Food and recipes | Laksa | Penang/Johor laksa

Laksa is a curry based noodle dish from South East Asia. It is a very popular dish in Malaysia and Singapore, you can easily find it anywhere in both countries.

Penang laksa (Asam laksa). It is a famous Penang local dish. Features of Penang laksa is its sour fish-based soup that without coconut milk. Other ingredients that give Penang laksa its distinctive flavour include lemongrass, galangal (lengkuas) and chilli. Typical garnishes include mint, pineapple slices, thinly sliced onion, a thick sweet prawn paste and use of lotus flower. And traditionally fresh laksa noodles - a soft, white round noodle is used in Penang laksa.

Johor laksa (Curry laksa) is a coconut-based curry soup. The main ingredients for most versions of curry laksa include tofu puffs, fish sticks, shrimp and cockles. Laksa is commonly served with a spoonful of sambal chilli paste and is traditionally garnished with Vietnamese coriander, or laksa leaf, which is known in Malay as “daun kesum”. The noodles of Johor laksa commonly used yellow mee or bee hoon, as opposed to the thick white laksa noodles.

You can easily find laksa throughout Malaysia and Singapore. At different places, you can find different kind of laksa which “locally develop” their own secret recipes. So taste it when you travel to different places in Malaysia and Singapore.

Asam Laksa (Penang Laksa) with sour taste

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons of oil
2 cups of coconut milk
100g (3 1/2 oz) of prawns, shelled
100g (3 1/2 oz) of squid, cleaned, skinned and sliced
6 fresh scallops (optional)
6 cakes dried deep-fried beancurd (tau foo pok)
salt and pepper to taste
200g (7 oz) of fresh rice-flour noodles (laksa), blanched in boiling water, or dried rice vermicelli (beehoon), soaked to soften
1 cup of beansprouts
2 sprigs laksa leaf, chopped roughly
6 quail's eggs or 1 hen's egg, hard-boiled and peeled
2 table spoons of fried shallots

How to cook:

Prepare the spice paste. Chop the shallots, garlic, candlenuts, ginger and chilies coarsely and blend or process with the dried prawns and a little of the oil until fine. Then, mix in the curry powder and dried shrimp paste, blend for a few seconds longer, then set aside with the lemon grass.

Heat the remaining oil in a wok or a heavy pan.

Add the spice paste and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes until the paste is fragrant. After that, add coconut milk and chicken stock and bring to the boil, stirring.

Put in all the seafood and the beancurd and simmer until it is cooked. Then, season to taste.

Lastly, to serve, divide the noodles and beansprouts among 4-6 bowls. Top with the coconut milk gravy, eggs and sprinkle with laksa leaf and fried shallots.

Spice paste ingredients:

12 shallots
4 cloves garlic
6 candlenuts
5 cm (2 inches) ginger
4 red chilies
2 tablespoons of dried prawns, soaked to soften
1 teaspoon of dried shrimp paste (belacan)
2 lemon grass, bruised

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