Do it on my own…

I went to Kopitiam Fantasy to try the Sarawak laksa there that Alfie said was nice…

…but I thought it was just so-so – nice but not really great and I still prefer the one at Thomson Corner. The sambal belacan (pounded dried prawn paste with chillies) was very good though – really pedas (hot)…

Well, now that my daughter’s home, I am trying to cook things that she likes and the other day, I decided to cook my very own Sarawak laksa all by myself. I used this new brand of laksa sambal (paste) that I got from a cousin of mine in Kuching…

I boiled a piece of chicken breast and kept the stock. In the meantime, I shredded the chicken meat into fine, thin strips…

I also boiled some prawns – shell removed and de-veined, of course…

…and kept the stock as well. I also boiled the heads and the shell of the prawns for the stock before throwing them away.

Then I mixed the stock from the chicken and the prawns and added the laksa sambal and boiled that for the broth, soup or gravy – whichever you prefer to call it. It seems that with this particular brand, you do not need to tapis (sieve) in order to get a “cleaner” broth but if you are using some of the other brands available, you may need to do that.

When it had started boiling, I added a tin of santan (coconut milk) and a tablespoon of anchovies (ikan bilis) stock instead of salt and msg.

The other things that I needed to do were to fry some omelette and cut into thin strips…

…and to blanch some mihun (rice vermicelli) and taugeh (bean sprouts).

To serve, place the mihun in a bowl and on top, place the chicken shreds, the prawns, strips of egg and taugeh and pour the broth over all of that…

Add Chinese celery and serve.

My verdict? It was very nice but I think I still prefer the Double Swallow brand. Perhaps I should try that one of these days to see if it is still as good…