“One of the best things I’ve ever eaten” This is what Adam said about this dish. I love it too. I’ve adapted it from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi.
Ingredients
100g peeled onion or shallots
8 garlic cloves
1cm sized piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
15g lemongrass (soft white stem only), sliced
2 tsp ground coriander
3 Kashmiri dried red chillies
1 birds eye chilli
4 tbsp vegetable oil
50g fresh coriander
1¼ litres vegetable stock
3 branches laksa leaves (aka kesum leaves), or curry leaves, or both
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp palm sugar
400ml coconut milk
100g rice vermicelli noodles
300g bean sprouts
150g french beans, trimmed and halved
250g fried tofu puffs or prawns (optional)
4 limes, halved
Method
Put the first seven ingredients in a small food processor bowl. Add half the oil, and the roots and stems of the fresh coriander, and process to a semi-smooth paste.
Heat the remaining oil in a saucepan and fry the spice paste on medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring all the time – you want to cook it slowly without burning. Add the stock, laksa branches, curry powder, salt, sugar and coconut milk, simmer gently for 30 minutes, then taste and add more salt if necessary.
About 7 minutes before laksa us ready remove and discard the curry leaf branches (the leaves can stay in the soup). Add the beans and prawns. About 4 minutes later add the noodles and half the sprouts. When the soup is done ladle into large bowls and top with the remaining sprouts and shredded coriander leaves. Squeeze lime juice on top and throw one half of squeezed lime into each bowl.
