Summer

Seafood Laksa

August  5, 2014
0
0 Ratings
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

A slurpy Thai soup, full of colour, crunch and spice. It's on the table in less than 30 minutes - and that includes making your own amazing Laksa paste from scratch. —Kitchensanctuary

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Ingredients
  • Laksa Paste
  • 1 regular onion, peeled and chopped
  • 4 medium red chillies, chopped (or more if you like it really hot)
  • 1 x 2cm piece of ginger, peeled and chopped finely
  • 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped finely
  • 1 lemongrass stalk, outer leaves disgarded, inner part chopped finely (you can replace this with a tsp of lemongrass paste)
  • 1 heaped tbsp of fresh coriander stalks (you can use the leaves for garnish later)
  • 1.5 teaspoons turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon tamarind paste
  • 0.5 teaspoons cumin
  • 0.5 teaspoons paprika
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • Soup and Garnish
  • 200 grams rice/vermicelli noodles
  • 2 cod or haddock fillets (or any firm fleshed white fish), skin removed
  • 16 king prawns, peeled and deveined
  • 200 grams beansprouts
  • 1 teaspoon fish sauce
  • 200 milliliters full fat coconut milk
  • 200 milliliters chicken/seafood/veg stock (use bouillon for gluten free)
  • 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon caster sugar
  • 1 red chilli, chopped finely
  • 1 finger sized piece of cucumber, chopped finely
  • 0.25 of a small red onion, peeled and chopped finely
  • 1 Small handful of chopped coriander
Directions
  1. Start by soaking your vermicelli in a large bowl of boiling water for about 8-10 minutes until cooked. Drain, and then rinse through with cold water to prevent it from sticking together.
  2. Next make your garnish by mixing the vinegar and sugar together until the sugar dissolves, then mixing in the chilli, cucumber and red onion. Put to one side.
  3. Whilst your noodles are soaking, make your Laksa paste. Heat the oil in a medium-to-large pan, and add the chopped onions. Cook on medium for about 5 minutes until the onions soften and start to turn translucent. Add in the rest of the Laksa paste ingredients, stir and continue to cook for 6-7 minutes, stirring every now and then. Then carefully use a stick blender to blend the ingredients into a paste. You could also use a mini chopper to do this.
  4. Add the coconut milk and stock to the paste and gently heat through. Then add in your fish, stir, and allow to cook for 2-4 minutes until the fish is starting to fall apart. Add in your prawns, stir, and cook for an extra one minute. The prawns should be starting to turn pink, and your fish should be cooked. Finally add in the beansprouts and cook for another minute.
  5. Whilst your fish and beansprouts are cooking, divide your noodles between the bowls. Scoop the fish, prawns and beansprouts out of the soup, and spoon them over the noodles. Then gently pour or spoon the sauce over and around the noodles.
  6. Garnish with a sprinkle of coriander and a teaspoon of the chilli/red onion/cucumber mix.
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2 Reviews

n2222 July 8, 2015
Yes, laksa is eaten in Thailand but it's from Malaysia and Indonesia. The recipe does look very authentic.
Giustina April 7, 2015
This is a recipe I would make again. To be frank, the broth doesn't taste like the different kinds of laksa I've had in Malaysia and Singapore but it's still tasty, warm comfort food. (How can you go wrong with coconut milk involved?) I skipped the vegetable relish (lazy Monday night!) and used chicken since that's what I had on hand but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. The night I made it, I thought it tasted very similar to the Burmese Noodle Bowl that's so popular on food52.com. I had leftovers the next day and the flavors came out stronger and I enjoyed it even more. I could see making this again with some jasmine rice. Also four chillies seemed like a lot but the heat comes down a lot when you mix it with noodles. I'd say you could probably up it to six chillies if you really like spicy food. The next time I attempt laksa I may try a different recipe I found (below) but I thought this was tasty and am somewhat surprised this isn't more popular on the website. Thanks for sharing!
http://hungryaustralian.com/2013/09/penang-assam-laksa-for-fathers-day/