About this recipe
A sour, fish-based noodle soup with no coconut milk in it at all. The broth is built from poached and flaked mackerel, soured hard with tamarind and asam keping, and perfumed with torch ginger flower and daun kesum; thick round rice noodles go in, and the bowl is finished with raw shredded vegetables, pineapple and a spoonful of hae ko, a thick black prawn paste, stirred in at the table. Laksa is a family name rather than one dish: curry laksa is coconut-rich and yellow, Sarawak laksa is built on a different paste again, laksam in Kelantan uses thick rolled rice sheets, and the Katong laksa of Singapore is another form. This is the Penang one, and the sourness is the point.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 large bowls
- Prep
- 40 minutes
- Cook
- 1 hour
- Total
- 100 minutes
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Spice
- Medium–Hot
Allergens Contains fish, shellfish (belacan and hae ko) and is not vegetarian. Halal as written if the hae ko is from a halal-certified maker.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The broth
- 1 1/2 lb (680 g) whole mackerel or 1 lb (450 g) mackerel fillets
- 10 cups (2.4 L) water
- 6 pieces asam keping (dried tamarind slices)
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) tamarind concentrate
- 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised
- 1 tbsp (18 g) salt, or to taste
- 2 tbsp (24 g) sugar, or to taste
The rempah
- 10 dried red chillies, soaked in hot water 20 minutes and drained
- 4 fresh red chillies
- 8 shallots, roughly chopped
- 1 in (2.5 cm) fresh turmeric, or 1 tsp (2 g) ground turmeric
- 2 stalks lemongrass, tender lower third only, sliced
- 1 tsp (5 g) belacan, toasted
The aromatics
- 2 torch ginger flowers (bunga kantan), halved lengthways
- 1 large handful daun kesum (laksa leaf), stems removed
The noodles and garnishes
- 1 1/2 lb (680 g) fresh thick round rice noodles (laksa noodles), or 12 oz (340 g) dried
- 1/2 small pineapple, peeled, cored and cut into thin batons
- 1 cucumber, seeded and cut into fine matchsticks
- 1 small red onion, sliced paper thin
- 2 fresh red chillies, sliced thin
- 1 handful mint leaves
- 1 head lettuce, shredded fine (optional)
- 4 tbsp (60 g) hae ko (thick black prawn paste), thinned with 2 tbsp hot water
Equipment
- Large stockpot, 5 qt (4.7 L)
- Fine strainer
- Blender or food processor
- Large bowl for flaking the fish
Method
- Bring the water to a boil in the stockpot. Add the mackerel, lower the heat and poach 10-12 minutes, until the flesh flakes from the bone.
- Lift the fish out and set it aside to cool. Keep the poaching water in the pot — it is the base of the broth.
- Flake the cooled fish carefully into a bowl, discarding every bone and all the skin. Set aside about a quarter for garnishing and keep the rest for the broth.
- Blend the drained dried chillies, fresh chillies, shallots, turmeric, sliced lemongrass and toasted belacan to a smooth rempah, adding a splash of water if needed.
- Stir the rempah into the poaching liquid along with the bruised lemongrass stalks, asam keping, tamarind concentrate, salt and sugar. Bring to a simmer.
- Add the larger portion of flaked fish and simmer uncovered 30-35 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the broth has taken on the fish and turned cloudy and grey-brown.
- Add the halved torch ginger flowers and the daun kesum and simmer 8 minutes more. Taste: the broth should be aggressively sour first, then salty, with a faint sweetness. Adjust with tamarind, salt and sugar.
- Cook the rice noodles according to their type — fresh ones need only 1-2 minutes in boiling water, dried ones 6-8 minutes — then drain and divide between four deep bowls.
- Ladle the hot broth over the noodles, making sure each bowl gets flaked fish.
- Top each bowl with pineapple batons, cucumber, red onion, sliced chilli, mint, the reserved flaked fish and lettuce if using. Serve with a spoonful of thinned hae ko on the side of each bowl, to be stirred in by whoever is eating.
From the foundations
The book pairs this recipe with the following, from the sauces, sambals and pastes that open the collection.
The Complete Edition
Penang Asam Laksa sits in the Malaysia chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Malaysia chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.