Being a mother is not an easy thing. If possible, you would like to give the best to the children. THE BEST!!! But sometimes, due to money, due to lack of connection, due to not having so much power in this world....there is nothing much you could do except pray to God.
I confided in a friend about my decision. She retorted by saying why I did not do this and that....If only there was a manual for mothers in which I could follow step by step, everything would be very easy. Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a manual but there is instinct.
At times, your mother's instinct tells you something is not right. Then, you should investigate or do something about it. You should never push it aside.The instinct is God's way of telling you to take action and make sure things will turn alright.
Still, dear mothers, the way you investigate or the action you take should be based on 'research'. You should ask around. You should seek other people's opinions - people with knowledge. People who a lot of other people would consider wise.
Alas! Being a good mother is not easy but at least we can be sure that our children, our families are okey, safe, happy.
INGREDIENTS
One Herring (Ikan Parang) - about half a metre long
1 kg of fresh prawn
1/2kg of dried prawn
Boil the above in a big pot. The broth is needed to make the LAKSA gravy. Once they are cooked, you are to do the following:
- the Herring, you are to separate the flesh from the bones.
- the fresh prawn, peel off the outer part of the fresh prawn.
- blend the fish flesh, fresh and dried prawn.
- blend the prawn peels and then squeeze out the juice. You may want to use the sieve to do this.
One big packet of special LAKSA JOHOR spice
Itemsto be blend:
A palm-sized Galangal
A palm-sized Ginger
Two big onions
5 cloves of garlic
Five lemon grass
4 cups of Kerisik (Roasted grated-coconut)
5 cups of thick cream coconut
10 tamarind peels (asam keping)
3 tablespoons of salt
1/4 belacan (shrimp paste)
2 cups of chilli boh
4 cups of cooking oil
Spaghetti (fettucini is the best.)
for garnishing
Cucumber (there is a special Johorean way of cutting it.)
Onion (slice it thinly)
Chepo
beansprout (peel off the 'root')
Daun Selasih (need to slice them)
Daun Ketumbar (need to slice them)
Calamansi (Limau Kasturi - slice each one into half)
Sambal belacan (this is made out of belacan and chilli)
1. Heat up the pot. The pot must be big. It should be able to contain 10 litres of water.
2. Then, pour in the cooking oil.
3. When the cooking oil has heated up, pour in the spice which has been made into a paste together with the blended items, chilli boh and belacan. Stir it well.
4. When you see oil surfacing, add in the fish-prawn broth.
5. Then add in the kerisik, cream coconut, blended herring and prawn, salt and assam keping.
6. Leave the mixture for at least one hour. Stir it once in a while.
MY THOUGHTS
Apparently, there are many ways of garnishing LAKSA JOHOR. However, as expected, I love my family way. I seem to believe that some people have got it wrong.
Some people I notice, even Chef Wan, use long beans in their garnishing in which they slice them not so thinly. LAKSA TERENGGANU uses long beans. Long beans, to me personally, spoil the taste of the gravy. It does not compliment.
There are also a few who serve bunga kantan with their LAKSA JOHOR. Bunga Kantan, to me, is meant for LAKSA PENANG.
At the end of the day, people eat what they like. Why should we argue as long as they are happy and do not disturb our lives?
