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Malaysian Chicken Laksa with Beansprouts and Noodles
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cookbook_challenge.
As usual this is from The Roasting Tin around the World by Rukmini Iyer.
Ingredients
2x400ml tins of coconut milk
600g free-range boneless chicken thighs, diced
2 sticks of lemongrass, bashed
20g fresh mint, leaves chopped
20g fresh coriander, chopped
200ml boiling fish stock
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tsp sea salt flakes
225g fresh rice vermicelli noodles
1 x 300g packet of beansprouts
1-2 limes juice only
SPICE MIX
4 banana shallot, peeled
8cm ginger, peeled
5 cloves garlic, peeled
3 fresh red chillies
40g shrimp paste
1 heaped tsp ground turmeric
2 heaped tsps ground coriander
Method
Preheat the over to 180C fan/200C/gas 6.
Blitz the spice mix (add extra coconut milk if necessary). Cover the chicken with the spice mix and roast in the oven for 15 minutes.
Add lemongrass, 2/3rds mint and coriander, coconut milk, fish stock, sugar and salt. Stir. Cover. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
Add the noodles and beansprouts and leave for 5 minutes to soften.
Add the lime juice, adjust seasoning to taste. Garnish with remaining mint and coriander.
Changes, Mistakes and Substitutions
The vermicelli wasn't fresh but it seemed to work fine once I'd got it in the casserole. Could maybe have used a minute longer to soften. I'd had a bit of mental confusion around amounts, so I had 600g chicken but only one tin of coconut milk. I also only had one red chilli, so added a pinch of chilli flakes to the spice mix to back it up. It seemed to work fine, though a bit more liquid would have helped with getting the vermicelli in the dish and, it has to be said, at the end I didn't weigh out the vermicelli and beansprouts I just added as much as I judged would fit in the liquid which I suspect was about half the amount in the recipe.
The shrimp paste nearly caused a marital row. We couldn't get it in our normal supermarket delivery and couldn't find any locally. I suspect this last statement is a lie since we have a plethora of "world" supermarkets not to mention smaller convenience and grocery stores within 15 minutes walk of our house - there was some story about which ones himself was prepared to enter to look for shrimp paste which I didn't quite follow. At any rate, we had this conversation over text message. I surfed the internet and said to get fish sauce instead. Himself favoured salmon paste and he continued to be very dubious about the fish sauce plan once he returned with both. The compromise was that I added a tbsp of fish sauce (considerably less than the internet would advise to substitute for 40g of shrimp paste) and it seemed to work pretty well, and helped bind the spice mix so I didn't need to add any coconut milk.
Verdict
Shrimp paste debate notwithstanding, this was a great recipe. I'd been getting a little dubious about the plan to cook my way through The Roasting Tin around the World since we'd had a run of recipes that were either disappointing or merely fine. But we really liked this and I certainly wouldn't have picked it out to try if I hadn't been working systematically through the book. It was hot without being overpowering (though obviously that's very much a subjective thing), and the citrus flavours make it very different from the Indian curries that we more normally have. I will obviously need to get some shrimp paste and see what it is like with that.
cookbook_challenge.As usual this is from The Roasting Tin around the World by Rukmini Iyer.
Ingredients
2x400ml tins of coconut milk
600g free-range boneless chicken thighs, diced
2 sticks of lemongrass, bashed
20g fresh mint, leaves chopped
20g fresh coriander, chopped
200ml boiling fish stock
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tsp sea salt flakes
225g fresh rice vermicelli noodles
1 x 300g packet of beansprouts
1-2 limes juice only
SPICE MIX
4 banana shallot, peeled
8cm ginger, peeled
5 cloves garlic, peeled
3 fresh red chillies
40g shrimp paste
1 heaped tsp ground turmeric
2 heaped tsps ground coriander
Method
Preheat the over to 180C fan/200C/gas 6.
Blitz the spice mix (add extra coconut milk if necessary). Cover the chicken with the spice mix and roast in the oven for 15 minutes.
Add lemongrass, 2/3rds mint and coriander, coconut milk, fish stock, sugar and salt. Stir. Cover. Cook in the oven for 30 minutes.
Add the noodles and beansprouts and leave for 5 minutes to soften.
Add the lime juice, adjust seasoning to taste. Garnish with remaining mint and coriander.
Changes, Mistakes and Substitutions
The vermicelli wasn't fresh but it seemed to work fine once I'd got it in the casserole. Could maybe have used a minute longer to soften. I'd had a bit of mental confusion around amounts, so I had 600g chicken but only one tin of coconut milk. I also only had one red chilli, so added a pinch of chilli flakes to the spice mix to back it up. It seemed to work fine, though a bit more liquid would have helped with getting the vermicelli in the dish and, it has to be said, at the end I didn't weigh out the vermicelli and beansprouts I just added as much as I judged would fit in the liquid which I suspect was about half the amount in the recipe.
The shrimp paste nearly caused a marital row. We couldn't get it in our normal supermarket delivery and couldn't find any locally. I suspect this last statement is a lie since we have a plethora of "world" supermarkets not to mention smaller convenience and grocery stores within 15 minutes walk of our house - there was some story about which ones himself was prepared to enter to look for shrimp paste which I didn't quite follow. At any rate, we had this conversation over text message. I surfed the internet and said to get fish sauce instead. Himself favoured salmon paste and he continued to be very dubious about the fish sauce plan once he returned with both. The compromise was that I added a tbsp of fish sauce (considerably less than the internet would advise to substitute for 40g of shrimp paste) and it seemed to work pretty well, and helped bind the spice mix so I didn't need to add any coconut milk.
Verdict
Shrimp paste debate notwithstanding, this was a great recipe. I'd been getting a little dubious about the plan to cook my way through The Roasting Tin around the World since we'd had a run of recipes that were either disappointing or merely fine. But we really liked this and I certainly wouldn't have picked it out to try if I hadn't been working systematically through the book. It was hot without being overpowering (though obviously that's very much a subjective thing), and the citrus flavours make it very different from the Indian curries that we more normally have. I will obviously need to get some shrimp paste and see what it is like with that.