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The Noodle 100 · make it at home

Penang assam laksa: sour fish noodle soup

1 hr · 4 bowls

Penang's laksa has no coconut: a sour, spicy fish broth with tamarind and torch ginger, thick rice noodles, and a drizzle of sweet shrimp paste (hae ko).

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The real one

You need

• 600 g (1 1/4 lb) mackerel or sardines, whole and cleaned
• For the paste: 10 dried chilies soaked, 6 shallots, 2 stalks lemongrass, 2 cm galangal, 1 cm turmeric, 1 tsp belacan
• 50 g (2 oz) tamarind pulp soaked in 250 ml (1 cup) water and strained, 4 pieces asam gelugor (optional), 2 stalks Vietnamese mint, 1 torch ginger flower halved (optional), 2 tbsp sugar, salt
• 500 g (1 lb) thick round rice noodles (laksa noodles)
• To top: cucumber and pineapple in matchsticks, red onion sliced, mint, sliced red chili, lettuce, and hae ko (black prawn paste) loosened with hot water

How to make it

1. Fish (15 min): Simmer the fish in 2 liters (2 quarts) water 10 minutes. Lift out, flake the meat off the bones and return the bones to the pot for 10 more minutes; strain.
2. Paste (5 min): Blend the paste ingredients smooth.
3. Soup (25 min): Add the paste, tamarind water, asam gelugor, mint and torch ginger to the stock and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in the flaked fish and season with sugar and salt: it should be sour first, then hot, then a little sweet.
4. Build: Blanch the noodles, put in bowls, ladle over the soup and fish, pile the cucumber, pineapple, onion, mint, chili and lettuce on top, and drizzle hae ko.

Tips

• Don't skip the hae ko; it's what makes it Penang.
• Canned sardines in water work in a pinch; add them at the end.

Chef Amazing's own home version, in our words; not any shop's recipe.