Malaysian curry laksa with chicken and prawns

Tamara West

There are many variations of laksa in Malaysia: the most common ones are asam laksa, which is a sour clear soup with mackerel, and coconut curry laksa which is the one I am going to share today. You might be overwhelmed by the list of ingredients but trust me, this is worth it! Once you have made the paste, the rest is easy.

Ingredients

4 Tbsp	Cooking oil
9 Tbsp	Laksa paste, see recipe below
½ tsp	Chilli powder
1 ½ cups	Coconut milk
2 cups	Chicken stock, salt reduced
2 Tbsp	Fish sauce
150 g	Chicken, sliced into small pieces (Main)
9	Prawn cutlets (Main)
1 packet	Tofu, puffs (optional)
50 g	Vermicelli, dry rice
100 g	Egg noodles, fresh
1 handful	Mung bean sprouts, and coriander leaves, to garnish

Laksa paste

8	Red chillies, dried, soaked in warm water for 5 minutes
2	Red chillies, fresh, chopped
2 tsp	Shrimp paste
5 cloves	Garlic, chopped
2	Shallots, medium, chopped
3 tsp	Brown sugar
1 stalk	Lemongrass, white part only, chopped
3 slices	Galangal, chopped (or ginger)
1 pinch	Salt

Directions

1. Place a wok or a large pot over medium-high heat and add oil. Wait until the oil warms up and add all of the laksa paste. Stir and cook the paste for 5-6 minutes or until it changes colour to a darker red and you see oil on the surface of the paste. Add chilli powder and stir well.
2. Add coconut milk and cook for 20-25 minutes over medium heat or until the red coloured oil starts to come out on the surface. Stir occasionally.
3. Add chicken stock, bring to the boil and season with fish sauce.
4. Add chicken, prawns and tofu puffs and cook for a further 3-4 minutes or until chicken is cooked.
5. In the meantime, cook vermicelli and egg noodles as per packet instructions.
6. Place the vermicelli and noodles in a serving bowl. Pour the laksa soup on top and garnish with mungbeans and coriander.

Laksa paste

Pound all the ingredients in a mortar and pestle until the texture becomes nice and smooth. You can use a food processor but you will have more flavour if you use mortar and pestle.

Pantry tip

The more unusual ingredients such as large dried chillies, shrimp paste, tofu puffs and fresh egg noodles are readily available at Asian grocers.