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Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Sweet Potato and Pak Choi Laksa


Adapted from Nigel Slater’s Tender (Vol.1)
 
This is a really flavourful and delicious soupy noodle dish, it looks complicated, but it is actually really easy and quick to make.

I made this with udon noodles, I love their slippery-slurpy-ness, but you could use whatever noodles you want. This is one of those meals where you cant really work out what cutlery or chopsticks you should be using, and you will inevitably get splashes of soup down your front. But it will be worth it.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the spice paste:
1 fresh red chilli (seeds in)
2 cloves garlic
About an inch long lump of ginger
2 stalks lemongrass
Handful coriander leaves and stalks
2 tbsp sesame oil

For the soup:
1 very large or two smaller sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into large-ish chunks
2 clusters of pak choi, chop the stalks
2 spring onions, sliced
1 red pepper , sliced (optional)
600ml chicken or vegetable stock (cube or powder is fine – I used fake chicken powder)
400ml coconut milk
2tbsp Thai fish sauce (nam pla) – vegetarian/vegan option – ½ tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce (you may need a little more if you are not using fish sauce
Juice of 1 lime (throw the zest in too if you like it super lime-y)

2 portions noodles – egg, rice or udon, cooked if they need pre-cooking
Handful fresh coriander leaves

Method

Roughly chop all of the ingredients for the spice paste, and them blitz them to a paste using an immersion blender, food processor, or pestle and mortar.

Put a large saucepan on a medium heat and dry-fry the spice paste for a minute or two. Add the stock and coconut milk and bring to the boil. Add the sweet potato and simmer for 10-15 minutes, and then add the nam pla (if using), soy sauce, lime juice and pak choi stalks. Simmer for another 10 minutes, or until the sweet potato is cooked through, and then add the pak choi leaves and noodles. Stir together until the leaves are wilted and the noodles are warmed through, and serve in deep bowls with fresh coriander leaves scattered on the top.


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