How to cook Singapore Laksa from scratch

Have been lying low lately as I fell sick after Hong Kong and China trip recently.  Fortunately, I had Peppermint & R.C. essential oil with me which helped soothed sinus congestions and eased my headaches.  I probably fell sick because of the stress of bringing kids to holiday all by myself! Daddy had last minute business emergencies and I was forced to continue with the holiday plans alone until he joined us later. Overall, I'd say we did well - considering we used public transport most of the trip and lugged our own luggages.

Feeling a whole lot better today, I decided to make laksa from scratch for dinner. Feeling quite good that I managed to make the laksa paste, laksa broth and sambal chilli all from scratch under an hour.  Okay, I cheated with the broth since I have homemade chicken stock in my larder, this cut short my preparation and cooking time significantly.  This recipe has about 8 servings since we have a large family. Do adjust the quantities of the ingredients accordingly.

Laksa Paste Ingredients

• 40g garlic
• 400g onion and shallot
• 20 pcs of dried chillies (soaked and softened)
• 10g galangal
• 10g tumeric
• 4 lemon grass stalks (white portion)
• 20g raw sugar
• 2 pieces of kaffir lime leaves without stem
• 2-3 pcs of tangerine peel
• 100g dried shrimp
• 150g roasted cashew nuts
• 80g oil
• 400g coconut milk 

Broth Ingredients

• 800g chicken fillet/breast (I used 2 TBSP of my homemade chicken stock paste) 
• 3 litre of water 

Garnishing Ingredients

• Tau pok/bean curd puffs about 10 pcs cut into smaller pieces)
• 3 pieces of long fish cakes cut into thin slices (cooked)
• 200g bean sprouts (cooked) 
• 2 pieces of long red chilli sliced
• 20 pieces of small shrimps or 8 prawns
• 1 piece of red/green chilli deseeded and sliced into strips
• Laksa leaves

Laksa Broth Directions <Thermomix directions>

• Place all paste ingredients (except oil and coconut milk) into your blender - pulverise and grind until smooth <10sec / Speed 10, repeating several times until smooth>
• Add oil to saute the paste <5 min / varoma / speed 2>
• Add the broth and mix in the coconut milk, salt, sugar, tangerine peels, tau pok and cook for 20 min <max. 2.4 litres, 20 min / 100 degree / Speed 1.5, pour out content into a larger pot and add to simmer the rest of the broth>
• If you have a Thermomix, this is the time to use the varoma trays to stack on top of the mixing bowl lid to steam the fish cake slices, bean sprouts and shrimps/prawns with the broth cooking in varoma or scald them in the broth before mixing with the laksa paste 
• Scald and drain the laksa thick vermicelli or any fresh noodles of your choice
• Pour the laksa broth over the vermicelli or noodles
• Garnish the laksa with the fish cakes, bean sprouts, tau pok, chilli slices, shrimp and sambal chilli 

Sambal Chilli Ingredients

• 200g dried shrimps
• 100g garlic
• 40g belachan
• 200g red chillies
• 100g dried chillies
• 200g shallots
• 6 stalks of lemon grass (white portion)
• 150g oil

Directions <Thermomix directions>

• Grind all the ingredients except the oil <10 sec / speed 6>
• Repeat the grinding to get a finer and smoother mixture 
• Drizzle oil to saute until fragrant for about 20 minutes <20 min / V / speed 2>

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