Today’s recipes, though not strictly speaking laksas, are inspired by this Asian noodle soup, which I am crazy about. Generally, the term laksa is used to describe two very different types of spicy soup popular throughout Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia: curry laksa, in which the noodles come ina rich, comforting, coconut soup; and the more piquant asam laksa, in which they’re served in a fishy broth made sour by tamarind or some other sharp-tasting component.
Appropriately enough, given the bewildering number of variations in flavourings and main ingredients for any laksa, and the sheer variety of noodles you have to choose from, the word “laksa” means “many” in Sanskrit. But the name of the dish stems from the Persian for noodle, “lakhsha”, meaning “slippery”.
The ingredients list for any laksa is notoriously long, so if you’re missing one or two, particularly the condiments traditionally spooned on top at the end, you will probably be fine. There’s nothing wrong with taking a short cut here and there, either: there are loads of good-quality, ready-made chilli pastes and stocks. But where’s the fun in that? Iprefer the jolly alternative, stocking up on the core ingredients, making double the paste or stock in the first place, and freezing half for future use. A lot of these ingredients – the shrimp paste, the rock or palm sugar, the fried shallots – keep for months, so one trip to the shops will reap oodles more noodles.
Hokkien prawn mee
This prawn noodle dish, which hailsfrom China’s Fujian province, is a hugely popular hawker dish in Singapore, where it’s made with both yellow egg noodles and rice vermicelli. There are two types of hokkien mee, hokkien char mee andhokkien hae mee: char mee is stir-fried, hae mae is cooked in a broth or soup, as in this dish. Porkloin is used traditionally, but Iprefer the shredded meat from ribs. Serves six.
18 whole dried chillies (15g), soaked inboiling water for 10 minutes, drained and roughly chopped
4 banana shallots, peeled and roughlychopped
2 tsp shrimp paste
70g rock or palm sugar
Salt
120ml sunflower oil
600g whole raw prawns, heads, tails and shells removed and reserved, deveined
800g baby back pork ribs, cut into 2-3 rib pieces
350g cooked yellow egg noodles (equivalent to 120g dried)
300g cooked rice vermicelli (bee hoon) (equivalent to 200g dried)
250g water spinach (kan kong), blanched for 1 minute (or broccolini)
180g beansprouts, blanched for 1minute and refreshed
6 eggs, boiled for 8 minutes, peeled and cut in half lengthways
4 tbsp fried shallots (shop-bought; you can buy tubs in Asian food stores)
Start with the chilli paste. Put the chillies, shallots, shrimp paste, 10g sugar, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and half the oil in a food processor, and blitz for two to three minutes, until smooth. Remove four tablespoons of the paste and set aside for use in the stock later. Put a small saucepan on a medium heat, add a tablespoon of oil and, when hot, add the rest of the chilli paste and fry, stirring often, for 10-15 minutes, until dark red, oily and fragrant. Set aside to cool.
For the stock, put a large pot on high heat and add two tablespoons of oil and the reserved chilli paste. Cook for a minute, then add the prawn heads and shells, and stir-fry for two minutes, until coated in the paste and the shells turn orange. Add the pork and stir-fry for about five minutes, until seared all over. Add 4.5 litres of water, the remaining sugar and two teaspoons of salt, and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat to a gentle simmer and skim any impurities from the surface. Leave to simmer for an hour and ahalf, until the stock has a strong flavour and has reduced down to roughly two litres of liquid. Strain through a muslin or fine-mesh sieve (let it cool down a little first, to make this process much easier, not to mention safer), keeping the ribs and discarding the shells. Pull the meat off the ribs and keep warm; discard the bones and fat. Wipe clean the pot and pour in the strained stock.
To serve, bring the stock to a light simmer. Put a large frying pan on high heat, add a tablespoon of oil and a tablespoon of the chilli paste, and stir. Once hot, add the prawns and cook for a minute or two, until just cooked through. Arrange both noodles, the water spinach and the beansprouts inside six deep bowls, keeping the elements as much as possible separate from each other. Top with hot stock and arrange the prawns, pork and eggs on top. Sprinkle with shallots and serve with the remaining sambal on the side.
Laksa johor
Aka Malaysian spaghetti bolognese. Legend has it that this dish was invented at the request of the Sultan of Johor in an attempt to recreate the spaghetti bolognese he’d enjoyed so much on a trip to Italy. Ican’t account for the accuracy of that story, but the sauce is certainly more like bolognese (or, indeed, curry) than the word laksa would suggest. In fact, there’s no broth in this dish at all, so it’s only the intense spice and fish flavours that are reminiscent of a laksa. My version is pretty spicy, so tone down the chillies if you prefer it milder. With thanks to Raymond Kamijo, a chef from Melbourne, for sharing his recipe with me. Serves four.
3 banana shallots, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
4 large red chillies, chopped
5 stalks lemongrass, white ends finely chopped, green ends reserved
7cm piece galangal or ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tsp ground turmeric
75ml sunflower oil
10g dried shrimp, soaked in hot water for five minutes, drained and finely chopped (or 6 dried anchovy fillets)
2 tsp sweet paprika
400ml coconut milk
50g desiccated coconut, pan-toasted until golden-brown and ground to a fine powder
10g palm sugar,coarsely grated if from a block (or dark brown sugar)
Salt
270g whole raw prawns, heads, tails and shells removed and reserved, deveined and chopped into 1cm pieces
250g mackerel fillets, skin on
250g dried medium yellow egg noodles
1largecucumber, peeled, quartered lengthways, deseeded and julienned
120g mange tout, trimmed and thinly sliced on an angle
180g bean sprouts, blanched for 10 seconds and drained
1 red onion, peeled and finely sliced
50g basil or mint leaves, or a mixture, shredded
2 limes, halved (or 12 kumquats, if you can get them)
For the spice mix
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp whole white peppercorns
3 whole cloves
Put a heavy-based pan on amedium flame and, when hot, toast the spice mix ingredients for two to three minutes, until fragrant. Set aside to cool, then grind to a fine powder with a pestle and mortar or spice grinder.
Put the first six ingredients in asmall food processor, blitzto a smooth paste, then, with the motor running, add four tablespoons of oil.
Put a large saucepan on a high heat and add the paste. Turn down the heat to medium and cook for about 12 minutes, stirring regularly, until it darkens and turns a bit oily. Add the dried shrimp, spice mix andpaprika, and fry for three minutes, until fragrant. Add the coconut milk, desiccated coconut, sugar and one and a half teaspoons of salt, and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring regularly, until dark, thick and oily. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Meanwhile, put a wide-based saute pan on high heat and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add theprawn heads and shells, and thereserved green ends from the lemongrass trimmings, and fry for two to three minutes, until fragrant. Add 500ml water and simmer on alow heat for 20 minutes.
Strain the stock (discard the shells and lemongrass), then wipe clean the pan and tip in the stock: you should have about 200ml. Bring to a boil, lay in the mackerel skin side down, and simmer gently for four to six minutes, until cooked through. Carefully lift out the fish with a slotted spoon and, when cool enough to handle, flake the flesh into small chunks, discarding any bones and skin as you do so. Strain the stock again – you should now have about 150ml (if not, make up the difference with water) –then pour into the curry mix.
To serve, bring the sauce to a boil, add the chopped prawns and flaked fish, and simmer for five minutes, until the prawns are cooked. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the noodles and take off the heat at once. Stir gently and leave to soak for five minutes, until al dente. Drain the noodles and divide between four bowls. Spoon over the sauce, top with cucumber, beans, bean sprouts, onion and herbs and serve with half a lime (or three kumquats) each on the side for squeezing over.
Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.
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