Katong Laksa — Cut-Noodle Coconut Bowl with Shrimp

Ingredients

• 1 lb Shrimp, shells reserved if using shrimp
• 12 oz thick rice vermicelli
• 2 cups Bean Sprouts, blanched
• 5 tbsp laksa rempah (chili, shallot, lemongrass, galangal paste)
• 2 tbsp dried shrimp, soaked and pounded
• 4 cups shrimp or chicken stock
• 1 can (13.5 oz) coconut milk
• 3 tbsp neutral oil
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• 6 fish cake slices
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, halved
• ¼ cup laksa leaf (daun kesum), shredded
• 3 tbsp sambal chili, to serve

Method

1. If you're using shrimp, fry the shells in the oil until bright orange and fragrant, then simmer them in the stock for 15 minutes and strain. Free flavor from something you were going to throw away.
2. Fry the rempah and pounded dried shrimp in the remaining oil over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring, until the paste darkens and the oil splits out. Rushing this is the single most common laksa mistake.
3. Add the strained stock and simmer 10 minutes, then stir in the coconut milk, fish sauce, and palm sugar and keep it just below a boil.
4. Poach the Shrimp in the gravy until just cooked — shrimp pink and curled in 2 minutes, fish opaque at 145°F (63°C). Add the fish cake to warm.
5. Boil the vermicelli until soft, drain, and cut it into 2-inch lengths with scissors. That's the Katong signature and it changes how the whole bowl eats.
6. Ladle gravy over the noodles, top with Shrimp, Bean Sprouts, egg halves, and laksa leaf, and put sambal on the side.