Sarawak'ian Laksa

There are many types of Laksa. Sarawak'ian Laksa is my favourite. It is not as 'coconut-y' as Nyonya Laksa and it is not as 'fishy' as Penang Laksa. It has this very strong aroma which comes from the boiling of shrimp shells for hours..

It is relatively easy to prepare, although can be laborious. So, my advice is to get a good friend (makan kaki) to give you a hand in the preparation. Otherwise, by the time yo finished preparing, you would have lost your appetite to the exhaustion from the preparation.

So, I cheated. I used Laksa paste! I knowwwww.... I should have prepared my own... buttttt it is so troublesome..... So, I always use the 'Swallow Brand' Laksa paste as recommended by my granny. My granny sure makes lovely Laksa- spicy and spicy...

To make it tastier, I decided to add some rempah to the laksa paste. And YES, I prepared the rempah... How hard can it be? Just grind some lemongrass, onion, chilli, turmeric, ginger and a bit of oil in a blender. BUT,  ENJOY cutting them...

Saute the rempah and laksa paste till fragrant and set aside.

The laksa paste can be very oily...

Then, boil a big pot of water, blanch the shrimps with shell on till just-cooked. Make sure to submerge the cooked shrimps into ice water so the shrimps will not be rubbery. Remove the shells and put the shells back in the water. DO not throw away the shrimp heads. Those are the most flavourful bits. Then add a whole chicken and let it cook on low heat for 2 hours, or until you can see the flesh of the chicken fall apart from the bones.

The soup looks oranges because of the shrimp

Remove the chicken from the soup and set aside to cool. Remove the shrimp shells from the soup and add the laksa paste. Let it boil while stirring occasionally. Add salt to taste.

You can prepare the condiments as you like. I prepared some shredded chicken, sliced cucumber, vermicelli and bean sprouts. I only remembered the omelette when all my party buddies have arrived so I did not bother.

Hard work pays off

Just mix everything!

Steamed Taro Cake (Wu Tao Gou)

My favourite snack especially pan-fried! Sinful? Arghhh who cares~~~~ The steamed ones are sinful too.... At least my version does not contain lap-cheong (chinese sausage). In my opinion, lap-cheong makes it slightly sweet, and I prefer the savoury kind of wu tao gou so just shallots and dried shrimp is good enough for me.

I remember my Mom used to make them regularly at home when I was a kid. I remember her version being a little dry (too much taro). And I used to enjoy those that I bought from the shops, failing to realise that those were full or starch instead of taro. The ratio of starch to yam is probably like 5:1? Now I understand why those store-bought wu tau gou are so soft!

I also remember Mom gets frustrated whenever she finds the top of the cake very soft and the bottom very stiff. So, the trick here is to cook the flour mixture with the yam before steaming it. Imagine mixing the flour in cool water and adding the yam into it. the mixture is kinda cool. It takes time for the whole mixture to get cooked in the steaming pot. While steaming i the pot, the flour sinks to the bottom of the pan and hence the stiff bottom.

Ingredients

- Approximately 600gm of taro, peeled and cut into small cubes

- A handful of dried shrimps, soaked and chopped

- 5 shallots, chopped and fried till golden brown

- 250gm rice flour

- 2 tbsp tapioca starch

- 2 tbsp wheat starch

-1 chicken stock cube, dissolved in 800 mls water

- Salt, to taste

- Ground pepper, to taste


Method

1. Deep fry taro till slightly brown and fragrant, set aside.

2. Deep fry shallots till golden brown, set aside.

3. Mix water and chicken stock cube and stir till fully dissolved. Add salt and pepper.

4. Heat some oil in pan and stir fry dried shrimp till fragrant and add in shallots. Add in taro and stir       till well-combined.

5.Lower heat and add in the flour mixture and continue stirring till it becomes a paste (should take about 5 minutes).

6. Grease a baking pan with oil and place the cooked mixture into the pan.

7. Steam till cooked. Insert an toothpick into the centre of the cake. If the stick comes out clean, the cake is cooked.

TIP: Make sure you occasionally stir the flour mixture(before adding into yam) to prevent the flour from sinking to the bottom.

Pan-fried with LaoGanMa chilli... Yums..