Laksa soup

My Laksa soup is a wonderful combination of Indian spices cumin, coriander seeds, black pepper, red chilies and Southeast Asian staples Kaffir lime leaves, lemon lemongrass and coconut milk.

I’ve taken a lot of poetic license and changed this recipe to my liking.  I do not use tomatoes or tomato sauce or the readymade laksa red chili paste to let the lemony tangy Kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass shine through. The heat instead comes from red chilies and black pepper along with cumin and coriander seeds.

The original recipe calls for seafood such as shrimp or mussels  or clams or firm fish but it’s very difficult to reheat the soup with seafood and eat it around the week therefore I keep it vegetarian with firm tofu. 

If you like an oceany flavor adding fish sauce and shrimp paste to the soup is apt. But if the fishy flavor is not to your liking then you can surely skip it. Again to let kaffir lime and lemongrass flavors remain emperor I dropped shrimp paste and fish sauce.

So as to get the maximum flavor of the lemon grass use only the purple circumferenced portion of the lemongrass bulb,  cut it into small discs  and stuff it into a bouquet garnii bag and drop into the soup. Again the soup does not originally contain a lot of vegetables but I make mine as green as possible with green beans, broccoli or Chinese broccoli and bok choy. 

I cut the ginger into larger chunks so that they can be easily removed from the soup while slurping it. Towards the end I also add Thai basil to the bubbling pot. Thai basil is a deeper, richer flavored basil that adds a special touch to the soup. 

The leftover lemongrass I sauté in oil to make it crisp and then garnish the rice noodles which are floating in a large bowl of spicy, tangy, warm soup.

Perfect for a cold winter night!

Bon Appetit!

 

A bunch of Thai Basil, 4 biped leaves of Kaffir lime, a chunk of ginger

                          

4 sticks of fragrant lemon grass

The Indian twist, 2 tsps of black pepper, 3 red chilies, 2 tablespoons of cumin and 2 tablespoons of coriander seeds

A head of broccoli, 2 bunches of bok choy, a bunch of green beans 

2 large cakes of firm tofu, 2 slabs of rice sticks 

2 quarts of vegetable broth, 3 cans of coconut milk 

Roast the dry Indian spices on a pan 

Then grind fine 

Add vegetable broth and coconut milk to pot 

Add the ground spices 

Dice ginger into big chunks or can grate too 

Slice the lemon grass and use only the violet circumferenced portion 

Add the lemon grass to a bouquet garnii bag 

Add lemon grass bag, Kaffir lime leaves and ginger to pot of broth and coconut milk with spices 

Add chopped vegetables to pot 

Cook for 15 minutes 

Add rice noodles to hot water and soak for 10 min 

Drain the water 

Add large cubed firm tofu to pot and cook for another 10 min 

Then the chopped Thai basil 

Sauté left over lemon grass in pan with oil 

Add soup to bowl and drop the noodles in the center and decorate with fried lemon grass 

                                                                     Bon Appetit!