Foodie Islington: February 2013

The Official Foodie Handbook, by Ann Barr and Paul Levy, which appeared in the 1980s and may even have coined the term 'foodie' (I’ll have to get one of the Foodie Islington research interns to check that), had a section called 'Ten Dishes That Shook The World'. I forget what they all were, but the list definitely included Chilli Con Carne, and Gravlax. If I had to compile a similar list today, it would have to include Laksa. There are many different versions of Laksa, but the one most familiar in this country, and which is the Platonic ideal to my mind, is the Singapore version which includes coconut milk and is therefore sometimes referred to as 'Laksa Lemak'.

Laksa shook my world in many ways. It is one of those dishes that absolutely blew me away the first time I had it, and opened mental doors about the possibilities of food. It is a dish that seems to have everything both in terms of sensation - heat, spice, sweetness, saltiness, acidity – and in terms of nutrition – protein, starch, vegetable matter, citrus, whatever other stuff we are meant to eat.

The first time I had an authentic Laksa was in a hawker centre in Singapore with my parents when I was a young man. Never having been outside Europe before, the hawker centre itself was a pretty mind-blowing experience, with incredible delights available all around, such as plates of satay, bottles of cold beer, or the freshest crab I had ever eaten, dispatched in front of you with a cleaver and on your plate in a matter of minutes. If you wanted more of anything, you just went and got more. Simplicity itself, as genius ideas so often are. It was the Laksa that I kept wanting more of. The version I had there was pretty basic and unfancy in terms of ingredients if I remember rightly – maybe just tofu and fishcake as protein – but the soup was so delicious and moreish. Later I learned to make Laksa myself, and found that despite it’s complexity it’s not that hard to make a passable version.

Laksa is in many ways the perfect lunch. However, it does have several qualities that are perhaps undesirable in the average weekday lunch. Firstly, brings on a strong desire for a cold beer (during), and secondly, it brings on a strong desire for a nap (after). Cold beer and naps, we should note, are not actually bad things but good things. Some might say they are very good things. So really it is only our need to do pain-in-the-arse work that has the potential to hamper our complete enjoyment of this wonderful dish.

Where in our compact borough can you actually buy and eat Laksa? Not nearly as many places as you should be able to. If I had my way there would be hawker stalls on every corner selling it, and we would all be arguing all day on Twitter about which was the best one. But alas, in these parts we still live well below the Laksa poverty line. The otherwise-decent sandwich chain EAT have made a laughing stock (pun intended) of themselves by selling something called 'Laksa Pho', which I could not bring myself to buy even for research, but I imagine it is mediocre in the same vein as their other 'Pho' pots.

The small pan-Asian chain Banana Tree, which has a branch at the Angel, does a very reasonable version. The chicken Laksa at lunch time is particularly good value for £5.95. It’s a generous portion, with a nice level of heat (and raw chilli added for tweaking), sweetness, an appetising appearance, and some nice bits of properly cooked aubergine (I have heard that undercooking aubergines is punishable by lethal injection in some U.S. states - quite right too). On the downside, the chicken pieces are dull generic takeaway style pieces of overly white meat, and the stock lacks a certain fishy depth that I associate with Laksa perfection. When all is said and done the Banana Tree Laksa still kicks the arse of many lunch options at the same price level.

Just over the road, Naamyaa does a very respectable version with the right thickness, depth of flavour and chilli kick, let down ever-so-slightly by the toppings, which include crisps which seem to be made of sweet potato, and some slightly dull greens. It has what seems to me a more 'Thai' level of sweetness, meaning that it tastes like it has palm sugar in it as well as the sweetness from the coconut milk. As well as seafood and chicken laksa, they have a beef laksa, which sounds inauthentic but delicious. One to try perhaps.

Then there is the small Malaysian restaurant Puji Puji on Balls Pond Road, which has both Laksa Lemak and the more sour, fishy Assam Laksa on the menu, and is notable mainly for random opening hours which seem to bear no relation to the advertised times.

An even better, if far less readily available, option, is the version at the PlusSixFive Singaporean supper club, which takes place roughly once a month with a changing menu. When I saw that they planned a special Laksa-based menu recently I just had to get in there. The PlusSixFive team’s very motivation for doing the Laksa special was frustration at the lack of authentic Laksa in London. My expectations were high, but I have to say it satisfied my needs, Laksa-wise. Forehead-wiping heat, sweetness, fishy depth of flavour, nice prawns, and interesting accompaniments such as 'Otah Otah', a delicious kind of mackerel fishcake wrapped in leaf. The only downside of this Laksa is obviously the fact that you can’t get it on demand but have to wait patiently and subscribe to the mailing list in the hope that the event is repeated. I know I have bigged these guys up before, but it really is a supper club that every Islington foodie should know about. Just doing my job, y'know.

If none of the above work, or are convenient, you can always make your own. There is something called a 'Laksa kit' available in my local supermarket, which seems to be part of that middle ground between a ready-meal and cooking yourself that I can never understand (like pre-chopped onions ... if you can’t be arsed to chop an onion why are you bothering to cook?). Anyway, I tried it for research purposes and the results were OK, but it is really not that difficult or time-consuming to make it from fresh ingredients. Laksa is also a dish for which it can be quite fun to change the ingredients around and experiment, although seafood is what I always come back to.

I have included a simple recipe below that I use, with no claims to authenticity. It is a simplified recipe originally adapted (i.e. stolen) from Charmaine Solomon, and usually does the trick for me. (If you want authentic, I can point you at the blogged Nyonya Laksa recipe from PlusSixFive guy, Jason at feasttotheworld: http://www.feasttotheworld.com/2012/08/nostalgia-in-bowl-nyonya-laksa-lemak.html )

Foodie Islington's Easy Laksa Lemak

Main Ingredients:

Rice Vermicelli, or noodles of your preference

Some prawns (I use frozen cooked shell-on Atlantic prawns)

Some white fish fillet

Coconut milk

Paste (proportions to your taste):

Onion

Garlic

Lemongrass

Dried chillies

Galangal or Ginger

1-2 teaspoons shrimp paste

1-2 teaspoons Turmeric

Pinch of salt

Garnishes (as many or as few as you wish, or have available):

Bean sprouts

Sambal

Cucumber

Hard-boiled egg

Chopped spring onions

Sliced fresh red chilli

Fresh coriander or mint leaves, or other herbs

Directions:

Peel the prawns, set them aside, and make a quick stock from the shells, adding some aromatics. Don't use too much water. Any fish bones, crab or lobster shells you happen to have in the freezer will only improve the stock so chuck them in. Remove the shells after 30 mins or so and reduce the stock a bit.

Meanwhile chop up the fish fillet, season with salt and a little pepper and form into balls. Set aside on a plate.

Par-cook the noodles and put into bowls with the prawns (if cooked – if not add them to the soup later, with the fish balls). Add the other garnishes to the bowls, or to a serving plate for any ‘optional’ garnishes such as chillies.

Whizz or pound the paste ingredients, then fry the paste in some oil (in the pot you want the Laksa to end up in) until fragrant and golden. An anchovy or two melted into the frying oil at this point won’t hurt anybody.

Add the stock to the paste in the pot and simmer for a bit, 15 minutes is fine but longer is OK. Add the coconut milk and bring back to simmering point. Check seasoning. Gently add the fish balls (and prawns, if uncooked) to the soup. By the time you have got the pot to the table, the fish should be cooked. Serve by ladelling the soup into the bowls prepared with the noodles and garnishes.