Malaysia: Laksa for lunch

First of all, Ramadan Mubarak, a joyous and blessed holiday to all my Moslem friends and visitors!

And now for today's lunch (which was prepared with a halal chicken from my neighborhood Islamic butcher shop...quality meat and reasonable prices). As I stated in my last post, I've decided to do a recipe for every flag that appears on my sidebar. Today's recipe is from Malaysia, a very delicious Laksa.

I got the recipe here at www.soupsong.com. If you want to follow along you can get today's recipe precisely here: soupsong Laksa recipe.  An excellent site and a must for you soup lovers out there. Also, there is an extensive collection of international soup recipes, enough to keep me busy making soup for many weekends to come!

I actually made three trips to the supermarket for this recipe and here are some of the ingredients (the easy ones).

This is where I ran into difficulty. There are just so many Asian herbs...is this Laksa leaf? It's the very essential ingredient and so I did not want to make a mistake.

Or is this Laksa leaf? The recipe calls for "Asian basil"...I live in Paris and everything has a different French name, even Asian herbs. The first herb was labelled rau ram in the Asian grocey store and the second was labelled "Thai basilic" who's to know? In the end I went to www.asiafood.org where the Laksa leaf entry refers to "Vietnamese mint" and I chose the first green herb pictured above...what a lovely smell it has.

This recipe has several steps to it:

First you must have cooked chicken and four cups of stock (I suggest you make your own it's so much nicer),

Secondly you must make a spice paste for the flavor,

Thirdly you must cook some noodles and prepare everything for the final soup, and

Finally you put the soup together and make the garnish plate.

Since I would be needing cooked chicken and stock, the first thing to do was make both. I decided to follow my instincts on this one and so I made my stock using some of my green herbs (I bought lots of different kinds), fresh ginger slices and scallions.

This is the start of the spice paste: lemon grass (only the tender hearts), galangal (like ginger but milder), shrimp paste, garlic, scallions, and some red hot peppers.

This goes into the food processor and the recipe says it should look like "a speckled mush" well, perhaps.

Then once that is done, you add some chopped coriander, some tamarind paste, some sugar and some tumeric.

And I put the food processor back in the cupboard and get out my trusty morter and pestle...the food processor makes everything just too watery and this is supposed to be a "paste".

Here is the cooked chicken (from the chicken I used to make the stock with)  and the cooked rice noodles.

Here is the sauce that I made by frying the spice paste in two tablespoons of peanut oil until lightly colored, then adding four cups of my homeade stock plus a mix of 1/4 cup chopped coriander and 1/4 cup chopped laksa leaf and then adding  a can of coconut milk.

And here is the final Laksa lunch. First I put some of the noodles into a bowl, then I added some chicken, and then I ladled some of the sauce on top. Serve with a plate of various greenery and condimets...really delicious and your kitchen will indeed smell wonderful if you make this.

Just a bowl of Laksa.

Wow, what an adventure but I still have so many questions. I liked this dish and my daughters liked it too but...was this really Laksa and did I pick the right leaves? I would really appreciate any comments, criticism, or suggestions on how to make an even better Laksa! What a fun afternoon cooking.

So, next weekend I think we will head to Mexico and I am going to spend the week searching for a most traditional Mexican dish. In the meantime I will be posting my usual sandwiches and various other things from the office...

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Lunching!

Comments

[Creative Recreation]

You got a really useful blog I have been here reading for about half an hour. I am a newbie and your post is valuable for me. these practices are unfair; but they say that most of their rules are only to apply to people who overdra.

[Lisa]

The upper picture is Laksa leaf. The lower picture is basil of the Asian variety. Laksa leaf is also called Vietnamese mint, chen hom (Hokkien) or daun kesom (Malay).

[generic propecia]

i like this part of the blog:"Since I would be needing cooked chicken and stock, the first thing to do was make both. I decided to follow my instincts on this one and so I made my stock using some of my green herbs (I bought lots of different kinds), fresh ginger slices and scallions." is very good

[Suet]

Laksa is practically a national dish in Malaysia. I grew eating different varieties in Penang. The one you've made is what we call "laksa lemak". It's also called "Singaporean laksa". Regarding the herbs, the 1st bunch is the correct one. That's what we call "daun kesum" or Vietnamese mint. I've never come across any cilantro/coriander in laksa though - I think that's why your soup looks so green - laksa lemak is usually yellowish. There's also "laksa assam". It's what we Penangnites claim as our own "Penang laksa". It has a sour soup base and is made with fish, specifically mackerel. You need a rich fish to go with the sour soup made with tamarind (there is no coconut milk). The same Vietnamese mint is used in making the broth and toppings include shredded cucumber, lettuce, red onion, pineapple & mint. Hope this helps.

[Betty C.]

This looks so good! I doubt I could find the ingredients in Aveyron, though...

[Ken Broadhurst]

We will check out the supermarkets at Belleville -- we were up there in the spring or early summer, can't remember when exactly. Coming into Paris from the south the 13th is easy for us, so we usually stop at Tang Fr. But I love to drive around Paris. We will definitely make the laksa this winter.

[Suanne]

The laksa looks great. I would love to have a bowl anytime.

[Emily]

Hi Chubbypanda and thanks for the excellent links and I'm sure you're right about the anise basil because one of the herbs did have a real anise taste to it.

Hi Walt,

I live only one metro stop from Belleville where there are at least 5 Asian grocery stores. So, Tang Freres is great but it you're looking to explore other areas check out Belleville.

[wcs]

Emily, this looks absolutely great. You have inspired me both with this and brik à l'oeuf (Ken got feuilles de brik yesterday) that we're planning to make this week.

We usually go to Tang Frères over in the 13th for aisian ingredients. Do you shop there or are there other good aisian stores around that we should try?

We make trips up to Paris for asian shopping a couple times a year. In fact, Ken is making a basic pho today for our lunch!

[Chubbypanda]

Emily,

I don't know laksa, but I do know tasty! That's a scrumptious looking soup.

Here's an article on the laksa herb with pictures.

http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Poly_odo.html

The confusing bit is "rau ram" is the name for Vietnamese coriander, but what you have looks nothing like it. Thai basil definitely isn't what you're looking for, but it's leaf structure is more similar.

What you have there looks more like anise basil.

http://www.foodsubs.com/HerbsAsian.html

Hope these links help.

- Chubbypanda