I love laksa... I have always said that I will attempt to make one at home. Except... I love following my nose into an authentic Malaysian restaurant and ordering a laska. I've convinced myself that making it at home takes away from the 'specialness' of it... eating laska is one of those special moments I shared with my mom when I used to work in the city- it was our special mother/daughter thing. We'd both order our laska, be handed a plastic bib to protect our clothes and wait in anticipation as the beautiful bowl of creamy, orangey broth full of veggies were placed in front of us... followed by that aroma of coconut and chilli that would just make our mouth water.
When I found this recipe I got really excited because although it used 60g of laksa paste and coconut milk, it wasn't laksa. Which meant that I wasn't really cheating on the pact that I made...or so I tried to convince myself.
Pumpkin & Coconut Noodle SoupAdapted from Australian BBC GoodFood (April 09 pg 61)
4 cups (1L) salt reduced chicken stock
500g pumpkin, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
60g laksa paste
100g rice vermicelli noodles
400ml coconut milk
1 tbsp fish sauce
11/2 cups (120g) beansprouts, trimmed
small or torn basil leaves, to garnish (I swapped this to coriander, somehow I thought it would go better with this dish)
Bring stock to the boil in a large saucepan. In the mean time soak the noodles in some cold water for about 10mins. When the stock comes to the boil add pumpkin and laksa paste, cover and simmer for 4 mins. Add the noodle, coconut mil and fish sauce. Cook for couple of minutes.
Ladle soup into serving bowls. Top with beansprouts, garnish with coriander and serve. There are different variety of laska paste available, some spicier than others. I found that the particular brand I used wasn't hot enough for my liking, so I added some chilli paste or you could use fresh chilli too.
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