Laksa

Malaysia's coconut curry noodle soup, built on a pounded rempah of dried chilli, lemongrass and belacan, with prawns, tofu puffs and a knot of laksa leaf

Origin: Malacca, Penang & the Malay Peninsula

From the journey of Chilli Pepper.

There is no single laksa and Malaysians will begin the argument before the bowl arrives. The two great branches are laksa lemak or curry laksa, rich with coconut milk and built on a fried chilli rempah, and asam laksa from Penang, which is sour with tamarind and thick with flaked mackerel and has no coconut in it at all. Within those there are Sarawak laksa, Johor laksa with its spaghetti, and the Nyonya versions of the Straits. This entry gives the coconut branch, which is what most people mean and what travels furthest. The rempah is the dish. Dried chillies soaked and pounded with shallot, garlic, lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, candlenut, and belacan, then fried patiently in oil until the paste darkens and the oil breaks out of it in a clear red layer; that separation, pecah minyak, is the point at which a Malay cook considers a rempah cooked. It takes twenty minutes and no shortcut produces the same depth. The word itself is a small puzzle. It is usually traced to Persian or Hindi lakhshah, a kind of noodle, carried east by traders, which would put the name on the Indian Ocean routes long before the dish. The food is Peranakan, the Straits Chinese culture that grew where Chinese men married Malay women in the port cities of Malacca, Penang, and Singapore, and it is a fair emblem of that: Chinese noodles and tofu, Malay rempah and coconut, and an Indian trade word for a name. The finishing herb is daun kesum, Vietnamese coriander or laksa leaf, which has no adequate substitute and is what a Malaysian will notice missing first. It goes on raw and torn at the last moment.

Ingredients

Rempah

15 dried red chillies, soaked 30 minutes and drained
8 shallots
5 garlic cloves
2 lemongrass stalks, tender core only
3 cm galangal, peeled
2 cm fresh turmeric, or 1 tsp ground
6 candlenuts, or macadamias
2 tsp belacan (shrimp paste), toasted
120 ml neutral oil
2 tbsp ground coriander

Soup

1.2 litres chicken or prawn stock
400 ml coconut milk
2 tsp salt, or to taste
1 tbsp palm sugar

To serve

300 g raw prawns, shelled
8 tofu puffs, halved
400 g fresh yellow noodles and rice vermicelli, mixed
150 g bean sprouts, blanched
4 hard-boiled eggs, halved
1 large handful daun kesum (laksa leaf), torn
4 tbsp sambal, to serve
1 lime, in wedges

Method

Toast the belacan wrapped in foil in a dry pan for two minutes a side, which takes off its raw ammoniac edge.
Blitz or pound all the rempah ingredients except the oil and ground coriander into as smooth a paste as you can manage.
Heat the oil in a wide heavy pan and add the paste with the ground coriander. Fry over a medium heat, stirring frequently.
Keep frying for twenty to twenty-five minutes. The paste will darken from bright red to deep brick and the oil will separate and pool clear and red at the edges.
That separation is the test and there is no way to hurry it. A rempah taken off early tastes raw and gritty, and the whole bowl rests on this step.
Pour in the stock, bring to a simmer, and cook for fifteen minutes so the flavours settle.
Add the coconut milk, salt, and palm sugar and bring back to a bare simmer. Do not let it boil hard from here, or the coconut milk will split.
Add the tofu puffs and simmer five minutes so they drink the broth, then the prawns for two or three minutes only, until just opaque.
Taste and balance: it should be rich, salty, and faintly sweet, with the heat arriving behind rather than in front.
Blanch the noodles and bean sprouts briefly and divide them between four deep bowls.
Ladle the hot soup over, making sure everyone gets prawns and tofu puffs, and set half an egg on each.
Top with a generous handful of torn laksa leaf and serve with sambal and lime on the side.

Notes

Fry the rempah until the oil separates: twenty minutes minimum, and it is the difference between laksa and a coconut soup with chilli in it. Toast the belacan first. Once the coconut milk is in, keep the pot below a simmer. Daun kesum, sold as laksa leaf or Vietnamese coriander, is the one ingredient with no real substitute; mint and coriander together give a fresh note but not the right one. Candlenuts thicken the broth and macadamias do the same job. The rempah can be made in bulk and frozen in portions, which is what most Malaysian households do.

The Gastrographer

Name: Laksa
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Penang & the Malay Peninsula
Ingredients: 15 dried red chillies, soaked 30 minutes and drained; 8 shallots; 5 garlic cloves; 2 lemongrass stalks, tender core only; 3 cm galangal, peeled; 2 cm fresh turmeric, or 1 tsp ground; 6 candlenuts, or macadamias; 2 tsp belacan (shrimp paste), toasted; 120 ml neutral oil; 2 tbsp ground coriander; 1.2 litres chicken or prawn stock; 400 ml coconut milk; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 1 tbsp palm sugar; 300 g raw prawns, shelled; 8 tofu puffs, halved; 400 g fresh yellow noodles and rice vermicelli, mixed; 150 g bean sprouts, blanched; 4 hard-boiled eggs, halved; 1 large handful daun kesum (laksa leaf), torn; 4 tbsp sambal, to serve; 1 lime, in wedges

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control