I celebrated my birthday on the 15th of August by having a good time cooking Siamese Laksa together with hubby. We bought most of the ingredients needed for this mouth-watering dish on Sunday noon after he told me i shouted out “Assam Laksa” in the middle of the night in my dreams, lol. *aitelyu…. something must have gotten into me…. iSwear!!!*
We have all the ingredients prepared by Sunday night, ready for cooking on Monday noon.
Here are the prepared ingredients for making the spice paste. Shallots, garlic, turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, cili boh paste and belacan.
My second sis gave me this Tefal Rondo 2500 food processor some time back. This is the first time i’m using it.
Pic of all the spice paste ingredients in the food processor.
I had a hard time with the final blending as i dont have a proper blender to do the job. It’s hell with a hand blender as the lemongrass is so difficult to blend, niamah. In the end, had to stop and drive to the nearest electrical shop to buy one back. Wasted so much time just to blend it.
Nah, the spice paste ready for frying.
3kg of Ikan Kembung in the pot. Thanks God my MIL has a set of Renaware. Ngam-ngam fit all the fish in…. phew!!! No more preparation pics after as i had to go pick #1 up from school. Hubby did the rest after this.
Siamese Laksa with all the garnishings………
And this is the bowl of the most yummilicious Siamese Laksa hubby and i cooked together. Looking at it now…… i need a bowl desperately!!!!
And this is the recipe for the Siamese Laksa. Have fun making it. Make sure you have ample time on hand to make this, lol.
Spice Paste Ingredients:
550g shallots
100g galangal
30g turmeric
3 cloves garlic (peeled)
7 stalks lemongrass (sliced)
50g belacan (dried shrimp paste)
4 tbsp cili boh paste
Fish Stock Ingredients:
3kg Ikan Kembung
3 liters water
200g tamarind paste
200ml oil for frying
1 liter santan (thick coconut milk)
3 bunga kantan (torch ginger buds), split
3 bundles daun kesom (laksa leaves)
20 daun limau purut (kaffir lime leaves), lightly crushed
8 pieces asam gelugor (tamarind peel)
salt to taste
3kg laksa noodles
Garnishing:
3 bundles mint leaves
1 pineapple, cut finely
3 cucumbers, cored and cut finely
4 large onions, halved and sliced finely
4 red chillies, sliced finely
3 torch ginger buds, halved and sliced finely
15 limau kasturi (calamansi limes), cut away top
Method:
To prepare spice paste:
Grind all the spice paste ingredients until smooth
To cook fish stock:
Bring water to boil and add the fish in. Lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes.Turn off heat, remove fish, and reserve the fish stock. Flake the fish meat into a separate bowl carefully and discard the heads and bones.
To prepare tamarind juice:
Soak the tamarind in some fish stock prepared earlier and squeeze it for the juice. Strain it and set aside.
To prepare laksa gravy:
Fry the prepared spice paste with the oil till fragrant. Add in the tamarind juice and fry a little. Add in the coconut juice and mix well. Pour everything into the fish stock, stir and bring the mixture to boil. Add the bunga kantan, daun kesom, daun limau purut and asam keping. Simmer the gravy for 30 minutes until the whole house is enveloped with this heavenly aroma. Finally, add the flaked fish and season the gravy to taste with salt. Simmer for about 5 minutes but not too long as you dont want the fish to break up into small pieces.
GAOTIM!!!!
Fuyoh….. aitelyu…….
Now, faster go blanch your laksa noodles in boiling water and drain off excess water properly. Garnish and serve piping hot.
