Laksa is a Malaysian dish. It is a coconut based curry with lots of vegetables, noodles, and tofu. It is a very spicy and hot dish. There is a very slight hint of sweet and sour.
Laksa is a meal in itself as it has lots of veggies, noodles, and tofu in it. Tofu is not readily available where we live so we just make laksa without it or using Nutrela Soybean granules. You can use lightly grilled Paneer cubes in place of tofu. You can use broccoli, carrots, snow peas, beans in veg laksa. I have used whatever vegetables I had at home.
Ingredients
For Noodles2 cups Plain flour (maida)
2 tbsp oil
½ tsp salt
Water
For LaksaBoiled Noodles
2 tbsp of oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
2 carrots peeled and sliced
150 grams French beans
1 cup baby corns
2 Green chilies chopped
1 tbsp chopped ginger
¼ tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp Thai red curry paste (You can increase or decrease quantity according to your taste)
400 ml of coconut milk can
2 stalks lemon grass
½ tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
Juice of ½ lemon
salt to taste
8-10 Basil leaves
water
For Tempering1 tbsp oil
4-5 curry leaves
½ tsp red chili powder
MethodTo Make Noodles
- Sift flour and add salt to it.Add oil and mix uniformly with your hands.
- Make a smooth dough with the help of water. Knead dough for 2-3 minutes. Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.
- Boil water in a large pan/ vessel. Add 1 tbsp salt and 1 tbsp oil to it.
- Divide dough into three parts. Adjust your press nozzle. We used this steel press for making noodles.
- Pass the dough through the press one by one into the hot boiling water.
- Boil as regular noodles. After 10 minutes check the noodles whether they are cooked properly or not. Drain in a strainer and wash with water.
To Make Curry
- Heat oil in a large pan or wok. Add mustard seeds, ginger, and green chilies.
- You can either boil the vegetables separately in salted water or stir fry them.
- We have stir fried them.Add turmeric powder and salt to the vegetables and stir fry for 4-5 minutes.
- Add red curry paste now if you are using it. We generally add red curry paste to laksa but today we did not have any so we just skipped it.
- If you are a lover of spicy food then I would strongly recommend it.
- Add coconut milk, lemongrass stalks, soya sauce, and pepper to the vegetables and let them simmer for some time.
- Now add water to get the desired consistency. Add sugar and basil leaves to the curry. Remove the lemongrass stalks before serving.
- Now add the boiled Noodles, lemon juice and tempering to the laksa.
To Make Tempering
- Heat oil in a small pan. When the oil is hot add curry leaves and red chili powder and switch off the flame. Add to the laksa immediately.
- Serve hot.