Assam Laksa Anyone?

Going through my pantry and my inventory of Malaysian goodies, I stumbled upon a package of Assam Laksa mix. As I really really need to clear out my pantry to make room for my new supplies (via my in-laws), I decided to make that for dinner. It’s been probably a year or two since I had some Assam Laksa as I’m not a big fan of it somehow. Assam Laksa is a noodle soup with sour and spicy fish (Mackerel) broth. Assam means tamarind in Malay language and is used in the soup to give it some added sourness. The instructions on the back of the package called for ground onion, tamarind juice (did not specify amount), a large can of sardine, water and salt to taste. It was that simple, however upon following the instructions religiously………. the Assam Laksa broth was no where close to what it’s supposed to taste like.

I ended up adding lime juice, palm sugar and the much needed “he-ko” (shrimp paste, as shown below). I was pleasantly surprised I managed to concoct additional ingredients to achieve the right Assam Laksa taste! If the soup did not taste like Assam Laksa, I was planning to tell hubby it’s some spicy sardine noodle soup for dinner. Haha!Thank goodness the husband gave a thumbs up… no complaints what so ever! He said it was good!!Yay! My Assam Laksa would have been better if I used the real Laksa noodles instead of Spaghetti! Silly me, I thought I had a package of dried laksa noodles in the pantry..only to find out it was some other kind of vermicelli! Topped up the Assam Laksa with some onion slices, julienned cucumbers, pineapple chunks  and we have ourselves some good ol’ Penang Assam Laksa! And of course, I made a huge pot to last us 2-3 meals! =)