GETTING ON..

With the year, with each other....


You know you are "over" childbearing age when you pass push-chairs in the street and, instead of peering in and googling over the wee bairn, you speed up, sniggering to yourself,..."if only you knew...!!"


Something about having a bickering 16 and 12 year old under my roof has marked the end of any baby desire..a case of rigid, hormonal shut down!!


Anecdote :


Thursday evening after a 12 hour teaching day. Husband in Paris. Myself too brain-dead to be even remotely responsible in a kitchen, I call my children and tell them to meet me in our local noodle café for a quick meal.
I get there first and sit down to a fabulously large glass of crisp dry white.Vibrations of the negative kind approach my table as the progeny slouch into restaurant already wrangling. They sit down, so far no salutations to the mother, admist a slinging match of insults " you stink, you are so ugly, pimple face, 4 eyes, thick head, brain dead..."
 My wine glass is empty, drained. I must have had my toungue scratching around the bottom of it as the waiter then sidled up with a half bottle and asked if I would "need" it!!



Time to move on...


Something hot and spicey to warm up the heart...guaranteed to bring most grown men to their knees. Malaysian favourite, Laksa. This is best when you take the time to make the paste yourself. It is really easy and worth the extra 20 minutes!! 


Laksa


The Paste

6-8 long dried red chilies
8 purple (Asian) shallots
4cm-piece fresh ginger or galangal (blue ginger)
2 stems lemon grass, pale selection only
2 tbs peanut oil
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp shrimp paste
1 garlic clove

Place the dried chilies in a heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water and set aside for 15 mins to soften.

Drain and chop them coarsely.

Place chilli, shallots, ginger/galangal, lemon grass, oil, turmeric, shrimp paste and garlic into a food processor and process until fine. 

Put half a cup to one side for the soup. The rest can be frozen for future use.

The Soup

2 x chicken breasts 
1 tbs peanut oil
1/2 cup homemade laksa paste
2 x 280ml cans coconut milk
3 cups chicken stock
400g medium king prawns, peeled
Pinch of salt
500g hokkien noodles (or noodles of your choice)
100g bean sprouts
fresh mint leaves 
fresh corriander leaves
2 tbs fried shallots

Poach chicken and place it to one side ...

Heat some oil in a wok over a medium-high heat. 
Add laksa paste and cook , stirring occasionally for about 2 mins, stir in coconut milk and stock and bring to boil.
Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered for 5-10 mins.

Add prawns and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes or until prawns start changing colour. 
Add chicken and cook, until hot.
Prepare noodles, drain and serve into large bowls, throw in a few bean sprouts and then pour soup over the top. 

Garnish with mint and corriander leaves, and fried shallots.



ps this is the classic prawn and chicken recipe. My absolute favourite is to forget the chicken breast and replace with fish..monkfish, and snapper are WONDERFUL, texture and taste sensation!

Comments

  1. Laksa, YUM! Glad to see you back. Missed your post last week.
    Big fan. John

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  2. Susie where do I find all those paste ingredients for the Laksa? Am in France.
    Helena

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  3. @ Helena.There are loads of Asian supermarkets in France now. In Bordeaux we have Eurasie which is paradise on earth - spices, a million noodles, fresh herbs fruit and veg from asian growers.

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  4. So with you on your teenagers.Helped to see somebody else suffers as much as I do! Thanks Susie, your humour helps.

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  5. Laksa paste recipe is INCREDIBLE. Many thanks.

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  6. Made laksa...I am going to throw out all my bought thai pastes today!! This paste is so easy to make and frangrant plus!!!

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  7. Susie, the picture has tofu, you forgot the tofu. But you're right, I am on my knees

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  8. @ Chris, indeed forgot to add handful of cubed tofu panfried in peanut oil!! Glad you landed on your knees. Thanks for your comments. Susie

    ReplyDelete

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