cooking challenge week twelve: prawn laksa

You will need:

For the Laksa Paste

1 red chilli, deseeded (add an extra chilli if you like it hot, hot, hot)
3 lemongrass stalks
3 cloves garlic
1 green shallot, trimmed
Ginger (3cm by 3cm piece, sliced)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
3 tbs vegetable oil

For the Laksa

The Laksa Paste (See above)
Noodles (egg, or thick rice - quantity to suit)
Prawns
Boiled eggs
Cucumber
Salad Onion
Mint
Braised tofu
Bean sprouts


What to do:

To make your paste, combine all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until you get a nice, textured paste. Add more oil or water as required.

Peel the prawns but leave the tails on. Put the heads and shells in a saucepan with 4 cups of water and a teaspoon of salt and bring to the boil. Strain solids and keep the stock.

Tip the Laksa paste into a large saucepan over a low heat. Stir pretty constantly for around 15 minutes. Be careful to keep the heat low - I did my first batch too high and it burned the spices. You're aiming for the colour to darken quite a bit (from yellow to a really nice amber) and the spices to give off a beautiful aroma. Once your paste has reached this stage, pour in a can of coconut cream and 2 -3 cups of stock. Turn the heat up. Once the laksa starts to boil, return the heat to moderate and leave it to simmer and thicken for around 5 - 10 minutes. If it reduces too much, pour in anothe cup of stock. Check your seasoning. I added another tablespoon of fish sauce here, having come to appreciate that it is a really fantastic ingredient in Asian cooking. It's a great salt substitute and really brings out a great flavour in the dish.

Prepare your vegetables - julienne the cucumber, slice the onion finely and cut the tofu into 1cm pieces. Fry off your prawns in a bit of vegetable oil until they are just cooked (You could boil them with the noodles instead, which is quite traditional).

Boil your noodles in salted boiling water until they are just al dente. Strain them, then stir through the vegetables, mint, bean sprouts and tofu.

Place the noodles in the middle of the bowl, top with the prawns, add the boiled eggs then spoon the laksa in. Top with more mint (laksa leaf is preferred but mint is a fine substitute) and serve immediately. Delicious!

I hope you enjoy this. I wasn't sure I loved this, last night, but looking back at the photos this morning, I am already craving my next one...