We millennials can’t seem to do anything, can we? Much less pull off Laksa from scratch: with the Rempah and the Stock and the Noodles and the Prawns and the AH MY GAWD.

Or can we…?

To Cook or Not Cook, That is The Question.

I would like to write a little bit about cooking because because up until fairly recently, my cooking skills were limited to instant ____. Like many Singaporean children of our generation, I did not cook growing up. We always had home-cooked food, but I never really had to cook unless I wanted to so as an activity or home econs class.

That said, I have many fond memories around food. I remember walking with my grandma to the market every morning. I remember standing by the side (not her side because that would be too close and oil might sting me!) as I watched her prepare my lunch or dinner for our family (depending on whether I was in the morning or afternoon session).

My lack of experience made me approach cooking with some trepidation. So much so that when we were discussing the design of our place with our interior designer, the brief went something like “we cook instant noodles occasionally”.

Venturing Into the Kitchen

Eventually though, my good memories and desire to know:

1. That I will be able to feed myself (and those around me) relatively well even in the event of a drastic pay cut.
2. Exactly what was going into my food (and by extension, my body). As the pathologists in school like to remind us: garbage in, garbage out.

won out and I started looking for what I thought were simple and manageable recipes online.

Cooking sometimes seems hard and extremely inefficient, but do I really prioritize some of the other things in my life over what literally nourishes me and those I love? That is the perspective I try to keep when some days it seems to make no sense to be chopping garlic all by my lonesome self.

This post and all subsequent food related ones are especially for the other millennial wives who are thinking of cooking, or maybe are already cooking.

Useful Resources

One of the first resources I used and found to be really helpful was Noobcook! At some point in my life, a lot of the recipes I was encountering and thus attempting seemed to be written by people who were not based in Singapore. As a result, they called for ingredients which I didn’t seem to have that easy access to (also maybe I was just a noob). But Noobcook was easy to follow and I felt like it was really written for a noob like me. The Laksa recipe was not from her, but she has been instrumental in helping me gain confidence in the kitchen. I will likely share my attempts at making one of her recipes at some point.

Lately (by lately I mean a few months ago), I discovered “The MeatMen” and “Spice N’ Pans” channels on YouTube which have also been most helpful. I used a combination of both these Laksa recipes in my Laksa attempt.

“Singapore-Style” Laksa

When I first read Laksa recipes some years ago (yes, it took me three years to gather up the courage), it seemed really hard for so many reasons:

1. It has so many ingredients. (What the hell is gelangal?)
2. It has so many steps (and I did not have any idea what a food processor was, much less have an actual food processor).
3. Why must make paste, then fry paste, then cook in the soup???
4. I don’t think I have enough kitchen equipment to do this…

However, after discovering the following two videos, I decided to take the plunge.

Three Parts to Laksa

It seemed clear from both these videos that broadly, Laksa (maybe all curries?) came together in three parts which needed to be prepped:

1. The Rempah (Spice Mix),
2. The Stock, and
3. The “Dry Ingredients”– Noodles, Eggs, Fish Cake, whatever you else you fancy in your Laksa.

The first two together with coconut milk becomes the Laksa Soup which will be everything in 3 swims in.

Rempah

I recently bought a food processor after I decided I was going to try making Laksa. Or maybe I decided to make Laksa because I bought the food processor… hmm. Either way, I would recommend using one although I guess in theory one could technically use a mortar and pestle.

Both recipes called for pretty much the same ingredients in the Rempah. I did notice that the MeatMen blend the dried prawns into the Rempah together with everything else whereas Spice N’ Pans blitzes the dried prawns first and only combines them after the Rempah has been fried. There was also a deviation in when the belachan is added. The MeatMen fry/toast the belachan in the pan just before frying the Rempah whereas Spice N’ Pans blends it together with the rest of the Rempah in the food processor.

I ended up using a combination. I blitzed my dried prawns separately because my tiny little food processor just could not deal with dried prawns together with the Rempah (adopting the Spice N’ Pans method), and frying the belachan separately (adopting the MeatMen method). That worked out for me!

Prawn Stock

I found the first part of the Spice N’ Pans video extremely useful as they had demonstrated how to prepare the prawn heads (I threw in all the shells too) for stock. I followed those instructions and it worked out really well.

A note on the coconut milk

I consider myself a moderate when it comes to “healthy” eating and cooking. This means that I try not to consume fast food more than once a year, but definitely do not eat clean. I do try to be aware of how much of what I put in my body which is something that cooking allows me to do. Occasionally, I do try to cut down on the quantities of certain ingredients, as I did with coconut milk in this case.

The recipes seem to call for at least 1.5L of coconut milk for about 3L of stock. I used approximately 600mLs of coconut milk for slightly more than 2L of stock. It was still awesome.

“Dry Ingredients”

It is very easy to make Laksa prep and consumption social and I the preparation of the dry ingredients was a perfect way to get my friends involved. It also helps get the meal on the table sooner!

Preparation for the dry ingredients mainly involves blanching the dry ingredients before assembling them in the bowl.

Shiok Sia!

Following all of the above steps, I am pretty proud to say that I was able to provide good food to go with good memories of time spent with family and friends.

Overall, would recommend! Always remember…

Till next time!