Maritime Southeast Asia · Volume 45, The Mortar, the Wok and the Roti Board

Laksa lemak (curry laksa)

Name: Laksa lemak (curry laksa)
Total time: 20 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Singapore, Penang and the Straits Creole World
Ingredients: 4 lemongrass stalks lemongrass; 15g galangal galangal; 8 shallots shallot; 5 dried chillies and 5 fresh red chillies dried chilli; 15g turmeric powder turmeric; 6 candlenuts candlenut; 2 litres stock, from prawn shells and chicken drumsticks prawn-shell stock; 100ml coconut milk coconut milk; 20g dried shrimp, ground ground dried shrimp; 100g dried thick rice vermicelli rice vermicelli; 400g prawns prawns; as available fish cake; 6 tofu puffs, sliced tofu puffs; 50g bean sprouts bean sprouts; a small bunch of laksa leaf (daun kesum) laksa leaf (daun kesum)

Peranakan, Straits of Malacca

Laksa lemak, curry laksa, coconut broth with rice noodles, prawns and tofu puffs: a deep white bowl of rich orange-red coconut broth, thick rice noodles submerged beneath prawns, a halved boiled egg, triangles of tofu puff and a scattering of laksa leaf.

An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.

Time: 20 minutes

Researched: Researched from 231 sources in the brief, none yet linked in the text
Reviewed: Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
Cooked: Not yet cooked and reported

In 2009 Malaysia's then Tourism Minister publicly accused neighbouring countries, Singapore chiefly, of having "hijacked" Malaysian dishes including laksa, a claim she later said had been misquoted. Most serious food writers on both sides of the Causeway now favour a different framing entirely: laksa belongs to the Peranakan culture of the Straits of Malacca as a whole, travelling with Peranakan settlement patterns from Melaka down to Singapore's own Katong district, with no single point of invention that predates both national claims. That framing is stated here as the most credible current position, not as a closed question, because national feeling about it is still very much alive.

As tradition built it

Serves 4 . Rempah fried, then simmered in stock and coconut milk about 20 minutes

Ingredients

4 lemongrass stalks lemongrass
15g galangal galangal
8 shallots shallot
5 dried chillies and 5 fresh red chillies dried chilli
15g turmeric powder turmeric
6 candlenuts candlenut
2 litres stock, from prawn shells and chicken drumsticks prawn-shell stock
100ml coconut milk coconut milk
20g dried shrimp, ground ground dried shrimp
100g dried thick rice vermicelli rice vermicelli
400g prawns prawns
as available fish cake
6 tofu puffs, sliced tofu puffs
50g bean sprouts bean sprouts
a small bunch of laksa leaf (daun kesum) laksa leaf (daun kesum)

Method

The Peranakan laksa properly speaking: fry a rempah of lemongrass, galangal, shallot, dried chilli, turmeric and candlenut to pecah minyak, then loosen it with prawn-shell stock and coconut milk, kept at the barest simmer once the coconut goes in.
Ground dried shrimp, soaked fifteen minutes in hot water, goes in for its characteristic sandy, umami texture.
Ladle over rice vermicelli with prawns, fish cake, tofu puffs and bean sprouts, finished with laksa leaf.

What a modern chef changes

The fried rempah blended a second time, to dissolve fully into the broth

Rung 5

Method

For the curry laksa, pass the finished rempah through the high-power blender a second time after frying, once it has cooled slightly, to fully dissolve it into the coconut broth rather than leave it as visible solids, a texture change a hawker stall's volume cooking never allows for but a home kitchen, cooking one pot, can.

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