I finally did it.....

This called for a celebration! What are we celebrating? Me , making my own laksa gravy...yippee....with a little help from a good friend.Hubby's favourite food, one of them is laksa but mummy dearest doesn't know how to make 'em. but she does know how to make cheesecake, cupcakes, brownies, chocolate mousse, cookies, kek gula hangus ( happens to be hubby's fav cake ), biskut batik, anything that you can find at Zue's Oven @ cekmekzue blogspot.

Now that mummy dearest has all the time in the world , ( she's entered into a new chapter in her life) ,she would try to cook or make all the dishes using all the recipes that she's been keeping all these years. Mummy dearest would cut any recipes ( be it from newspaper or magazines ) that she finds interesting, she would copy and paste the recipes from blogs , she would write down recipes on small pieces of paper, write down at the back of her diaries, texted them in her handphone and the list goes on. There was once, when she was on a plane and was reading the "GOING PLACES" magazine, she found an interesting sambal udang with cashewnut recipe, she copied it on a piece of paper. Till today, she never make that dish. She never finds the time to make 'em and the recipes remain where they are, on those pieces of papers in a folder, or in between the old recipe book, at the back of her diaries. Not anymore, she would dig out all those and would try them out one by one.

What's the story about this "kuah laksa"? They went to the morning market the other day to get their stock of "lauk-pauk", fish, prawns, squids, veggies, eggs, etc and they passed by this "ikan selayang". Hubby looked at it longingly but didn't say anything. Mummy dearest took the hint. Mummy dearest knew that hubby likes laksa but she had never made him that particular dish simply because she didn't know how!

So she said, "D, let's buy that fish"
'I 'd like to make laksa for you"
" ARE YOU SURE?"
"YUP"

So they bought not one but two kilos of ikan selayang. Somebody is ambitious here! Actually she didn't know how much is needed , in fact she didn't know at all what she's going to do with the fish but she is determined. Determined to make that kuah laksa for her hubby, by hook or by crook.You know what they say, " a way to a man's heart is through his stomach" Is that true?

To cut the story short, Tuesday, she called up her good friend who is an expert in making this kuah laksa and seek her advise. She ended up not just getting an advise but this good friend came over and showed her step by step how to prepare it! That's what friends are for! To save the day!

Here's how it is done:
Firstly, you need to boil the fish with a few pieces of asam keping or asam gelugor. Leave it to cool, then you de-bone the fish. Blend them. You can use the excess water for later.

Dried chili- boil them and blend with shallots (lots of them), preferably big red onions , some prawn paste ( belacan).
Take note: no garlics are used in this recipe.
Heat a big pot, pour just tiny weeny blob of cooking oil, say about a tablespoon.
Pour the blended chili mixture, after say , fifteen minutes ( don't have to wait for it to "pecah minyak"), add the excess water, lots of it, let it boil, then add the following four main items:
1.serai- pound it
2.bunga kantan-
3.daun chenohom
4.asam keping

leave it to boil for another ten minutes, add, salt and sugar to taste. Voila!

to serve:
soak laksa ( laksa ronggeng, the small noodle type)for about twenty minutes.
Boil some water, when it boils, pour the laksa in, if it is soft , then it is ready, toss the water.

Ulam2an:
big red onion,cucumer, chli padi, limau nipis, daun ketereh, daun putat, daun ulam raja, etc, all sorts of daun and ulam that you fancy to go with your laksa.Some people like to eat their laksa with hard boiled eggs.

Bon appetit!

testimonials:
Hubby likes it but next time, mummy dearest must use the bigger version of laksa because hubby dearest doesn't like the small type.Mummy was so pleased with the result. Thank you Na for helping me out.You are a good friend indeed. True what they said , " A friend in need is a friend indeed.