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Friday, February 26, 2010

Easy Assam Laksa


From my last assam laksa post, I said I’ll be doing an easy version next time.

Not that the taste will be vastly different, but the method. A much easier one.
Read on and u’ll know

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*Easy Assam Laksa Recipe

1 can (425gm) canned sardines , buy the brand u love to eat, discard the gravy.
2 torch ginger buds (bunga kantan)
2 thick lemon grass, 3 if they’re thin. These that I used were almost as thick as my thumb. (use 4 inches from the base, discard the rest)
1 large onion, peeled
2 cloves garlic, peeled (left out this from the pic)
Few sprigs of daun kesum (laksa leaves, or u can try to substitute with Thai basil/hot basil. The smell will be slightly different)
30 gm chilli powder (I used 2 X15gm Alagappa’s Chilli powder, some brands may be hotter, so do not use the whole amount straightaway. Korean brands might be hotter)
20 gm chilli belacan powder (1 small pack Chung Kim Chuan brand, or u can use 15gm pure belacan powder)
200gm Tamarind paste (assam jawa paste, Adabi brand 1 whole container)
2 Ikan bilis cubes, or u can substitute with chicken bouillon cube. Fish stock will be ok too, just substitute with some of the water content.
1 heaped Tbsp salt
¼ cup sugar
2L + 3 cups +1 cup +1cup water.

1. Place 2L water in a medium pot(5L capacity) and bring to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, slice torch ginger, lemon grass , onion and garlic. Place these in a blender. Put in 3 cups of water and puree till fine. Pour into the pot.
3. Remove sardines from tomato sauce and place in blender (no need to wash after ‘2’) and put in 1 cup of water and pulse few times. Pour into pot.
4. Rinse blender with 1 cup water and pour into pot.
5. Throw in whole sprigs of daun kesum (remove bases of course), tamarind paste, chilli powder, belacan powder and ikan bilis cubes into the pot. Bring to a simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Put in salt, and sugar. Taste. It should be slightly oversalted, mildly sweet and have a prominent sour taste. Adjust to ur own preference

This amount will produce about 4L of soup.


Serve :

Prepare 200gm noodles(lai fun or even spaghetti) for each person. Lightly blanch in boiling water. Strain noodles well and place in bowl .Ladle soup over noodles. Top with julienned cucumbers, onions, mint and red chilli. Adding hard boiled egg is a Malay way of eating "laksa". I feel so awkward calling this Assam Laksa as we all fondly call this as Laksa.
Are u drooling now????
Quick, go make ur own assam laksa!!!!!
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15 comments:

  1. I have always thought one must boil fish and scrap the fish meat... this is interesting! Using canned sardines... looks really delicious.

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  2. Shirley,
    Oh yes, u can do that. That's what I did for my first assam laksa post. The "everything from scratch" recipe.

    This recipe is for those that need something quick and easy.

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  3. Wendy, that looks beyond delicious! A few of ingredients are not easy to be found here.

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  4. Angie,
    I do believe that fresh ingredients like torch ginger bud and laksa leaves are not easily found out of South East Asia.
    Maybe u can try ur luck in shops selling Thai food ingredients as Thai cuisine uses these as well.

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  5. Nice cook... do u think to open a restaurant?

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  6. Voon,
    Nope. I want my hobby to remain as my hobby. Not as a job.

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  7. You make me drool, this looks so delicious! I have not tried Assam Laska before, and since I am a lousy cook, I could only drool over my screen :)

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  8. Happy Homebaker,
    You got to be joking! Ur yummy food and dishes on ur blog is proof that u are lying!!!
    kekekeke!!

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  9. Looks Great!!

    Welcome to the Society.

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  10. delish and good foto!

    Is it veri spicy?

    Need lots of iced water with me...temperature is hitting 35 deg celsius. HOT
    : )

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  11. You've no idea how much I love this! haha... I miss out this dish when I was spending my CNY at home. Cause I was too busy having my other favourites, 'G cheong fun', 'luo she fun' and other street tidbits! haha... Hey, only one mouth and one stomach, you see!

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  12. Irene,
    For me, not very spicy lor. It depends on how much chili u put in. I like it to be fiery hot!!

    My Little Space,
    Hey, we all Kamparians love this, sure u love it ler!! Haha, there's so much to eat when we go home. But too bad, the food quality has gone down thru the years.

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  13. can i add julienned pineapple to the garnish?

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  14. what about hae ko?

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  15. Steven Lye,
    Yes to both, up to your preference.

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