Slow Cooker Prawn Laksa
Speed - 97%
Simplicity - 98%
Tastiness - 100%
98%
Yummy!
Perfectly cooked prawns. Creamy, spicy, fresh gravy that is so flavorful and comforting.
Ingredients
- 500 Grams Prawns
- 500 Grams Fresh Egg Noodles
- 1 Liter Clam Stock
- 2 Cups Coconut Milk
- 4 Tablespoons Laksa Paste
- 1 Stalks Lemongrass
- 2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
- 1 Piece Lime cut into wedges
- 1 Bunch Vietnamese Coriander
Instructions
- Shell prawns. Reserve shells and heads.
- Heat oil in a pan. Roast prawn heads and shells.
- Add laksa paste and roast for another minute.
- Add in clam stock and bring to a boil.
- Transfer to slow cooker and add coconut milk, lemongrass, and fish sauce.
- Cook on low for 6 hours.
- Adjust cooker to high heat setting.
- Add prawns and cook for 15-20 minutes.
- Strain out prawn shells.
- Blanch egg noodles in boiling water.
- Serve broth and prawns over fresh egg noodles.
- Top with fresh coriander leaves.
- Serve with wedges of lime on the side.
A hot soup of plump prawns, creamy coconut milk, a highly aromatic spice paste, and fresh limes – now ain't that comfort food in a bowl. No wonder the laksa is a highly popular dish in various parts of Asia.
With bottled laksa paste conveniently made available in most Asian specialty food stores and supermarkets, and unsupervised cooking made possible in the slow cooker, creating this iconic dish in your own homes is really much more simple than you think.
Let's begin with the prawns. While most leave them shell-on, I find it really inconvenient and messy to eat a soup-based dish with shell-on prawns. I like peeling my prawns but I do keep those shells to flavor my broth.
You may do this recipe with a one-pot approach – just dump all those ingredients in the slow cooker and leave it to cook. Lucky to have more available time, I'm extracting the most flavor that I can by going through a few extra steps.
Roasting those prawn heads and shells in a little oil will certainly make a huge difference in flavor.
Same as with the laksa paste, roasting it over some oil will make it really more flavorful and aromatic. But if you're really pressed for time, the one-pot approach will make you a good laksa too.
All that roasting over high heat would certainly leave bits of flavor sticking to your pan. Don't leave them there. Pour in a little of the stock or some water to loosen them off.
From here, your laksa is essentially done. Get all those roasted prawn shells, and flavored stock to your slow cooker together with the coconut milk and stalk of lemongrass. If you like your laksa spicy, you may add in some red Thai chilis at this point too. Leave it for about 6 hours on a low heat setting. This further cooking will extract every bit of prawn flavor into the laksa broth.
After six hours, pick out the lemongrass bundle and strain out those prawn shells. You may go put in some extra effort by pressing those prawn shells through a fine sieve to juice out the last bits of flavor. Mine went in a blender for a quick pulse then I filtered the extract back into the pot through a mesh strainer which I lined with cheesecloth.
Take a quick taste of the broth for its seasoning and adjust if needed with some fish sauce.
Put the peeled prawns in and give them around 5-10 minutes to cook. Don't leave the pot now. Once the prawns turn pink, they're ready to serve.
Adding a touch of fresh lime juice will really brighten up the flavors of your laksa. For some, including myself, the acidity of limes is not much of a good combination with the creaminess of the coconut milk. For this reason, it may be best to serve lime wedges on the side.
What rounds up the freshness of this soup for me are fresh leaves of coriander. If you could find Vietnamese coriander(those in the photo), the better. It has a more peppery flavor than the usual cilantro. 
Traditionally served over fresh egg noodles, this laksa would work with more starch options in my opinion. Vermicelli, some roti, or white rice. Who said you have to have it with noodles anyway?
Ingredients
- 500 Grams Prawns
- 500 Grams Fresh Egg Noodles
- 1 Liter Clam Stock
- 2 Cups Coconut Milk
- 4 Tablespoons Laksa Paste
- 1 Stalks Lemongrass
- 2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
- 1 Piece Lime cut into wedges
- 1 Bunch Vietnamese Coriander
Instructions
- Shell prawns. Reserve shells and heads.
- Heat oil in a pan. Roast prawn heads and shells.
- Add laksa paste and roast for another minute.
- Add in clam stock and bring to a boil.
- Transfer to slow cooker and add coconut milk, lemongrass, and fish sauce.
- Cook on low for 6 hours.
- Adjust cooker to high heat setting.
- Add prawns and cook for 15-20 minutes.
- Strain out prawn shells.
- Blanch egg noodles in boiling water.
- Serve broth and prawns over fresh egg noodles.
- Top with fresh coriander leaves.
- Serve with wedges of lime on the side.
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