There are two Kelantanese dishes I love — nasi dagang and laksam! Whenever I have a craving for either of these meals, I know that I only have to go downstairs to SoHo restaurant and pack some to go. Nasi dagang involves a lot of preparation and cooking — the special rice, the beef, chicken or fish curry, and the condiments. But Laksam — it’s so doable since I discovered Udon!
Since then, I have found this recipe on the internet and recipised it for use on my Thermomix 6 and within minutes, I can have homemade Laksam!
INGREDIENTS
150 gms white fish meat
1/4 medium sized white onion
2 cloves garlic
1″ peeled ginger
1 tsp black pepper
25 gms Santan powder
Salt to taste
1 piece dried tamarind
1 packet Udon noodles (or homemade Laksam noodles)
Ready made sambal belacan
INGREDIENTS FOR GARNISHING TO SERVE
Taugeh – cleaned and tailed
Long beans – sliced thinly
Bunga kantan (ginger flower) – quartered lengthwise and sliced thinly
Daun kesum – sliced thinly
Cabbage – sliced thinly
DIRECTIONS
Wash the fish and place in Thermomix mixing bowl with 500 gms water and salt to taste. Cook with measuring cup — 15 minutes, temperature 95 centigrade, speed 0.5
Pour into a bowl to cool, and once cool, remove bones, head if any, and skin if desired. Do not throw away the fish water!
Place onion, garlic, ginger and black pepper into mixing bowl, add back 100 gms of fish water, cover with measuring cup and blend — 2 seconds at Turbo. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and repeat 2 more times until the ingredients are pureed.
Add the balance of the fish water and the fish and blend — 2 seconds at Turbo. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and repeat to desired thickness.
Add santan powder, cover mixing bowl and with measuring cup — cook for 15 minutes, temperature 95 centigrade and speed 1. Taste the sauce for salt, add tamarind and cook for 10 minutes more.
To serve, place Udon noodles in shallow bowl, spread shredded veg and herbs on top, and ladle the fish gravy generously. Add sambal belacan as required.