Laksa is a Malaysian dish. It is a coconut based curry with lots of vegetables, noodles, and tofu. It is a very spicy and hot dish. There is a very slight hint of sweet and sour.
Laksa is a meal in itself as it has lots of veggies, noodles, and tofu in it. Tofu is not readily available where we live so we just make laksa without it or using Nutrela Soybean granules. You can use lightly grilled Paneer cubes in place of tofu. You can use broccoli, carrots, snow peas, beans in veg laksa. I have used whatever vegetables I had at home.
There is this interesting story about laksa. When I got married, Axat was working in Australia. One day we went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. I ate Laksa for the first time in my life there. After taking my first sip I started laughing. When he asked me why I was laughing I said to him- “So you have brought an Indian girl to a Thai restaurant to eat a Malaysian dish in Australia.” Then it was his turn.
The credit for this recipe goes to Axat. It is his recipe and he was the main chef. I was only helping him. He cooks really good food. Whenever we are making Thai red curry, Chowmein or Laksa I just cut vegetables, boil noodles, things like that and hand over the kitchen to him.
This is our first attempt at making Noodles at home. I just followed my homemade Lasagna sheet recipe and the result was quite good. I am definitely not buying noodles again.
How to make Veg. Laksa with homemade noodles
Preparation time: 10 minutes
cooking time: 20-25 minutes
Ingredients:
For Noodles:
2 cups Plain flour (maida)
2 tbsp oil
½ tsp salt
Water
For laksa:
Boiled Noodles
2 tbsp of oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
2 carrots peeled and sliced
150 grams French beans
1 cup baby corns
2 Green chilies chopped
1 tbsp chopped ginger
¼ tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp Thai red curry paste (You can increase or decrease quantity according to your taste)
400 ml of coconut milk can
2 stalks lemon grass
½ tbsp soy sauce
½ tsp black pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
Juice of ½ lemon
salt to taste
8-10 Basil leaves
water
For tempering:
1 tbsp oil
4-5 curry leaves
½ tsp red chili powder
To make homemade Noodles
Sift flour and add salt to it. Add oil and mix uniformly with your hands.
Make a smooth dough with the help of water. Knead dough for 2-3 minutes. Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.
Boil water in a large pan/ vessel. Add 1 tbsp salt and 1 tbsp oil to it.
Divide dough into three parts. Adjust your press nozzle. We used this steel press for making noodles.
Pass the dough through the press one by one into the hot boiling water. Boil as regular noodles. After 10 minutes check the noodles whether they are cooked properly or not. Drain in a strainer and wash with water.
To make curry
Heat oil in a large pan or wok. Add mustard seeds, ginger, and green chilies.
You can either boil the vegetables separately in salted water or stir fry them. We have stir fried them.Add turmeric powder and salt to the vegetables and stir fry for 4-5 minutes.
Add red curry paste now if you are using it. We generally add red curry paste to laksa but today we did not have any so we just skipped it. If you are a lover of spicy food then I would strongly recommend it.
Add coconut milk, lemongrass stalks, soya sauce, and pepper to the vegetables and let them simmer for some time. Now add water to get the desired consistency. Add sugar and basil leaves to the curry. Remove the lemongrass stalks before serving.
Now add the boiled Noodles, lemon juice and tempering to the laksa.
To make tempering
Heat oil in a small pan. When the oil is hot add curry leaves and red chili powder and switch off the flame. Add to the laksa immediately.
Serve hot.
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Aps
Wow… homemade noodles… m sure its yum
and the dish too!
Nidhi
It was really good. You should give it a try. There was not even much effort involved.:-)