I’m feeling very pregnant indeed now and mostly just want to eat stodge; easy, lazy stodge that doesn’t require much preparation (thank god it’s winter and I can live on baked potatoes). Yesterday however I felt like something with a kick of spice and saw this recipe in Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries for a laksa. It is a long list of ingredients but if you’re anything like me you’ll have ingredients like fish sauce and a bit of wizened ginger lurking in the fridge but I also urge you to take a trip to Waitrose to buy from the frozen section some of their cooks ingredients range – I have packets of lime leaves, chillies, shallots, lemon grass, coriander, ginger all ready and waiting in my freezer. Makes this sort of recipe dead easy to rustle up, though I think a pack of fresh coriander is a must for sprinkling over the laksa before you serve. If you wanted this to be a little more fancy you could add prawns – another handy stand-by to keep in the freezer.
Pumpkin and tomato laksa
Serves 4 (I halved the recipe);
250g unpeeled weight pumpkin (I used butternut squash)
5 small red bird’s eye chillies
4 cloves garlic
a lump of ginger the size of your thumb
2 plump stalks of lemon grass
6 lime leaves
5 or 6 coriander roots (couldn’t find any, don’t think it mattered)
a large handful coriander leaves
a little vegetable oil
500ml chicken or vegetable stock
400ml coconut milk
24 cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp nam pla (thai fish sauce)
the juice of a lime
100g dried noodles (I used way more, but like I said I need the stodge…)
a large handful mint leaves
Cut the pumpkin into large chunks and place in the top of a steamer. Or, steam it in a colander over a pan of boiling water. The pumpkin should be tender in 12-15 minutes. Remove from the heat.
To make the spice paste, chop the chillies, removing the seeds first if you wish. Peel the garlic and the ginger and chop roughly; put into the bowl of a food processor. Discard the outer leaves of the lemon grass then roughly chop the inner heart leaves, shred the lime leaves and add them to the chillies. Scrub the coriander roots and cut them off , putting them with the chillies, along with half the coriander leaves and stems. Blitz them to a pulp, adding a little oil if the mixture needs it to go round.
Place a fairly deep pan over a moderate heat, add half the spice paste (keep the other half in the fridge for tomorrow) and fry it, moving it round the pan so it does not scorch. Do this for a minute or two then pour in the stock and coconut milk and bring to the boil.
Cut the tomatoes in half, and add them with the nam pla and the lime juice. They will take seven to 10 minutes to cook. Add the chunks of pumpkin and continue cooking for a minute or two. Place a swirl of noodles in each of the four bowls, pour over the laksa and add the mint and remaining coriander leaves.
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