Seafood Curry Laksa
Laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup which is found in South East Asia more particularly in Malaysia, Singapore and some parts of Indonesia. Historians say it was invented in China as the word laksa might have originated from the Chinese word “la sha” meaning “spicy sand” which makes sense as the food is spicy and the way the spices are processed is by grounding them so that they have the same fine but rough consistency of the sand.
Laksa can be categorized into two types which is Curry and Asam, they are both soup based dishes but the difference is that the Curry is made out of coconut milk while the Asam comes from the extract of some sour fruit like tamarind. Different noodles can also be used such as vermicelli (rice and mung bean) as well as the thick rice noodles; it all depends on your preference.
I recently just discovered this dish around 2004 when I lived in Malaysia; at first I don’t really want to try it out because of how it looks (Laksa is not really presentable if you see this dish in hawker stalls), during that time I usually judge food just by how it looks like. My friends and colleagues always ask me to try it out, I always turn them down until one day I let them try my home cooked Sinigang and their reaction was it tasted like Assam Laksa which led me and convinced me to try it out. We went to this restaurant in Giant Kelana Jaya that specializes in Laksa (too bad I forgot the name), I ordered the one they said tastes like Sinigang and after the first scoop of soup it was Wow! Since then I was not afraid to ugly looking food items as most of them taste better than the good looking ones.
- 500g mussels
- 2 large squid, sliced
- 300g shrimps, shelled and deveined
- 300g white fish, cubed
- 200g fish cakes
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 500 ml seafood stock
- 500 ml water
- 100 g beansprouts
- 4 boiled eggs sliced in half
- 2 stalks spring onions, chopped
- lime or lemon slices
- rice noodles
- fish sauce
- oil
- 3 medium red chillies, chopped and seeds removed
- 1 tsp shrimp paste
- 4 shallots, peeled
- 2 stems of lemon grass, outer layer removed and chopped
- 1 tsp galangal, chopped
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tbsp water
- Gather all the paste ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend the ingredients until it forms a paste.
- Cook rice noodles according to packet instructions.
- In a separate pot add oil and the paste, stir fry for in medium heat until fragrant.
- Add seafood stock, water, fish cake, fish sauce (according to your taste) and coconut milk then bring to a boil.
- Once boiling add mussels, shrimps and squid. Cook for 3 minutes.
- Add fish and cook for 2 more minutes.
- Place the noodles in a bowl then pour seafood gravy. Mix in the beansprouts while gravy is hot.
- Top with ½ sliced egg per bowl, spring onions and freshly squeezed lime juice.
What a perfect meal and so beautifully presented.
Have a super weekend.
🙂 Mandy
wow….this is so yummy!!!
I love all the cooking inspiration, I get from your blog dear..;)
Tasty Appetite
Click Clack soup! This is iT! This is wonderful! c
I used to frequent Kelana Jaya also very often but can’t really the stall of the curry laksa. Btw, this is our number one fav and plenty of different varieties you can find too.
Your laksa looks so tempting though the combo is a bit different then the one I make.
It’s been a long time I stopped looking at the dishes’ aesthetic side. It’s even more exciting when an ugly dish proves delicious.
Your laksa looks fantastic though. The shells have very unusual (for me at least) green hues.
It is a beautiful presentation, hard to know where to start there’s so much to choose from. I’m with you, how a dish looks makes a difference to me whether I’m inclined to try it.
Well i guess sometimes looks can be deceiving. I love how you presented the laksa in your pics though. It mush have taken a bit of time and effort to arrange the ingredients prettily above the soup! Definitely not like the ones in hawker centres.
These pictures are gorgeous too – the colors are phenomenal. The mussels especially look delicious. 🙂 You’ve lived in some pretty amazing places, and I love the history of the foods you always share. I always feel like I learn something.
Looks awesome, just awesome.
Kinda reminds me of an South East Asia capino to me and that of course means it’s a winner.
Lovely presentation with such gorgeous green-lipped mussels. A feast for the eyes as well as for the eating!
mukang maanghang yan pre ha…sarap naman!!!
—Devine.
Absolutely Delish. X
the strange thing was i made a curry recently too. but perhaps the different thing between our curry is nobody is eating mine.. nyahaha
I need to train myself with spicy food before I will get a chance to visit Southeast Asia. Otherwise I’m afraid I can’t eat most of the food. My husband loves everything spicy and my kids are not getting proper training too because of me. I’ve heard of laska before and the food looks great! I need my tongue and stomach trained slowly.
Love how spicy you made this through the use of chilies, I’m sure the coconut milk is the perfect cooling counterpoint.
it can definitely be hard to look past a foods appearance, but a lot of my “stews” look gross but are soooo good!
I love your pictures! Very thoughtful of you to put some decoration in this picture. I bet the food is as tasty as it looks 🙁
Everyone loves a good laksa !
this looks delicious and what a generous portion of seafood! YUM!
Definitely not invented in china. The spices used are Peranakan, which are the Chinese who lived in the Malaya Straits.