How…

I bought a few packets of the sambal (paste) laksa for that exclusive Sarawak delight for my Singaporean friend, Alfred, to take back home and try cooking it himself. For one thing, there are so many at the shops and supermarkets, including one that is made in Sibu, that I really did not know which one to buy. In the end, I settled for one that seemed rather popular – you would get to see it in all the shops along with a few other brands – the helang matahari (sun eagle) brand.

Well, I’ve blogged about how to go about cooking it but just in case Alfred’s too lazy to go and search for the relevant posts, here’s how to go about it once again. First, I bought some pek hay (seawater “white prawns”), peeled and de-veined them, leaving behind the tails, and removed the heads. I washed the shell and heads and then boiled them in water for the stock. I also boiled the prawns, drained and put them aside…

…and kept the stock too. Then I boiled a piece of chicken breast and keeping the stock, I took out the meat and shredded it into fine thin strips…and put that aside as well.

I put all the stock that I had from the prawns and chicken in a pot and emptied the packet(s) of laksa paste into it and brought it to boil. I let it simmer for a long while to get the taste out of the ingredients…by which time, the whole house would be filled with a very nice fragrance of the culinary delight.

In the meantime, I fried some omelette (see above photo) and cut very thinly and put that aside with the rest. I also soaked a pack of bihun in hot water to soften…

…and did the same with the taugeh (bean sprouts), tails removed…

…and I also cut some daun sup for garnishing but I pounded the sambal belacan (dried prawn paste) dip the previous day, ahead of time so I would not have too much to handle on the actual day of cooking.

Then, I sieved the broth to remove the residue of the ingredients….

…from it. Once done, I brought the broth back to boil and added santan (coconut milk) and half a cube of ikan bilis (dried anchovies) stock to it…

To serve, I placed the bihun in a bowl, arranged the prawns, chicken, egg and taugeh and poured the broth all over them…

…before sprinkling some chopped daun sup on top.

Yes, it turned out very nice and that day, being a Friday, my girl and her friend/colleague came home and had it…

…for dinner and yes, they loved it too!

There you have it, Alfred! It really is not difficult, just that there may be a lot of things to do. Good luck!!!