Penang Assam Laksa

Last week I ate a bowl of Assam Laksa at Jurong Point Red Laquer Restaurant.  The laksa there was good.  Sourish and thick enough!  While eating it, I told myself...this will be the next dish I'm cooking when I have the time.  Searching thru the websites and seeking friend's opinion, I finally managed to get all the necessary ingredients from Supermarket and Wet Market and started cooking the "troublesome" laksa today!

Why I said it's troublesome?  There's so much to buy, so many things to wash and cut...but tell you what...end result was good and worth while when you see the bowls are empty!!

I adopted my recipe from RasaMalaysia but modified some ingredients and quantities to suit my hubby and my taste!

Fish Stock Ingredients (Boil together till fish cooked and remove from fire):

1.5 Kg (Mackerel Fish + Kembong Fish) - I mix it as Mackerel fish is tougher and will have more chuck pieces of fish in soup!

2.5 litre Water

Chilli Paste Ingredients (Grind together): 

15 Red Chilli

100g Shallots

200g Onions (slice)

50g Galangal (蓝姜)

1 Stalk Ginger Flower (cut tip finely and put aside as condiments and use the rest for the chilli paste)

1 Stalk Lemon Grass (cut pieces)

Other Ingredients:

150g Belacan (soft type -fresher)

20 pieces Dried Tamarind Peel

200g Assam + 1 rice bowl of water to make Tamarind Juice (remove seeds)

10 Stalks Laksa Leaves (clean and put aside)

2 Stalks Lemon Grass

Seasoning:

1 tbsp Sugar

1 tbsp Fish Sauce

Condiments:

1 Cucumber (slice thinly)

1 Sawarak Pineapple (cut small chuck)

3 Onions (slice thinly)

Lettuces (slice thinly)

Mint Leaves (use only the leaves and cut thinly)

Ginger Flower (the balance from making chilli paste)

Red Chilli (cut and remove seeds)

Prawn Paste (Heh Go)

Of course not forgeting to get some Laksa Noodles!!

Method:

• Remove fish from pot and strain soup and save for later use.
• Remove fish meat from fish and discard the bones and keep fish meat aside.
• Boil fish stock in pot and add in the grinded chilli paste and all other ingredients and simmer stock for 1 hr.
• Soak Laksa Noodles with hot water and strain then keep aside.
• After 1 hour, add the fish meat back to stock and boil for another 1 hour till soup thicken.
• Place a portion of Laksa Noodles into a soup bowl.  Add in all condiments (quantities based on yr likings) on top of noodles and scoop fish soup base into bowl.
• Add a spoonful of shrimp paste before serving.

Hope you enjoy your Penang Assam Laksa as much as I do!