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The coconut milk broth is spicy, savory and rich, but not heavy, and based on the curry laksa found at hawker centers in Malaysia and Singapore.
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Does anyone else find themselves happily tumbling into more project cooking lately? Maybe it’s because I’m clinging to the coziness winter provides. Maybe I’ve watched too many charming, ASMR-adjacent YouTube videos of people calmly assembling wonderful dinners in beautiful locations. Or maybe it’s because, if my hands are busy smashing garlic or deveining shrimp, I can’t doomscroll on my phone. Whatever the reason, I’ve really been enjoying my quality kitchen time as of late.
So I’m very excited to make Lara Lee’s chicken curry laksa, a gorgeous, hearty noodle soup that’s kaleidoscopic in flavor: Sour tamarind and spicy dried chile punch through the sweet coconut milk; salty dried shrimp and gently bitter nuts balance umami-rich shrimp paste. Lara is a really thoughtful cook — as anyone who has read her “Coconut and Sambal” and “A Splash of Soy” cookbooks knows — so her recipe is full of tips and tricks for anyone needing ingredient substitution and shortcut advice, like how to boost store-bought laksa paste with lemongrass, garlic and ginger.
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Chicken Curry Laksa
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This laksa also scratches a particular cooking itch of mine: making something at home that I’d normally order at a restaurant. I’ll bet that a lot of readers behind the five-star reviews for Hetty Lui McKinnon’s sweet and sour cauliflower — which rejects deep-frying those florets for a cornstarch-coated roast in a hot oven — are also happy for a fast, meat-free version of a takeout staple. If you add Hetty’s salt and pepper tofu, some sautéed baby bok choy and a pot of steamed rice, that’s a pretty epic Saturday night feast.
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