Nyonya Curry Laksa – International Noodles Incident Party

Posted by wannabegourmand on June 20, 2010 · 10 Comments 

 

Like every good little Asian mother, dear Lily used to cook up wonderful hot meals for my school lunches and send it off to school with me in a thermos. Fried rice, teriyaki beef, noodles….you name it – she’ll thermos it. But like every little kid wanting to fit in, I used to empty out my thermos and scrounge together enough pocket money to buy a measly sandwich from the school canteen. After all – that’s what all happy little Vegemites ate right?

Oh what I would give to be able to time travel back and cuff my younger self around the ear. As it sometimes so happens, it’s not till later on in your life that you realise how lucky you are.

Another realisation I made in my later years is that I am extremely fortunate to have come from a true blue Peranakan (aka Nyonya) family from Malacca. What was I doing not learning all their famed culinary delicacies!

So I thought recently that it was time to get off my behind and start greedily collecting cooking tips straight from the horses’ mouth. This is the start of what I hope to be a “culinary journey” into my family’s heritage. The Peramakan Project perhaps (‘makan’ meaning ‘eat’ in Malay). Does it have a ring to it?

With the International Incident Party theme for this month being noodles, I figured – why not start with the most recognisable Nyonya dish to most Australians…the perennially popular and oft bastardised Curry Laksa.

Laksa varies from State to State in Malaysia. For example, the Penang Assam version uses flaked mackeral and liberal amounts of tamarind. The most popular version in Australia though, is the Malaccan Curry version, which is coincidentally where my family is from!

So without further adieu, my Nyonya Curry Laksa courtesy of Lily’s somewhat vague but guaranteed authentic instructions.

Ps. Herman used to be an ex Navy Diver and loves nothing more than going night diving in the Swan River for prawns. The little critters you see below are nice and fresh courtesy of him! Nothing beats the sweet, succulent flesh of Swan River prawns IMHO.

Ingredients

• 300g prawns cooked in about half a litre of water (to make stock)
• 1 stalk lemongrass
• 1t turmeric powder
• 6-10 dried chillies (boiled and seeded)
• 8-10 candlenuts
• 8-10 shallots
• 2T belacan (dried shrimp paste)
• 10-12 slices galangal
• laksa leaves (vietnamese mint)
• fresh egg noodles
• cucumber (thinly sliced)
• fried tofu puffs
• sambal
• 1 can coconut milk

1. Boil prawns in water, when they are cooked – peel them and place the shells back in the water to make the stock (leave simmering while you prepare the spice paste)
2. Grind the lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, candlenuts,dried chillies, shallots and belacan with a couple of laksa leaves
3. Heat some peanut oil in a wok, fry the spice paste until fragrant (about 5 minutes)
4. Add in the drained prawn stock and coconut milk, bring to boil then leave to simmer for 10 minutes adding in the tofu puffs just before removing from heat.
5. Parboil the noodles, top with peeled prawns and gravy.
6. Garnish with sliced cucumber, laksa leaves (and a little drizzle of coconut milk if you are trying to be a little fancy!).
7. Serve with a side of sambal

(Close-up of some replica Peranakan S & P shakers Lily picked up for me in Malacca)

Enjoy!

Much thanks to Penny from Jeroxie for organising this fun little event. Don’t forget to check out some of the other bloggers’ fantastic noodlelicious creations.

Penny – Jeroxie (Addictive & Consuming) – Homemade ban mian with minced pork and mushrooms

Christine – Christine’s Recipes – Spicy Pork Mince and Noodles in Crisp Lettuce Cups

Mardi – Eat, Live, Travel, Write – Ginger scallion & Butter noodles

Trix – Tasty Trix – Summer ‘Noodles’ with yellow and green zuchinni with cool basil oil tomato sauce

Shirley – Enriching your kid – Vermicilli Biryani with Tahini

Natasha – 5 Star Foodie – Homemade Soba Noodles

Anges – Off the spork – Handpulled noodles at home

Joanne – Second Helping

Cherry – Sweet Cherry Pie – Coconut noodles with honey glazed pork belly

Tracey – Tangled Noodle

Evelyne – Cheap Ethnic Eatz – Incidental Noodles

Ms Baklover – Footscray Food Blog – Zha Jiang Mian

Casey – Eating, Gardening & Living in Bulgari

Tamar – Koreanfornian Cooking – Tteokbokki

Billy – Half-Eaten – Pumpkin Miso Noodles in Shitake Dashi Broth

Nina – Consumed Food Love – Vietnamese Noodle Salad

Suresh – 3 hungry tummies – Twice cooked pork with rice noodles

Anh – A food Lover’s Journey – Taco Soba Noodle

Filed under Recipes · Tagged with noodles, nyonya food