Laksa Johor

Laksa is a recipe originated in Malaysia. Each state of Malaysia has its own variation of the Laksa and this one is from Johor.

Laksa Johor is the only Laksa that uses spaghetti in its dish.

If you are a novice in the kitchen, this recipe may need a bit of effort but the result is finger-licking-good.

Like literally, because this dish is best eaten with hands!

Because Laksa uses fish as the base for its soup, it is highly nutritious for pregnant mothers.

However, mothers should avoid King Mackerel (Ikan Tenggiri) for this dish as it has high content of mercury.

Picture source.

Ingredients:

• 1kg of wolf herring or sardine, boiled and bones removed. Keep the fish stock.
• 400ml of coconut milk
• 2 tablespoon of meat curry powder
• cooking oil
• 1 lemongrass, crush the stalk to release the aroma
• 3 tablespoon of toasted grated coconut (kerisik)
• 1 bundle of laksa leaves/Vietnamese coriander (Daun Kesum)
• 1 bud of torch ginger, sliced into 4 parts
• 5 mint leaves, slice thinly (optional)
• 2-3 pieces of tamarind slices
• Palm sugar
• Salt

Ingredients for Prawn stock:

• A bowl of prawn’s skin and head (set aside the prawn meat for Blend (B) ingredients)
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly

Ingredients for Blend (A):

• 1.5 inch of fresh turmeric
• 2 inch of
• 2 inch of ginger
• 15 – 20 pieces of dried chilies, soaked in hot water and remove seeds
• 8 – 10 bulb of red onion
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 4 stalks of lemongrass, sliced thinly
• 1 tablespoon of fermented prawn paste (belacan), toasted
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of dried shrimps, soaked until soft

Ingredients for Blend (B):

• 1 bowl of prawn meat
• 100g dried threadfin, soaked until soft
• The flaked boiled fish meat (refer to ingredients)

Ingredients for noodles:

• 1 packet of spaghetti
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• Water
• A few drops of cooking oil

Ingredients for garnish (You may opt out of some of these if you prefer):

• Cucumber, julienned
• Bean sprouts
• Laksa leaves/Vietnamese coriander (daun kesum)
• Long beans, diced
• Red onion, sliced thinly
• Calamansi
• Pickled white radish, soaked in hot water and minced
• Torch ginger, sliced thinly
• Basil leaves, sliced thinly

Ingredients for sambal belacan (chilli):

• 6 – 8 red chilies
• 10 – 15 bird’s eye chili (cili padi)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Thumb-size amount of fermented shrimp paste, toasted
• Calamansi juice
• Salt
• Sugar

Instructions:

Prawn stock:

1. Blend finely ingredients for prawn stock.
2. Strained the water.

Spaghetti:

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Put in salt and the dry spaghetti. Follow the instructions in the packet.
3. Tossed and mix with a few drops of cooking oil

Chili:

1. Dry blend the red chilies, garlic, and toasted fermented shrimp paste. Don’t blend too finely.
2. Pour in the calamansi juice and put in salt and sugar to taste.

Laksa Gravy:

1. Heat up the cooking oil and stir fry blended ingredients (A) until fragrant.
2. Put in the lemongrass and curry powder. Continue stirring with low heat until crispy.
3. Put in blended ingredients (B) together with the prawn and fish stock. Leave to boil.
4. When the gravy is boiling, put in the coconut milk, toasted coconut, Laksa leaves, torch ginger, mint leaves, tamarind slices, palm sugar, and salt to taste.
5. Let it simmer on low heat until it reaches the right consistency.
6. Once you got the thickness of the gravy right, turn off the stove and pour a ladle-full of the gravy on top of a single-serving of spaghetti. Serve with the garnishes and chili.

Original recipe is from Che Nom.

If reading all of this is overwhelming you, maybe you can try watching this tutorial instead?