Chicken and Prawn Laksa

I have had a number of people ask about the main photo on my blog and asking "what is it?" and "what's the recipe?" Its actually a bowl of Chicken and Prawn Laksa which is a coconut curry soup with noodles.

The first time I tried this was on a winters afternoon in a tiny Malaysian café in Euston, London and I was so happy with this hot, spicy, rich noodle based soup that I was determined to learn how to make it. It's a very impressive looking dish to delight friends over for dinner too!

You can, of course, buy Laksa paste in most shops, which makes life a lot quicker. Here I have made the paste so you can try it if you wish.

For the Laksa paste:

4 dried Kashmiri chillies (boiled in water for 3 minutes and left to soak in the water for 10)
25g roasted peanuts
2 sticks lemongrass, sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 inch piece ginger
1 tbsp. curry powder
2 tsp. shrimp paste
1/2 onion, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp. salt (or none if the peanuts are salted)

Put all of the above into a hand blender and blend to a paste.

For the soup:

250g raw prawns (shell on)
200g firm tofu
300ml coconut milk
2 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. palm sugar
1 large chicken breast, sliced
100g beansprouts
100g green beans, halved
400g egg noodles
few spring onions, sliced for garnish
handful coriander, chopped for garnish
handful peanuts, chopped for garnish

Peel the prawns and fry the shells and heads in a pan, leaving the peeled prawns to one side. Add 1 litre of water and bring to the boil. Turn to a simmer for 10 minutes and strain. Reserve the stock.

Cut the tofu into cubes and fry in 1 tbsp. oil until crisp. Drain on kitchen paper and set to one side.

Fry the Laksa paste (from above or shop bought) in 1 tbsp. oil for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Add the prawn stock, coconut milk, fish sauce and palm sugar. Bring to the boil and set on a medium heat to let the flavours come together for 5 minutes. Drop in the prawns and chicken and cook for a further 7-8 minutes. Add the green beans and beansprouts and cook for 5 more minutes.

To assemble, cook the noodles as per pack instructions and put a portion into a bowl. Put the fried tofu onto the noodles and top with a few ladles of the curry soup. Garnish with coriander, spring onions and peanuts.

I also made a little chilli sambal for extra heat!

Thai Green Papaya Salad (Tam Som)

This spicy salad combines the five main tastes of Thai cuisine. Sour lime, hot chillies, savoury fish sauce, salt and sweetness. It is of Lao origin and is one of their traditional staple dishes.  Its made with green unripe papaya and is incredibly fresh in taste. Served simply with grilled chicken and rice its unique and delicious.

I used to struggle buying green papayas as all the shops seemed to just sell them ripe (yellow) which you can't use for this dish but it seems the green papayas are everywhere now. And upon looking, just in my local high street in London - they were everywhere!

But if you can't find any - you can substitute the papaya with a number of ingredients from turnip to mooli to unripe mango.

The first thing you need is a pestle and mortar. Pop in one garlic clove and a chopped thai red chilli (seeds removed). Crush to a pulp with a 1/4 tsp. salt. Add a handful of chopped green beans (maybe 8) and pound a little more. Then add 4-5 cherry tomatoes, quartered and pound again. It should look like this:

Then add 1 tablespoon of palm sugar, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and the juice of one lime. Mix thoroughly and put into a serving bowl.

Then you need to cut one carrot and one papaya into thin strips. For the papaya, I use a vegetable peeler and firstly peel the fruit - then keep peeling the flesh in strips and the, slice into julienne strips.  Add the carrot and papaya to the tomato and bean mix and stir well.

Serve on some salad leaves and top with chopped peanuts, if liked.