Slowly…

My friend, Philip, from the US gave me these packets of sambal laksa (laksa paste) around July last year…

*Archive photo*

and I tried the one on the right but I did not think it had the authentic Sarawak laksa taste. What put me off this particular brand was that even though I did not have to sieve the broth (you would need to do this with some brands of the paste), there was some powdery residue in it, making it somewhat unpalatable. I had the Hj. Manan one before and though it was pretty good, I also did not think it was quite like the real thing. However, the expiry date was drawing near – in June this year so I decided I might as well cook it instead of letting go to waste.

In my mind, I was of the opinion that last Friday would be a good day to do that as Melissa would be coming home for the weekend followed by a week-long mid-semester break. I had bought the prawns a few days earlier and peeled them so that would be one less thing to do in the morning in question. I would not say it was difficult but there would be quite a few things to see to and it could be very time-consuming. Ah well!!! As everyone knows, I’ve already retired and I have all the time in the world so I could just go through it slowly, doing one thing at a time, and as a matter of fact, I quite enjoyed getting it all done at my own casual and easy pace.

To start off, I bought a ringgit worth of taugeh (bean sprouts) and I had to go through the chore of removing the tails. Once done, I boiled some water and poured it over them to blanch them…

…and drained away the water quickly before they got overdone. I also poured the water over the mihun (rice vermicelli) to soften it…

Then I cut the tauhu pok (fried bean curd cakes) thinly…

…and fried some omelette and did the same.

I had forgotten to buy some daun sup (Chinese coriander) so for the garnishing, I just chopped some spring onions that we had growing in our garden…

…and I also pounded some chillies with belacan (dried prawn paste)…

…for the dip.

I boiled the prawns in two bowls of water and saved the stock and I sliced some fish cake and did the same…

Usually, in Sarawak laksa, chicken is used. The breast meat is boiled and then shredded into thin strips but I was not having any meat that day so I substituted that with the fish cake.

All right, I had everything done now…

…and the last thing I would have to do was to cook the broth.

I poured the stock from the prawns and fish cake into a pot and brought it to boil. Then I emptied the packet of sambal laksa into it and let it simmer for a while. Lastly, I put in an ikan bilis (dried anchovies) stock cube and poured in a can of santan (coconut milk). Of course it would be nicer to use fresh santan but I was too lazy to buy some grated coconut and squeeze. Once I had brought it back to boil, the broth was ready…

All that we had to do after that was to put the mihun and a bit of everything else in a bowl, pour the broth over it, garnish with the chopped spring onions and serve…

That certainly was a lot of work, wasn’t it? It sure would be easier and faster if there were more than one person doing everything but it was no matter. Just watching Melissa enjoying one huge bowl all to herself to the max…

…when she came home that afternoon was worth every minute that I spent cooking it.

I am sure you would do the same for your loved ones as well, wouldn’t you?