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Nyona Penang Assam Laska
Nyona Penang Assam Laska is a traditional Malay recipe for a classic soup of mackerel, tamarind and noodles in a tamarind juice and spice paste base garnished with cucumber, mint and ginger flower. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Malay version of: Nyona Penang Assam Laska.
prep time
20 minutes
cook time
20 minutes
Total Time:
40 minutes
Serves:
4–6
Rating: 
Tags : Chilli RecipesHerb RecipesVegetable RecipesMalaysia Recipes
Nyona dishes are those produced by Malay-Chinese women and the heart of all these dishes, (as in this case), is the bungan kantan (ginger flower). There is no real substitute for this, but as a firs approximation I would substitute fresh, sliced, galangal.
Ingredients:
500g fresh
mackerel
2l water
5 pieces of peeled tamarind (or 2 tbsp tamarind paste)
1 bunch Thai holy basil leaves
1 packet dried laksa noodles (rice vermicelli noodles)
For the Spice Paste:
12 dried red chillies
5 fresh red chillies
8 shallots
2 tsp
belacan (shrimp paste)
1 stalk of lemon grass (about 15cm long, white part only)
4 tbsp groundnut oil
For the Tamarind Juice:
60g tamarind pulp
120ml water
To Season:
1 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp fish sauce
To Garnish:
1 cucumber, julienned
1 bunch of mint leaves (leaves only)
1 bungan kantan (ginger flower), cut into small pieces
Method:
Clean the fish, gut and remove the gills. Add the 2l water to a pan, bring to a boil then add the fish and continue boiling for 10 minutes. Drain the fish (reserve the stock), transfer to a bowl and set aside to cool.
Return the reserved fish stock to the pan and add the peeled tamarind (or tamarind paste) and the Thai holy basil leaves. Bring to a low boil and continue cooking.
When the fish are cool enough to handle use your hands to pick the flesh clean of the bones. Break the fish meat into small pieces then sir into the boiling stock. Cover with a lid and reduce to a simmer.
Combine all the ingredients for the spice paste in a blender and process until smooth. Heat the groundnut oil in a pan, stir in the spice past and fry until aromatic (about 6 minutes) then tip the contents of the pan into the stock and stir to combine.
Bring the 120ml water to a boil, stir into the tamarind paste in the bowl and beat together. Pass through a fine-meshed sieve and pour into the stock. Now take 120ml of the stock and mix this with the tamarind seeds. Strain and tip back into the stock. Repeat this process twice more, to extract as much flavour as possible from the tamarinds.
Taste the laksa to ensure it is sufficiently sour for your taste (if not add a little more tamarind juice). Now stir in the sugar, salt and fish sauce.
Prepare the laksa noodles according to the packet instructions (typically boiling for about 5 minutes) then drain and add to the stock. Sit the garnishes on top and steam for 2 minutes.
Ladle the soup into warmed soup bowls, add 1 tsp prawn paste to each bowl and serve.
