. In celebration of food and dining experiences .

Monday, July 16, 2007

First Attempt at Penang Laksa

After an observation lesson with my aunt, I've been determined to recreate the Penang Laksa experience. Since I'm not much of an Asian food experimenter, I do get quite confused with the funny names of the ingredients used- like Asam skin, and Bunga Kantang. I have also never used laksa leave and lime leave in my cooking. so this proved to be quite an uphill task for me. Especially in my search for these "exotic " ingredients.

Due to a lack of ingredients, I thought that J and I would not be able to pull off this dish at the end of the day. Thankfully, we phoned his mum and she said that she had lemongrass in the fridge and he also managed to b uy Asam skin from a provision shop.

And so our Penang Laksa was saved! Everyone was rather happy with it. The only complaint was that there wasn't enough thick bee hoon and the soup could be spicier.

I've gotta add more chilli paste to the soup next time. I tend to forget that the soup would taste more bland when you add in the tasteless thick bee hoon. But YAY! finally, I managed to cook a more local dish!

Cooking the soup for the Penang Laksa- look at the loads of ingredients in the pot to give the laksa its complex taste


The end product- I love the "ang ko li" fish and the sliced pineapples in the soup.
And yes.. Laksa without coconut milk. I like.


The additional ingredients for the laksa
the fried chicken wings were made by my grandma

***

Penang Laksa
Serves 10

a whole fish (ang ko li)

a bag of fish bones

Home made chili paste

2 slices of Asam skin

Asam paste (to taste)

Asam water (a heap tablespoon of asam paste mixed with warm water)

8 pieces of Bunga Kantang skin

A bundle of laksa leaves (throw in with its stalk)

2 stalks of Lemongrass

4-5 lime leaves

Light sauce and sugar to taste

Prawn paste (can be added by the individual according to their preference)

Thick beehoon

For the garnish:
a whole pineapple
Onions
1 Cucumber
1 Bunga Kantang
Mint leaves

1. Prepare the garnish. Chop pineapples, sliced lettuce, cucumbers, onions. Shave the tip of the bunga kantang. And wash the mint leaves

2. Boil the fish with the fish bone. bring to boil. When the fish is cooked, remove it from pot and let it cool. Leave the fish bones in the pot to allow its sweetness to penetrate the soup.

3. Add chili paste, asam skin, asam paste, asam water and the rest of the ingredients.

4. Bring to boil and add light sauce and sugar to taste. the soup is then ready.
Prepare the thick bee hoon by cooking them in boiling water.

link | posted by simin at 10:00 AM |

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