Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Duck Laksa: A one-dish dinner


What's for Lunch Honey is hosting the monthly mingle - and the theme is one-dish dinners. I had a couple of things I thought about contributing, but I settled on Duck Laksa.

According to wikipedia, a laksa is a popular spicy noodle soup from Peranakan culture, which is a merger of Chinese and Malay elements found in Malaysia and Singapore. I didn't know that, but for me a duck laksa from Dickson Noodle house is the best cheap feed in Canberra. For around $10, you get a bowl of noodles, tofu, veggies, soup and the protein of your choice. It's fresh and spicy and huge! It really is the ultimate one-dish dinner. It's not short on calories, but you can tailor it to just about any dietary requirement. Here's my take on the Dickson classic.

Duck Laksa
2 Tbsp laksa paste (but any curry paste will do)
2 cups chopped vegetables (beans, bok choy, beansprouts and carrot are all good)
1 can coconut milk (if you're watching your calories, you can limit this to 1/4 cup)
2 Cups chicken stock
2 serves of vermicelli noodles, soaked for 2 minutes in boiling water
1/2 the meat from a peking duck, off the bone and shredded
Heat the laksa paste in a pan until fragrant. Add any hard vegetables and stirfry until coated. Add the stock and coconut milk, and bring to the boil. Add any leafy vegetables and bean sprouts, and cook only until wilted. Drain the noodles and add them to the wok. Add the duck and heat through.
Serve with sliced fresh chilli, coriander and more fresh beansprouts.

5 comments:

Suzer said...

love duck and love laksa, so sounds well worth a try:)

Meeta K said...

The first time I had laksa was a few years back when an Indonesian friend cooked it for us. I loved it. I really like the use of duck meat here. Perfect!

Kristin said...

This was a favourite dinner for us - I'm so glad it turned out well at home as well : )
thanks for the lovely comments guys.

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Laksa paste is a very versatile ingredient. The wife and I use it quite often in a variety of ways in lots of different dishes --next time you make rice, throw in a couple of tbsp of it while cooking!

Nice to know more aussies are using it, healthy too.

Kristin said...

Hi Dave,
We use laksa paste a lot. One of my favourite recipes uses it to coat roasted pork chops.
hmm... i may put that on the menu for next week.