This addictive comfort food has a wonderful origin story, based literally on the marriage of two cultures. At least as far back as the 13th century, Chinese seafarers began settling in the Indonesian
islands and naturally meeting wives in the local communities. To please their husbands, these young women learnt to prepare their husbands’ favourite foods from home, including Chinese noodle soup – gradually they began incorporating local Indonesian ingredients like coconut milk, chilli, garlic and ginger. Et voila, laksa was born!

Peranakan kitchen

Image: Pinterest

The recipe is extremely versatile, and you can really play with the ingredients according to your preference. Actually, laksa recipes vary tremendously from place to place. The local Indonesian version tends to use seafood, but in Singapore and Malaysia, you will often find a combination of chicken and prawns in their laksa bowls. The famous Penang laksa (Malaysia) is a pungent fish-based broth that doesn’t even include coconut milk.

Here is our Bawah Reserve recipe, and it is truly a guest favourite! This recipe shows the standard way of preparing and serving laksa at home, with all ingredients simply combined together.

At the resort, we serve the noodles, seafood, and pak choi on the plate first and then pour the soup over it in front of the diner for a dash of drama.

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Indonesian Seafood Laksa – Recipe

Makes four bowls

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Ingredients:

(Ensure your seafood is sustainably sourced wherever possible.)
1 baby squid (cut into 8-10 rings)
4 scallops
8 tiger prawns (shells removed)
1 packet (150 grams) glass noodles
3 pak choi
Chopped mint leaf for sprinkling
Salt to taste

Ingredients for the paste/soup:

2 tablespoons peanut oil
20 grams shallots, diced
1 stalk lemongrass, thinly sliced
10 grams garlic
5 grams red chilli
5 grams root ginger
5 grams galangal
10 grams turmeric
1 gram coriander seeds
20 grams shrimp powder
250 ml coconut milk
3 grams white sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 cardamom pod
1 clove
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:

1. Firstly to make the paste: In a food processor combine the lemongrass, shallots, garlic, turmeric, coriander seed, ginger, galangal, chilli, and shrimp powder. Process well until finely ground.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons of peanut oil in a large frying pan or wok.

3. Add the laksa paste and stir. Fry for 5 minutes to release the flavours.

4. Turn down the heat and add the coconut milk, cinnamon stick, cardamom, clove, sugar, salt, and pepper. Stir well to blend in the paste, and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.

5. Once the laksa soup is boiling, add the baby squid, scallops, and prawns. Cook for 3 minutes.

6. Bring a separate pan of water to the boil; add the noodles, cook for 2 minutes, then add the pak choi for just 30 seconds; drain.

7. Place the cooked noodles and the pak choi in a large bowl and pour the hot laksa soup over them.

8. Sprinkle the chopped mint to serve. Option: add a boiled egg and beansprouts.

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