This ‘How to make Laksa Sarawak’ is the first post using the ‘Sarawakian food’ category in this blog of mine.
This recipe is not mine, but rather my wife’s. To make it easier to understand the recipe, I’ve broken it down into parts.
I’ve also included links to Shopee where you can get each item or ingredient in the list below. (Link opens a new window, so you won’t navigate way from this site).
KITCHEN WARE
- Kitchen soup pot [BUY SOUP POT]
- Colander sieve [BUY COLANDER SIEVE]
- Bowls
- Knifes
- Chopping board
- Cup
- Pounder [BUY POUNDER]
INGREDIENTS
The preparations of the Laksa Sarawak ingredients is important before you start jumping into the whole process. Here, I’ve arranged them accordingly for you.
LAKSA GRAVY
How to make Laksa Sarawak begins with the heart and soul of Laksa Sarawak, which is the paste.
There’s plenty of brands to choose from, so I’m just going to make it general here. However, if you need to buy your Laksa Sarawak paste, I’ve given the link below.
A break down of the ingredients can be seen below. (You can click on all the ingredients and buy it on Shopee)
- Main paste: 300g Laksa Paste – 1 packet of 300gm laksa paste (serving for 10 person)
- Secondary paste: 150g Laksa Paste of other brands
- 300ml Santan [BUY SANTAN]
- 1,000ml of plain water
- Maggi Serbuk Cukup Aneka Rasa [BUY MAGGI CUKUP RASA] OR salt + Ajinomoto (seasoning) [BUY AJINAMOTO]
CONDIMENTS
Unfortunately, for the condiments you need to get them from your local wet market as they need to be fresh for your Laksa Sarawak to taste best.
Here’s a list of condiments needed:
- Mihun / Rice vermicelli [BUY MIHUN]
- 1 – 2 chicken leg or whole leg. – Steam it until it’s cook, take it out, set aside and separate the flesh into small thin pieces. OR you can serve it in huge chunks.
- Medium size prawn – Clean and either deshell or leave the shell on but clean the head. Blanch the prawns for 2-3 minutes, then take out and set aside.
- Bean sprouts / Taugeh – Blanch for 30 seconds before taking out
- Eggs – Fry into an omelette and then cut into small long chunks
- Calamansi / Lime/ Limau kasturi
- Coriander leaves / Daun ketumbar – Cut small to sprinkle onto your laksa Sarawak later
The lime needs to be cut into half as you will need to squeeze its juice into the Laksa Sarawak before serving.
The Coriander leaves can be replaced with soup leaves.
LAKSA SAMBAL
• 3 inci of shrimp paste (belacan) [BUY BELACAN]
• 5 chilies (decrease number of chilies to reduce spiciness)
• 3 calamansi (lime/limau kasturi)
• 1 table spoon of warm water
HOW TO COOK LAKSA SARAWAK
It is important to be systematic when cooking Laksa Sarawak so that your laksa remains hot when served.
This is because Laksa Sarawak is best served when still hot. That said, it is important to plan the whole process, and hence why we start by doing the Laksa Sambal first.
MAKING THE SAMBAL
- Toast shrimp paste (belacan) in a microwave 30 seconds on medium heat. OR barbeque it on a gas stove until you can smell it. Make sure you don’t burn the shrimp paste.
- Pound the chilies with a pounder and include the shrimp paste which you have toasted.
- Take out the mixture of pounded chilies and shrimp paste and include the juice from one or two calamansi juice which had been sieved using a colander sieve. Mix all together well. [BUY COLANDER SIEVE]
- Pour a table spoon of warm water and mix well until there’s no more shrimp paste chunks visible.
- The laksa sambal is ready to serve once the mixture is well mixed.
PREPARING THE MIHUN
Blanch the mihun in boiling water until soft. Take out and then blanch in cold water. Drain and serve in a big bowl.
Do not blanch the mihun in boiling water or cold water for too long as it may cause the mihun to become soggy.
MAKING THE LAKSA SARAWAK BROTH
1. Boil the chicken in the 1 liter of water for 30 minutes. Once ready, take out the chicken, let cool and then serve accordingly later. Do not throw away the water.
2. Use the same water used for boiling the chicken to blanch the prawn for 2-3 minutes until the prawn changes colour. Take out prawns and set aside. Do not overcook the prawn as it will be hard. Keep your stove flame in check during this process. Do not throw away the water.
3. By now, the pot of water will already contain the mixture of flavors from the chicken and prawn. Boil it again, and then add all the laksa paste. Leave to boil on medium heat for 20 minutes.
4. Turn off the fire and use a colander sieve to sieve/separate the chunks of spices from the broth. The chunks of spices can be discharged as you only need the broth. [BUY COLANDER SIEVE]
Tips: This step is important to ensure you have a clean and pretty looking broth. You can skip this step, but your gravy will have chunks of spices and it will make your broth look messy.
5. After sieving/separating the broth, reheat the broth with 400ml of water and leave it to boil.
6. Once boiled, add in the santan cream. Stir slowly to ensure the santan mixes nicely. Add in Maggi Serbuk Cukup Rasa (or salt + Ajinamoto) according to your taste.
7. Bring to boil on medium heat, and leave to boil for another 15 minutes. This is the last step to prepare the Laksa Sarawak broth. Once you have boiled the Laksa Sarawak broth, it is ready to serve.
SERVING LAKSA SARAWAK
- Put mihun in a bowl. Arrange the condiments on top of the mihun – a bit of everything: egg, chicken slices, bean sprouts, prawn.
- Then pour in the broth just enough to submerge everything.
- Sprinkle Coriander leaves on top of the mihun.
- Serve with calamansi and laksa sambal on the sides as you can see above.
Video of Laksa Sarawak cooking
Check out the video of my wife and I cooking Laksa Sarawak below. It can be used as a guide for the recipe above!.
Bon Appetite!
