Cooking Singaporean Laksa

My version of Singapore Laksa

I first saw this recipe at the famous reality cooking tv show, The Masterchef. There is Malaysian Laksa but what I cooked is the Singaporean Laksa, because the laksa paste that available in the supermarket where I buy groceries, it is a Singapore Laksa paste on the label.

shrimp 

chicken fillet 

rice noodles (bihon or mihoen)

From that time, I start to crave for laksa, how it tastes, its smell, and it is a nice thing to eat something from another Asian country. I checked on the internet where I can eat laksa here in The Netherlands. I found on Trip Advisor and it is a restaurant in Amsterdam. It is not practical for me to travel in Amsterdam just to eat laksa. So I decided to just find a laksa recipe. But I cannot make laksa if I don't have the laksa paste.

the Singaporean laksa paste

coconut milk

100 ml water

tauge

onion

I went to Surinamese store and to a Turkish store here in our city, but they don't have laksa paste.  I was about losing hope to taste laksa when I saw a brown pack stacked together with the noodles, coconut milk, and spices at the supermarket where I always shop. The bold label says it all: Singapore Laksa Paste! So that was it! I can cook now my own laksa.

to heat a bit :)

laksa there, cooking rice noodles here.

The laksa recipe on the Masterchef has more or less twenty ingredients. But the laksa paste that I buy in the nearby supermarket has the simplest and easy to cook laksa recipe printed on the label. I saw on the Internet that there are many laksa recipes, depends on your budget and your time to cook. I don't like those complex recipes. I prefer a recipe that is good in my budget and you will never doubt that it is homemade.

So here I am now, sharing again my cooking.
Ingredients:
250 grams rice noodles (in Tagalog bihon, in Dutch mihoen)
50 to 80 grams laksa paste
200 grams chicken
200 grams shrimp
200 grams tauge
1 medium size onion
1 or 2 red chili
1 big can coconut milk
100 ml water
For the garnish:
Slices of cucumber
Onion spring

draining the cooked rice noodles

Procedure:
Since it takes only 4 to 6 minutes to cook the rice noodles, cook the rice noodles when the laksa sauce is done. Cook the rice noodles according to the instruction at the label.
Heat the pan with one tablespoon oil. Fry the chicken for around 5 minutes. Then add the shrimp, cook for another three minutes or as the shrimp turn pinkish. Add the onion and cook for one minute. Add the coconut milk, water, and the laksa paste. Stir, cover and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Then add the tauge and the red chili. Let it simmer again until the tauge is already cooked. Let it simmer until the sauce gets a bit oily or greasy.

my plate :)

Put the cooked rice noodles in a plate and the laksa as the topping. Garnish with cucumber and spring onion.
This is the only time that I tasted rice noodles cooked in coconut milk. I love the taste of this Singaporean Laksa. I think one of the things that we must be thankful for is, that God gave us the taste bud and the variety of food. We eat not only because it is a necessity. We cook, we eat because it is enjoyable too! Happy dinner to all!