Uncle’s ‘dry’ laksa
“When most people think of laksa, a bowl of brothy slurpy noodles comes first to mind, so a dry laksa might sound like a curious thing. I first had dry laksa at a friend’s place. Her father would politely interrupt every maths revision session with a plate of food, because ‘you can’t study on an empty stomach’. I vividly remember Uncle’s dry laksa; he had tried it at a trendy new café and recreated it for us, using store-bought laksa paste, fresh rice noodles, king prawns and herbs. It had everything I loved about a curry laksa, but this was significantly less messy to eat over a pile of textbooks. It most definitely helped us pass our exams! Here, I’ve used the laksa rempah from page 137 and fresh egg noodles, readily available at most supermarkets.” - Shu Han Lee
SERVES 2-3
180g raw jumbo king prawns (shrimps), peeled, tails on
½ quantity of Laksa Spice Paste (see below)
pinch of coarse sea salt
3 tbsp vegetable oil
100 ml (½ cup) coconut milk
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp light brown sugar
400g pack of fresh egg noodles
100g beansprouts
1 lime, juice of ½, the remaining ½ sliced into wedges to serve
handful of laksa leaves (or Thai basil, basil or mint leaves)
handful of coriander leaves, roughly torn
Sambal Tumis (see below), to serve (optional)
Sambal tumis, slow-fried chilli sauce
10 dried red Kashmiri chillies
1 lemongrass stalk, base only, finely chopped
100g shallots, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves
2 large fresh red chillies, roughly chopped
100ml (1/2 cup) vegetable oil
2 tbsp tamarind paste
½ tsp fine sea salt, or to taste
¾ tsp gula melaka (coconut palm sugar) or light brown sugar, to taste
Katong Curry Laksa
12 large (400g) king prawns (shrimp), shell-on
1 litre (4 cups) water
1½ tsp fine sea salt, or to taste
2 tsp light brown sugar, or to taste
4 tbsp vegetable oil
200ml (3/4 cup) coconut milk
8 tofu puffs, halved
200g dried thick rice vermicelli noodles (1.6 mm) (see Tip)
2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
100g beansprouts
small handful of laksa leaves, very finely sliced (or a mix of mint and coriander)
Rempah (spice paste)
5 dried red Kashmiri chillies, soaked in hot water until softened
2 tbsp dried shrimps, soaked in enough hot water to cover until softened
100g shallots, roughly chopped
2 lemongrass stalks, base only, finely chopped
thumb-sized piece (15g) fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground white pepper
To devein the prawns, cut down the back of each from the head to just before the tail, lift out the black line and pull to remove. This also helps the prawn to curl up into a pretty butterfly shape later. Toss with 1 tablespoon of the laksa paste and a pinch of salt.
Set a wok or large frying pan over a high heat and add half the oil. Once smoking hot, add the prawns in a single layer. Fry until they turn orange and char on the edges. Remove and set aside.
Add the remaining oil and laksa paste to the wok and turn the heat down to low. Fry for 10 minutes, stirring often, until very fragrant. Add the coconut milk, fish sauce and sugar and stir until most of the liquid cooks off – the sauce will darken and you will see the coconut oil separating from the sauce.
Now whack the heat back up and add the noodles, mixing and tossing to make sure they’re well coated with the sauce. Finally, return the prawns to the wok, along with the beansprouts and lime juice. Give it another few tosses until everything is heated through and integrated. Taste at this point, adding a pinch more salt or fish sauce if you think it needs it.
Turn the heat off and stir in the herbs. Dish onto plates and serve with the lime wedges and sambal.
Tip: All spice pastes can be used to add an instant pop of flavour to stir-fries, so take this recipe as a little guide or inspiration to create new special dishes or stretch leftovers.
Sambal Tumis, Slow-Fried Chilli Sauce
Sambal is the quintessential chilli sauce that’s found on tables and menus across Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. There are hundreds of sambal recipes across the region, but this sambal tumis is my favourite of them all. ‘Tumis’ refers to the process of slowly frying the chilli paste until it caramelises and deepens in colour and flavour. It’s good on pretty much anything and everything, not just the Singaporean dishes in this book. When I first started doing supper clubs, we would periodically release limited drops of my Red Hot Sambal Tumis. I would make only a dozen jars at once, post it onto our mailing list, and they would sell out in minutes. The anonymous sambal buyers would meet at a London tube station at a certain time and we would exchange the jars for a fiver. Years later, we make them in batches of 500 jars for Rempapa Spice Co. Below is a variation of that sambal.
