Malaysian Curry Laksa with Prawns

The king of all Malaysian & Indonesian dishes is Curry Laksa! Juicy prawns are bathed in a creamy, fragrant noodle soup packed full with spice and South East Asian fragrance.

Malaysian Curry Laksa is the ultimate favourite South East Asian Curry dish. It's quite literally liquid gold - Malaysia's answer to Ramen - a creamy, fragrant coconut-based soup over rice noodles. Every delicious slurp is a moment to savour. I think about Laksa all the time - I really do!

Malaysian food is my favourite of all World cuisines as it features so many of my most treasured flavours like Hainan Chicken Rice, Malaysian Chicken Curry, the splendid Chicken Kapitan and the two Nasis – Goreng and Lamak. As much as I love all those dishes (and I really really REALLY do) it is Laksa that is undisputed queen of them all.

The excellent news is that you can make this treasured authentic curry laksa at home with ease. Want to learn? You absolutely should!

What's Ahead?

What is Curry Laksa?

Curry laksa is a popular Malaysian dish, often considered a variant of the more widely known laksa soup. It's a spicy noodle soup with a coconut milk or curry base, typically flavoured with a variety of spices such as turmeric, ginger, and lemongrass.

The soup usually contains rice vermicelli noodles, along with ingredients such as tofu puffs, shrimp, chicken, fish balls, and bean sprouts. Additionally, it's often garnished with fresh herbs like cilantro or Vietnamese mint and laksa leaves, as well as a squeeze of lime juice. Curry laksa is known for its rich and fragrant broth, making it a comforting and flavourful meal.

Curry laksa is primarily associated with Malaysian cuisine. It is a popular dish in Malaysia, particularly in the Peranakan cuisine of the Straits Chinese communities in Penang and Singapore.

Why it works?

It's life giving! - Every slurp fills you with an intensely satisfying burst of flavour and fragrance. And to top it all, all that creamy coconut broth both quenches your thirst, it just seems to get more and more tasty! If ever I want you to try something from this blog, THIS is the dish!

Stuff You'll Need

Putting together your own curry laksa is not a complicated situation. Here's where all the flavour comes from. All these items can be found in a good supermarket or Asian store.

• For the laksa spice paste: ground turmeric, galangal, dried chillies, fresh chillies, candlenuts (or macadamia), shrimp paste, shallots and ground coriander.
• For the soup base: Peanut oil, coconut milk, lemongrass, prawns/shrimp (I use jumbo or King prawns with the shell on), salt, sugar, fish sauce and a fresh lime.
• Soup additions: vermicelli rice noodles, egg noodles (I like a mix of both, but you can use only one if you like), crispy onions (I buy mine pre fried), beansprouts, fresh cilantro/coriander and fried/puffed tofu.

Step by Step

Making your own curry laksa is actually much easier than you'd think. All that flavour comes from the spice paste and the whole flavour is helped along with a delicious fishy prawn broth. Here's how you create all that authentic flavour at home.

1. Step 1 - To make the laksa paste: Using either a stick blender, food processor, or a pestle and mortar, grind all the spice paste ingredients together until achieving a very smooth consistency. Then, set the mixture aside.
2. Step 2 - To make the soup base:
   • Heat a wok with oil, then add the laksa paste along with the lemongrass stalks.
   • Fry for approximately 8 minutes until the oils start to separate.
   • Pour in all the coconut milk, refill the can with water twice, and incorporate it into the mixture.
   • Next, add the fish sauce and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes.
   • Add the prawns and simmer for an additional 3-4 minutes until they are cooked through. Remove from the heat, stir in the sugar, and season with salt to taste.
   • Squeeze in lime juice, keep the mixture hot.
3. Step 3 - Assemble - Place approximately 1 cup of vermicelli noodles and about 1/4 cup of Hokkien noodles at the bottom of a large Asian soup bowl, along with the prawns. Then, pour over a generous amount of the piping hot broth. Add a small handful of bean sprouts, a couple of tofu pieces, and a generous sprinkle of crispy onions. Finish with a garnish of a sprig or two of cilantro.

Pro Tips

• Make in advance - you can make the soup base in advance and freeze into single portions, then just reheat in a microwave until piping hot and assemble the soup as normal with freshly cooked noodles and garnishes. You can also include cooked chicken or fish balls instead of shrimp/prawns.

Serving & Storage Suggestions

The soup can be served with lots of alternative toppings, such as peanuts, hard boiled egg, poached chicken, pork, fish balls, vietnamese Mint, Sawtooth Coriander, Laksa Leaves, Mint leaves, radishes, tomato, shredded cabbage or lettuce, crispy garlic, mushrooms or fungus and so much more.

• Fridge leftovers: Leftovers won't fair too well as the delicate noodles will continue to absorb liquid and become soft. I would say no more than a day in the fridge.
• Fridge/Freezer - soup base: The soup base will stay good for 4-5 days in the fridge and 3+ months in the freezer in an airtight container. I like to store them in single serves for a quick and easy lunch or dinner that I can pour over freshly cooked noodles and garnish with whatever I have.
• I don't recommend freezing the soup in its finished state.

Ready to get cooking?

Curry laksa with prawns is one of life's great pleasures - thankyou Malaysia for bringing this treasure to the world! And now you've seen that it's not out of the realms of possibility to make your own laksa at home. I'll make a giant panful of laksa once a year and figure out a way to stick them in my overly full freezer. For a few weeks, I have laksa on tap and I am the happiest man on earth. Hope you enjoy the recipe.

More Malaysian recipes

If you liked this recipe for curry laksa with prawns, I'm sure you'll love some more of my recipes. You can also discover more of the Malaysian curry flavour journey with my Best Malaysian Curry Recipes.

• Ayam Goreng (Malaysian Fried Chicken)
• Satay Chicken Curry
• Sambal Udang (Sambal Prawns)
• Malaysian Sambal Sauce
• Ayam Serundeng (Chicken with Crispy Coconut)
• Ayam Rica Rica (Spicy Indonesian Chicken)
• Ginger Scallion Sauce
• Ayam Masak Merah (Malaysian Chicken in Spicy Tomato Sauce)
• Babi Pongteh (Malaysian Pork Stew)
• Nyonya Chicken Curry (Ayam Kalio)
• Malaysian Fish Curry – (Kari Ikan)
• Roti Canai with Dhal
• Malaysian Curry Powder
• Malaysian Beef Curry

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