Nyonya Chicken Lakse

Tonight's Nyonya Chicken Lakse photoshoot. - Iv'e posted these more as an excuse to show some of my cooking, but for the record hastily taken with K-5IIs and Sigma 30mm f/1.4 as I was eager to eat it. [ as usual click on images for bigger versions ]


The whizzed up paste:



Bit of garnishing:




The grub:













The Recipe:

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Nyonya Chicken Laksa [ Laksa Lemak ] - NYONYA FOOD
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100g yellow noodle or mee hoon [ rice noodles]

Laksa Broth (A)
10++ shallots -bawang kecil (peeled and sliced)
1 tsp one small piece of turmeric - kunyit (about 8-10cm.skinned) -
1 tsp one small piece of galangal - lengkuas (about 6cm)
2 stalks lemongrass - serai ( sliced )
5 ( or more ) dried chilies - cili kering (soaked until soften)
3 candlenuts - buah keras ( or macademia nuts/cashews)
3g shrimp paste - belacan
1 tsp coriander powder - serbuk ketumbar

(B)
250ml prawn or chicken stock
1/2 cups thick santan ( coconut Milk )
some cooking oil


Garnishing Ingredients ( optional )
1 hard boiled regular egg halved
50g cooked chicken [ sauteed in mustard oil ]
50g beansprouts (blanched)
1 bunch polygonum leaves - daun kesum (vietnamese Coriander )
spring onions chopped

Sambal Ingredients
4 fresh red chilli
4 stalks dried chilli (soaked)
1/2 tsp shrimp paste-belacan
salt and sugar for taste

------------- METHOD-------------------------------------
Sambal
1] finely grind the chillies.
2] Heat some cooking oil,saute the chilli paste until fragrant.Then add salt and sugar to taste.

Laska Broth

1] finely grind ingredients (A) to a smooth paste.
2] Heat up some oil and saute the spice paste until fragrant.
3] Add in the chicken/prawn stock and bring to boil.
4] Then add in coconut milk,salt and sugar for taste.Bring it to a quick boil stirring continuously.
5] Turn off the heat.

To assemble

1] cook noodle/mee hoon in boilling water & drain. blanch beansprouts
2] Place the noodles/mee hoon in a large bowl,ladle hot laksa gravy over.
3] Top with all garishing ingredients and sambal.
Serve immediately or else!

I know we are talking about adding a bit of spice to this forum, But I am not sure this is what we meant

Great photos though, with great colours also.

Depth of field control in #4 is great

Can't stand hard boiled eggs though, which rather ruins the shoot (and recipe) for me

You can leave the eggs out

And Matty it was very spicey.

bit of a cooking fan smegg - love the dish - looks bloody gorgeous. nice pics as well

The end result looks nice...the first image looks like something that's been eaten before.

I need some shrimp paste and mustard oil and I reckon we will give that a go

It looks fantastic smeggy

Photo's as expected are cracking - I am sat here eating cashew nuts bit wishing I was eating that

I'll have a No.4 and 2 nan breads please.

The mustard oil is optional, but since discovering it I always have some in. Lovely stuff.

However for the these type of dishes the Shrimp paste is essential. On it's own it smells rank, a bit like a tramp's pants, but once combined in the dish it really lifts it.

Make sure you buy Pentax Shrimp Paste though.

How come you are familiar with the smell of tramp's pants, Smeggy?

Wow that looks good. Currently stuck in bed with a nasty throat infection. Can barely swallow liquid, let alone solids, so those pictures are making my tummy rumble. They've also produced a load of saliva which I now have to try to swallow. Bring back chamberpots I say...

Not sure I could smuggle the shrimp paste past the wife - I would stand a better chance trying to conceal a DA560 (she has a deep phobia of all things fishy and seafoody).

I wonder if extra chillies would fix my throat?

EM

Looks really good. Have to be careful with the pronunciation of turmeric.

I see Smeggy, whilst not familiar with tramps pants fish sauce also smells rank but adds to dishes

Th first time we had fish sauce I moved the bottle a day or so after opening it and there must have been some on the outside, I threw two onions out thinking they had gone rotten until I noticed the smell was on my hand

That is now referred to as A*se sauce in our house

I have not seen shrimp paste for sale - any suggestions on places to obtain it?

Too much yellow colour noise in the egg yolks!

Thanks Smeggy, you've given a very practical solution to those of us who are struggling to find inspiring locations, and when there struggle to extract a focus and creative angle to form an image that really says something .... just stay at home and photograph our supper!!!

I'm glad to see your new K5iis earning its keep there - seems to be well up to the job. However you must have worked some real technical magic with aperture choice and angle of focal plane relative to the lemongrass soaked cashews to be able to avoid bighting the entire dish with impenetrable moire .... or maybe you did that with one click in Lightroom ?

It a colourful and detailed subject and very enticing (perhaps not the paste of the first one) - can almost smell it from here. Thanks for sharing your supper.

Yep - looks pretty Good to me! Not sure I can take the chillies in the same quantity and manner that I used to though!