20 mins.
  3. Fry the prawn heads with some oil in a separate shallow pot until they are dry and fragrant.
  4. Once the prawn heads are dry and fragrant, add some boiling water (part of the 3L water) and use a potato masher to press the prawn heads. This will help to release even more fragrance out from the heads.
  5. Add the prawn heads and prawn stock to the rest of the boiling water in the pot.
  6. Turn the heat down to low or medium low and simmer the stock with the lid on for at least 1 hour.
  7. Use a food processor or pestle and mortar to chop or pound the dried shrimp into fine pieces.
  8. Add the water used to soften the dried shrimp into the stock to make it even more fragrant.
  9. Blend shallots first in a food processor so that you get some juice out to make blending of the other ingredients easier. You can also use the pestle and mortar to do this step.
  10. Then add garlic, fresh red chilli, dried chilli, lemongrass, turmeric, candlenut, galangal in the food processor and blend for a while until they are finely chopped up.
  11. Finally, add water, grounded coriander powder and roasted belachan into the processor with the other spices and blend them into a paste.
  12. Heat up some oil in a pan and fry the rempah paste until it is dark red in colour. This step may take about up to 30 minutes.
  13. Once the rempah paste is dark red in colour, add the chopped dried shrimp and continue to fry until they are mixed well into the rempah paste.
  14. Remove the prawn heads from the stock and add rempah paste into the pot.
  15. Bring the stock to a boil then add coconut milk. Stir as you add the coconut milk.
  16. Turn the heat down to medium or medium low then add beancurd puff (taupok) and bring the stock to a soft boil.
  17. Once the stock has come to a soft boil, add some salt and sugar to season it according to your taste.
  18. In a separate pot, cook some yellow noodles or thick vermicelli and drain them well.
  19. To serve, put some noodles or vermicelli in a bowl and add laksa stock. Serve the noodles with hard-boiled egg, fish cake and cooked prawns. Garnish with some laksa leaves (optional) and serve hot.
  20. Enjoy!

If you like this recipe, you might like these too:

Braised Ee-Fu Noodles 伊府面
Crispy Seafood Noodles 生面 (Crispy Chow Mein)
Beef Hor Fun 豉汁滑蛋牛河 Beef Rice Noodles in Black Bean Sauce



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