I made Laksa tonight for the dinner. Before I start to talk about my Laksa recipe, I have to warn everybody here that my Laksa version is so strange that you probably have never ever heard of. Okay, be ready for this: I actually used PORK….I made PORK LAKSA!!!!

Normally famous Malaysian Laksa is made of chicken fillets or seafood (prawns, scallops, crab meat or crayfish….) I don’t know why. Maybe I need a bit more knowledge about Malaysian culture. Or maybe Laksa paste goes better with seafood or chicken, or maybe there are Islamic people in Malaysia who don’t eat pork at all?….

Anyway I think in the territory of my kitchen, there is no such thing called “Sticking to recipes”. I’d love to, but personally I found it too inflexible. If you come across a recipe calling for a list of different ingredients, then you have to rush to supermarkets to get each of them with only a very small portion to make only ONE dish, it would sound way too crazy. So I always look at the alternatives to see if there is a substitute for some of ingredients.

I love Laksa, not all because of its taste. Actually I love the look more. I love orange-red-ish thick colour of Laksa paste mixed with white coconut milk, I love the way how they arrange vegetable, meat, bean sprouts, red bird eye chillies and coriander…

Anyway, here is how I made it (serves 2):

Bought 1 bottle of Laksa paste from Coles
400ml lite coconut milk (I don’t need full cream)
Dried vermicelli 150 g
1 red eye bird chilli, remove seeds and cut to strips and little round rings
4 pieces of firm tofu, sliced
3-4 baby bok choy, cut lengthways to quarters
1/2 can of mixed five beans bought from Aldi, rinse well and drain
100g pork, thinly sliced, processed with baking soda then rinse well and marinade with a bit of soy sauce, pint of salt and potato sachet. 1 small onion (or 1 red capsicum), roughly chopped to strips
Fish sauce, salt, suger
Lime slice

Prepare vermicelli:
Cooked in boiled water then rinse with tap water and drain.Divide into 2 serves and put in a big bowl.

Prepare meat and vegetable:
Deep fry sliced tofu in pan with enough cooking oil until golden brown and outside skin gets firm. Take out to set aside.Then cook marinade pork in oil, quickly stir fry until the colour turns light pink or white, take out to set aside. Cook onion the same way.

Prepare Laksa soup:
Cook Laksa paste with sufficient oil in wok on low heat until you can smell the fragrance. Add in coconut milk, cook for 5 minutes on medium heat. Then add in fried tofu, onion and mixed five beans, taste to decide if you need salt or fish sauce or a bit of sugar. Add in bok choy until the soup mixture cooked through and boil. At the last add in cooked pork, mix well and turn the heat off.

Final Touch:
Pour the soup on the top of vermicelli in the bowl. Sprinkle with chillies and coriander. You can actually also add bean sprout on the top, but my husband doesn’t like the taste of uncooked bean sprout, so I just skipped this one. Maybe add a bit of lime juice as well.

It tasted really good though it was my first time to try Laksa Let me know how you made your version of Laksa. Everything is possible!