Using kitchen scissors, roughly snip the dried red chillies and shake out the seeds. Soak in a bowl of hot water until soft, then drain. Pound the lemongrass, shallots, garlic, dried and fresh chillies together using a pestle and mortar or whizz in a small blender until you get a fine paste.
Heat the oil in a wok or deep frying pan set over medium heat. Once hot, add the chilli paste to the oil and turn the heat down to low. Fry the paste, stirring to make sure it doesn’t stick or burn. It can take 30–45 minutes to cook, and if you’re scaling the recipe up, it could take more than an hour. Use your senses to determine if it’s ready – the chilli paste will darken to a deep red and you’ll see the oil separating again from the mixture. It should smell very fragrant and have none of that ‘raw’ taste of shallots.
Stir in the tamarind, salt and sugar. Keep cooking until the sugar dissolves. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Store in a clean jar in the fridge. The sambal will keep for up to 2 weeks if you make sure to keep it submerged under oil and not double dip.
Katong Curry Laksa
This spicy coconut-laced noodle soup is perhaps one of the region’s most well-loved culinary exports. To create that heavenly broth, we start with a rempah made from lemongrass, dried shrimp and spices, then stir in coconut milk and stock. The laksa I grew up with uses prawn stock, made simply by simmering leftover prawn heads and shells to deliver a deep umami punch from the sea. Another special element of a Singaporean laksa, particularly along a stretch of road in the Katong area, is that the noodles are cut into short strands, so you can conveniently slurp it with just a soup spoon. In fact, the most famous laksa stalls often charge extra for chopsticks!
For the rempah (spicve paste)
We’ll start by making our prawn stock. Bring the water to the boil in a pan and season with the salt and sugar. Add the prawns, turn the heat down to medium, and cook until the prawns just turn orange. Fish out the prawns and remove their heads and shells, leaving their tails on for aesthetics. Set the peeled cooked prawns aside and return the shells and heads to the pot to simmer for another 30 minutes, before straining.
Meanwhile, we’ll get our rempah going. Drain the chillies and dried shrimp, reserving the shrimp soaking liquid. Pound all the spice paste ingredients using a pestle and mortar or whizz in a small blender until you get a fine paste. If blending, you might need to add a tiny splash of water to help the paste come together. Heat the oil in a large pot set over medium heat. When hot, add the spice paste, turn the heat down to low and fry for 15 minutes, or until the oil seeps back out.
We can now bring the laksa broth together. To the pot of fried rempah, add the coconut milk, strained prawn stock and dried shrimp soaking liquid. Stir and bring to a gentle boil, then add the tofu puffs. Cook for a couple of minutes before turning the heat off. Taste the laksa broth at this point and adjust with more salt or sugar if needed.
Now it’s assembly time. Cook the rice noodles in plenty of boiling water until cooked, about 3–5 minutes depending on packet instructions. Drain and rinse with cold water to stop them clumping, then snip into shorter strands with kitchen scissors. Divide the noodles into bowls, and top with the cooked prawns, eggs and beansprouts. Make sure the laksa broth is still piping hot – if not warm it up again, taking care not to let it come to a rolling boil. Pour the hot laksa broth and tofu puffs over, making sure to submerge the noodles. Finish with a sprinkle of laksa leaves and a dollop of sambal.
Tip: For traditional Singapore laksa, and for the best slurping experience, thick rice vermicelli is preferred. They are spaghetti-like in shape but made of rice instead of wheat. But if you can’t get hold of them, feel free to replace them with thin rice vermicelli, available in most supermarkets. They don’t need boiling – just pour hot boiling water over, cover and soak for 5 minutes until soft, before draining.
Read Our Agak Agak: Everyday Recipes from Singapore cookbook review here
This is an edited extract from Agak Agak: Everyday Recipes from Singapore by Shu Han Lee, published by Hardie Grant Books. Photography by Ola O. Smit.
