Malaysian Cuisine.

                                        The food hall at The Malaysian High Commission

In my early twenties I worked in and around Knightsbridge and London's west end in various department stores. Whilst working for a skin care company in Selfridges I befriended a group of Malaysian women who were working beside me. One girl in particular, named Wen-Chi, became a very close friend, which was inevitable due to her being even more mischievous and fun loving than I.

Between us we became the bane of our perfumery buyers life, always playing practical jokes on unsuspecting customers and other members of staff, arriving back late from lunch and often giving each other facials or makeovers at one another's counters, we really were like a couple of naughty school girls and I suspect our rumbustious behaviour wouldn't be acceptable in high end stores in this day and age.

Like me, Wen-Chi loved her food and lots of it. London was an expensive place to lunch out so invariably we would go to The Malaysian High Commission which had a canteen. Initially the canteen was opened to cater for homesick Malaysian students staying in the hostel above and provided Kelantanese Malay food at affordable prices. This arguably became every Malaysian in London's best kept secret, diners had to be Malaysian or brought in as a guest by a Malaysian.

Due to its affordability, Wen-Chi and I used to tuck in to several dishes apiece, I loved the symphony of flavours which included a melange of Asian spices, my favourite dish was laksa, a noodle dish served in a sour, spicy, slightly sweet coconut broth. Traditionally this dish would include many ingredients such as palm sugar, dried shrimp, galangal, fish balls and tofu, to name but a few. I have since eaten many bastardised versions of laksa, none of which have come remotely close to the dish I ate in the Malaysia food hall canteen unfortunately.

I recently had such a yearning for laksa that I trawled through endless recipes online which claimed to be 'authentic' and decided to pick out ingredients which sounded familiar with the flavours I remember. I concentrated on the flavours for the paste and cooked it simply with some white fish fillets, to my surprise the flavours were very reminiscent of the laksa I ate all those years ago and I will definitely add homemade fish balls and fried tofu the next time I make this dish.

Of course I'm more than aware that cooking blind, ie not knowing what to expect of a dish, can be off putting. Amongst my hundreds of cookbooks I tend to sweep over recipes I am not familiar with, especially if there are no accompanying photos. This dish is actually very easy once you have the right spices and I promise you, if you like the combination of hot, sweet and sour, you'll love this. I would class this as comfort food and in fact many Malaysians eat this for breakfast.


Laksa

Recipe
For the laksa paste
8 small chillies, chopped, alternatively, 1 tablespoon dried chillies
2 tablespoons dried shrimp, alternatively, 1-2 tablespoons fish sauce
4 red shallots or small red onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric

Combine all these ingredients in a blender until you have a paste

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pan, cook paste for 2 minutes
Add 1 litre of stock, stir and simmer

Add pieces of fish - alternatively you could use prawns
Add 500ml of coconut milk
Simmer until fish is cooked

Meanwhile, cook noodles per packet instructions and drain
Divide noodles into bowls and ladle laksa ontop
Garnish with fresh coriander
Serve immediately

'Food is our common ground, a universal experience.'
- James Beard

Love Donna xxxxxxxxx