Assam Laksa

Most of us in the family love Assam Laksa; it is spicy, sour, sweet, salty and aromatic. The aroma comes from the torch ginger flower (bunga kantan), the lemongrass (serai), the galangal (lengkuas) as well as the fish used in preparing the soup. I love to use the mackeral (kembong) in my soup. However, some prefer to use the sardine. The thick soup is served over the thick rice noodles and the dish is garnished with cucumber, pineapple, onion, torch ginger flower and mint. Some of us love to eat it with more shrimp paste (hae ko) added to it. Usually one bowl is not enough for each person. Thus, we always have to prepare a lot of soup, noodles and the garnishes so that everyone can eat to his or heart's content.

Ingredients:

• 450 g rice noodles (for 4 pax)

       For blending:

• 100 g red chilies
• 10 g dried chilies
• 70 g big onions
• 70 g shallots
• 3 lemongrass stalks, the white part only
• 1 inch belacan, toasted
• 1 inch galangal

    For the soup:

• 1 kg ikan kembong
• 2-2.5 litres water

• All the blended spices above
• 100 g daun kesum
• 2 lemongrass stalks, bruised
• 2 torch ginger stalks (bunga kantan), quartered lengthwise
• 6 pcs of assam keping
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2.5 tsp salt, or to taste
• 1 tbsp shrimp paste

    For Garnishing:

• cucumber
• pineapple
• big onion
• torch ginger
• bird's eye chilies
• mint, optional
• lettuce, optional
• egg, optional

Method:

• Prepare a big pot of boiling water.
• Add the rice noodles to the boiling water.
• Let the water continue to boil for 15-20 minutes.
• Cover the pot, turn off the fire and let the noodles sit in the pot till they soften.

• Boil 2.5 litre of water in another big pot.
• Add the kembong to the pot and let the fishes cook.
• Once they are cooked, remove them from the pot.
• Remove the fish meat from the bones. Mash the fish meat and return them to the pot.
• Add the bones to a blender. Add some water to blend the bones. Once done, sieve the fish bone water to the pot. Discard the mashed up bone.
• Add all the blended ingredients to the pot.
• Add the daun kesum, the bruised lemongrass, the quartered torch ginger flower, assam keping, sugar, salt and shrimp paste to the pot.
• Let the soup boil. (The longer you boil, the more fragrant and tasty the soup will be.) 
• Test for sourness, saltiness, spiciness and sweetness. You may add more assam keping, salt, chili, sugar or shrimp paste.
• The soup is ready for consumption.

• Garnishing:
• Julienne the cucumber.
• Slice the onion as thinly as possible.
• Slice the pineapple thinly.
• Cut the bird eye chilies.
• Slice the torch ginger flower thinly.