Laksa Penang

MrHubby was oncalled again yesterday..But I didn't cook anything for him for tea..instead I went to town centre and bought him a doner burger and 2pieces of fried chicken. 

And for dinner, I cooked Laksa Penang using my own recipe ;p (of course I have rough idea what to put inside the kuah/broth, thanks to my mum!). I used rice sticks/kuew teow instead of laksa because that was all I have in the pantry yesterday. And of course I used canned fish (2 small canned tuna and 1 small canned salmon) which had made my cooking so much easier! And the verdict...MrHubby said it was a bit too sour for his liking but for me, it's delish! I think Laksa Penang has to be sour, for it to taste better. So if you don't like to be too sour, you could always use less tamarind paste or asam keping.

My Laksa Penang is served

Recipe Laksa Penang (eat 5-6people)

Source: My Mum

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of ricestick/mee udon/thick rice noodles/spaghetti
• 2 small canned tuna (120g/can)*
• 1 small canned salmon (250g/can)*
• 1 large onion*
• 3 cloves of garlic*
• 2cm ginger (peeled)*
• 3 slices of galangal*
• 10-15 dried chillies (boiled and drained)*
• 4-5 slices asam keping
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste+1cup of water (mix well making 1cup of tamarind juice)
• 4-5 cups of water
• A handful of kesum/ Vietnamese mint/laksa leaves
• 1 lemon grass (smashed and bruised)
• Salt and sugar (I put 4-5tbsp of sugar and 2-3tbsp of salt) 

• 4 hard-boiled eggs (cut into 4sclices)
• 1/2 Pineapple (small cubes)- you could use canned pineapple
• Iceberg lettuce (julienned)
• Cucumber (thinly sliced and then julienned)
• Mint (chopped)-substitute with spring onion
• Lime slices (if needed)

Method:

1. Cook the noodles according to its instructions and set aside.
2. Blend together *ingredients with 1cup of water.
3. Pour into a big saucepan and heat up on high heat. Add the rest of ingredients and cook well. Season to your taste.
4. Serve with the laksa/thick rice noodles and the salads.

As for BabyZara, we are now starting to brush her teeth (she has 8 very sharp teeth) every night before she went to bed. Actually we had introduce the toothbrush since she was 5months but it was not consistent (that time she loved to bite the toothbrush bristles while teething). We have to make routine for her to brush her teeth but sometimes I forgot to do so..sigh..

Bangun pagi terus gosok gigi ;))

Then she found Abah's Iphone..one of her fav toys!

Broken camera

Our BabyZara dropped our 6year old Sony digital camera and now its broken! Thanks to Mr&Mrs J (neighbours and our bestfriends), the pictures taken for this entry were using their digital camera. Is this a sign that we should get a new camera?? Hehehe..I'm eyeing a dslr..which at the moment we couldn't afford (sigh...) maybe will get it once we have got extra money in the pocket to spend (sigh..as if it's going to happen) Or  maybe that would happen when I start going back to work soon? I hope so..in the mean time, maybe we'll get a bargain and inexpensive digital camera.

BabyZara's crying when she didn't get what she wants

Melting my heart away with her smiles (and those sparkly eyes)

Now back to my lunch menu made yesterday, Laksa Kelantan. This is a famous delicacy of East Coast Peninsular Malaysia (Kelantan and Terengganu). MrHubby called it Laksa Terengganu or sometimes Laksa Putih (mentang2 la dia orang Terengganu)..hehe..but I always called it Laksa Kelantan (since I'm originally from Kelantan ;p)This recipe is very easy (especially when using canned tuna/salmon as I did) as you only need only a few ingredients blended together and let them simmer in the pot.

Laksa Kelantan consists of coconut-based fish soup/kuah, eat with rice noodles, mixed salad and chilli paste/sambal. There is another variation called Laksam Kelantan, where rice sticks are used insted of rice noodles.

Ingredients:

• *1 onion
• *3 cloves of garlic
• *2cm ginger (peeled)
• 1tbsp freshly ground black pepper
• 3 pieces of asam keping (picture as below)- you could get this from asian store
• 1 canned salmon (400g)- or you could use canned tuna/mackerel
• 1 canned tuna (120g)
• 1 can of coconut milk (400ml)- I used Chaokoh brand
• 400ml water
• 3tsp salt
• 1tbsp sugar
• 1 packet of udon noodles (Japanese rice noodles)- usually I used spaghetti

Canned tuna, canned salmon, udon noodles and coconut milk

Asam keping/Asam gelugor

Method:

Simmering kuah laksa

1. Blend together the *ingredients. Transfer them in a big saucepan/pot.
2. Blend coarsely the canned fish (you could add in some water, would be easier to blend) then transfer them into the pan
3. Add in the rest of ingredients (except the Udon/spaghetti) and cook on high heat until boiled. Then turn down the heat, le it simmer for 10minutes. Then,its ready to be served.

Salads:

• Cucumber (sliced and julienned)-as in the picture below
• Beansprouts
• Longbeans (sliced)- I used fine beans instead
• Kesum/Laksa leaves/Vietnamese coriander@mint (Didn't have them in my fridge so I used normal coriander)
• I also added ready-to-eat salad leaves

Sambal/Chilli paste:

• 10 dried chillies (seeded, boiled and blended), 100ml of water and 1 tsp of salt, cooked on medium heat for 10-15mins  

Laksa Kelantan is served

How do u eat Laksa Kelantan?? Its easy peasy! ;) Take the noodles about one cup, then take about 1tbsp of each salads,scatter them onto your noodles. Add about one cup of fish soup (I usually add more cos I love soupy noodles) and 1 tsp of sambal (add more if you like it spicier). Mix them all together. Now, enjoy!! You could use your hands (lets get messy ;P) or you could use your fork to dig in the goodness! The end results would be the same, its DELISH!

Ready to be eaten