Food: Souper Noodles

Apr 20 2008 Michael Kilkie

Malaysian Curry Broth Will Add Far East Spice To Dinnertimes

Today's recipe is a complete meal in one bowl - a satisfying, mouthwatering dish full of wonderful flavours and aromas that makes a great lunch or dinner.

Laksa is a Malaysian noodle broth made with coconut milk. You can add any other ingredients you fancy, be it meat or seafood. I'm using chicken but you could add prawns.

The base for your laksa comes from curry paste. I like to make my own but a good quality shopbought one is fine.

Try an Asian supermarket for a really authentic one. The paste forms the foundations for your dish, so the better it is, the tastier your laksa will be.

If you can't find a specific laksa paste, a Thai curry paste will work too but it is worth the effort to make your own.

My paste is really simple to prepare either with a food processor or by hand using a pestle and mortar. It requires a bit of elbow grease but is quite rewarding. The benefit of making your own paste is that you are in control of how hot the dish is and can add more or fewer chillies to suit your own taste.

There is a huge range of noodles on the market, ranging from ultra-fine vermicelli noodles to thick ones.

I settle somewhere in the middle and always pre-cook the noodles.

When serving the laksa, place an equal amount of noodles in each bowl before adding the broth.

The liquid will reheat the noodles and doing it this way ensures everyone gets an equal amount.

You could also use cooked chicken, adding it at the last minute just to warm through, but you'll get better flavour cooking it from raw in the laksa.

To finish, garnish each bowl with raw ingredients for extra fresh flavour. I like to use sliced chillies, spring onions, chopped coriander and chopped peanuts.

For seafood laksa, use raw king or tiger prawns instead of chicken.

Shell and devein then add the prawns as you would the chicken but only cook for another three minutes.

If you can only get cooked prawns, add for one minute just to warm through.

Fresh mint along with the coriander will work nicely with the prawns.

Kids love noodle dishes but this one may be too spicy for them.

Make it more child-friendly by omitting the curry paste, replacing it with a little garlic instead.

Fry this at the same time as your onion.

If your little ones don't like coconut milk, add extra chicken stock instead.

I also like to add cooked carrots, sweet corn and sugar snap peas or mange tout to the broth before pouring it over the noodles.

Delicious.

CHICKEN LAKSA

SERVES 4

For the curry paste

SERVES 4

For the curry paste

2 red chillies

2 stalks lemongrass

3 cloves garlic

1cm root ginger, peeled

Half onion, chopped Small handful coriander stalks

1 tsp salt

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp shrimp paste (optional)

For the broth

400ml coconut milk

400g noodles

700ml chicken stock

500g chicken, diced

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp fish sauce (optional)

2 kaffir lime leaves or juice of 1 lime

Half onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp smooth peanut butter

tbsp veg oil

For the garnish

2 red chillies, finely sliced

2 tbsp peanuts, chopped

Large handful fresh coriander, chopped

2 spring onions, finely sliced

METHOD

Blitz all the ingredients for the paste together until smooth. For the broth, fry the onion in the oil for three minutes, add the paste and fry for another three minutes. Add the coconut milk, chicken stock, soy sauce, fish sauce, lime leaves and peanut butter. Bring to the boil, add the chicken and lower the heat. Simmer for around 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. As advised, you should have pre-cooked the noodles. Place an equal amount in four bowls before ladling in equal amounts of the laksa. Garnish each bowl with chillies, coriander, spring onion and peanuts and serve.