Singaporean cuisine
Katong laksa
Rice noodles in a coconut broth with prawns, cut short and eaten with a spoon only.
- Prep
- 45 min
- Cook
- 60 min
- Total
- 105 min
- Difficulty
- Takes practice
Ingredients
- Thick rice noodles400 g
- Prawns — shell-on500 g
- Cockles300 g
- Coconut milk500 ml
- Dried chillies12
- Shallots8
- Garlic5 clove
- Lemongrass3
- Galangal30 g
- Fresh turmeric20 g
- Belacan2 tsp
- Candlenuts5
- Dried shrimp40 g
- Laksa leaf20 g
- Bean sprouts150 g
- Vegetable oil120 ml
- Saltto taste
Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.
Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.
Method
- 1
Peel the prawns, fry the shells and simmer them in a litre of water for twenty minutes, then strain.
27 min
- 2
Soak the dried chillies and dried shrimp in boiling water for twenty minutes.
22 min
- 3
Blend the chillies, shallot, garlic, lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, candlenuts and belacan into a paste.
15 min
- 4
Fry the paste in oil for twenty minutes over medium heat, until the oil breaks out at the edges.
22 min
- 5
Add the prawn broth and the laksa leaf and cook fifteen minutes.
17 min
- 6
Add the coconut milk, season and warm it five minutes without letting it boil.
7 min
- 7
Cut the cooked noodles into short lengths, divide them between bowls with the prawns and sprouts and ladle over the broth.
12 min
About the dish
The noodles are cut into short lengths and Katong laksa is eaten with a spoon alone, no chopsticks. That is the mark of Singapore's Katong district; other versions leave the noodles long.
The rempah paste is fried until the oil separates — about twenty minutes. Until it shows at the edges the spices stay raw and the broth tastes of flour.
The coconut milk goes in at the end and is never boiled. Boiled, it splits into oil and curds and the broth loses its creaminess.
Worth knowing
- — The paste must not be underfried. Twenty minutes feels long, but it is in the last five that the flavour everything is for appears.
- — Laksa leaf is neither mint nor coriander but a plant of its own with a pungent smell. Nothing replaces it, and without it laksa loses its identity.
- — The broth can be made ahead and kept two days, but the coconut milk goes in only just before serving.
Nutrition
Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.
- Calories
- 780 kcal
- Protein
- 38 g
- Fat
- 44 g
- Carbs
- 62 g
More from Singapore
- Hainanese chicken rice — A whole chicken poached below boiling and rice cooked in its broth, with three sauces.
- Chilli crab — Crab in a thick tomato-chilli sauce bound with egg, mopped up with fried mantou buns.
- Kaya toast — Toasted bread with kaya coconut egg jam and cold butter, with soft-boiled eggs.