homecooked laksa from scratch

The HAH and MCP residence hosted a super chef for an impromptu lesson on cooking laksa from scratch. No more Prima Taste instant packs for us! First, I had to go grocery shopping with Mr Super Chef aka the Master. Here you see some of the ingredients used.



And that's me, the super keen apprentice starting the fire and heating up the wok.



The noobish me didn't know how much oil to add, much to the chagrin of the Master supervising on one side.



My first task was to chop up a tonne of onions and garlic as finely as I could because we do not have such a thing called a food processor in our worldly possessions. I got quite a bit of help from the Master for this simple task because I was sniffling and tearing away too much, not to mention my snail pace. Then I had to stir fry them until golden brown before mixing in the curry powder and whatever other stuff the Master decided to throw in as and when he deemed fit. I think my greatest contribution to this whole cooking process was holding that wooden ladle and moving it in a circular motion non-stop.



Once all the ingredients were mixed into a huge wok of goodiness (is there such a word?), we took it easy and enjoyed a glass of red while occasionally stirring the gravy and monitoring its colour and texture. HAH on the other hand, was already busying herself with preparing a fruit salad for dessert.



Here's the almost cooked laksa gravy. Yes I can see the layer of oil. But that's part of what makes it yummy. I was guilty of adding too much of that sinful prawn paste. Oh and not forgetting the two cans of creamy coconut milk I emptied when one could have done the job. ;p



We chose japanese udon noodles for our first laksa-from-scratch attempt. It was a perfect match with the gravy! So now we know what other noodles to use for our laksa dish next time besides the usual chinese rice vermicelli.



And I had the honour of serving the four bowls of rich, full flavoured chicken laksa!



Ta-dah!!! It tasted thrice as good as it looked. Oh we substituted the beansprouts with some snow pea sprouts for want of some greens. :D



HAH insisted on adding some boiled veges to balance off the unhealthy stuff we were planning to ingest. Towards the end of the night, we mixed these vegs with the laksa gravy and got ourselves very delicious servings of sayur lodeh.



And of course, we couldn't let our guests leave without a proper group photo.



Fact #102 from the Master now imprinted in the HAH and MCP residence guest book:



Definitely the paella next time.