Instant Dehydrated Laksa
A delicious (almost) instant seafood or vegan noodle meal that’s packed with protein, carbs and calories for the track
Laksa is an iconic southeast Asian dish that has become internationally popular. A rich mix of seafood, coconut broth, noodles and herbs with bright notes of citrus provide a wonderful balance of flavours and textures. And our version is an excellent contribution to your daily hiking nutrition, with 42g protein and 2,975kJ (725 cal) per individual serve! Boost calories to 3473kJ with a tablespoon of olive oil.
Although traditionally served with rice noodles, you can use instant noodles or, as I’ve done here, egg noodles that are just as fast to rehydrate but more nutritious. Powdered coconut milk provides fat, calories and that smooth mouthfeel. This recipe is adapted from Terry Durack’s excellent offering in his book Noodle. Original (and other classic ) recipes contain nuts, but these tend to go rancid quickly so we omitted them.
Spice-infused coconut broth with bean curd sheets in this version.
There are plenty of cheats hacks (see below) to make this dish. You can assemble from bought ingredients only rather than cooking anything, though without those fresh herbs and spices it’s never quite as tasty. Or, as I’ve done, you can fry off your own spices but incorporate a small jar of low fat laksa paste, and/or laksa stock cubes for a bit of extra punch. We made test batches using our own dehydrated mixed leafy vegetables as well as Ramen Bai’s exceptionally good Seafood Noodle Toppers* which are unfortunately no longer shipping to Australia: we were notified by Australia Post ours were permanently lost, but they turned up three months late after being held up in customs. Ramen Bai also have a very tasty vegan version. The reason they ship to every country in the world except Australia is because of that completely inconsistent response by Australian Customs. Sometimes packages have been allowed, other times they require a huge ‘inspection’ fee, other times they’re destroyed, other times, as for ours, they’re pronounced lost only to turn up later. Infuriating!
We’ll give you instructions for all options, but highly recommend you make up a small test batch to tweak spice, sweet and sour to your personal preference. Or trust the cook and just use our proportions!
We also provide vegetarian alternatives to ingredients for those who prefer to skip the seafood.
*Disclaimer: slowerhiking were sent the Ramen Bai noodle toppers for testing because I thought the product looked — and has proven to be — excellent. We have no other financial affiliation with them and really wish we could buy more.
Ingredients (makes ten generous serves)
Spice paste:
3 medium onions coarsely chopped
90g ginger chopped
7 cloves garlic chopped
80 g galangal chopped (or use extra ginger)
10 dried hot chillies (or to taste), soaked 20 mins in hot water and chopped; retain soaking water
20 laksa leaves aka Vietnamese mint
3 tbspn balachan (shrimp paste), replace with miso paste for vegans
3 tspn paprika
3 tspn ground coriander
3 tspn tumeric
6 lemongrass stalks white part only thinly sliced
1 tbspn vegetable oil
Optional Extras
185g jar low fat laksa paste — omit for vegans or use vegan version
50g candlenuts. We recommend omitting these unless you plan to eat your laksa within two months and store the packages in the freezer: blitzed nuts can go rancid very quickly.
Soup Ingredients and seasonings (add a little extra to the amounts if you make a test batch):
2.5 tspn chicken or vegetable stock powder
250g coconut milk powder (we used 5 x 50g sachets for double serves for two); vegans google dairy free coconut cream powder
5 tspn dark brown sugar
200g dried seafood sticks/surimi (vegans omit)
150g seitan OR beancurd sheets* OR dried tofu OR freeze dried tofu (vegans use 300g)
150g dehydrated mixed leafy vegetable or Ramen Bai seafood ramen toppings (or Ramen Bai vegetable mix for vegans)
60g dried fried onion (available in the Asian section of supermarkets)
egg noodles - 750g (vegans use wheat noodles)
salt and pepper
citric acid powder
Optional Extras
5 laksa stock cubes (Massell is vegan) or packet mix for added punch
We use Vietnamese egg noodles. They cook as fast as or faster than instant noodles but are manufactured using a different process; we chose thin ones like these as well as flat ones.
You can use instant noodles if you prefer.
About 9% protein.
Every bit helps!
Method:
Place all the spice paste ingredients except oil into a blender and blend until smooth. You may need to add a little water.
Add 1 tbspn oil to a non-stick frypan, heat, then add spice mix.
Fry over medium-high until aromatic and dry: it will start to come together in clumps.
There should be too little oil for it to separate out but this is another sign the paste is ready. Blot away any oil if you do see it.
Spread paste thinly onto silicone- or baking-paper lined dehydrator trays. Flip paste onto mesh partway through. Dehydrate at 68C (155F).
Laksa cubes left and home-made laksa spice powder right.
Of course, you can skip all the paste-making and use just the cubes, but it won’t be as yummy!
For your own surimi (seafood sticks, fish cakes) use only precooked brands with less than 3% fat. Freeze it first, then VERY thinly slice. Similarly, if using tofu, freeze the tofu first, then slice thinly while still partially frozen.
Some kinds of surimi rehydrate faster and better than others; we found ‘seafood sticks’ aka crab sticks in Australia, though they have never been within cooee of a crustacean, most reliable. Wafer thin slicing is essential for quick rehydration.
Surimi (seafood sticks, balls etc) only have a small amount of protein but a lot of flavour.
Spread seafood and tofu onto mesh and dry at 68C (155F) - the same temperature as your paste.
Once dry, powder your paste in a spice grinder and dry another ten minutes on silcone sheets to condition. Place into a bowl. Place your dried tofu, surimi and/or seitan into their own bowls. Gather your final components: coconut milk powder, dried vegetables (commercial or home-dried), stock cubes or powder (if using) and dried fried onions.
You can use our quantities, or make your own test batch to tweak to your specific palate.
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When making a single test batch of your own at home, start with:
25g of your laksa paste powder
1/8-1/4 tspn salt or MSG
1/8-1/4 tspn chicken stock powder
2 pinches citric acid
1/3 tspn brown sugar
20g dried surimi slices
15g dried gluten (seitan), dehydrated or freeze dried tofu or bean curd sheets
15g mixed leafy dehydrated veg, freeze dried veg or Ramen Bai Toppers
25g coconut milk powder
Place all into a saucepan and add 625 ml water. Bring slowly up to a simmer, then cover and keep warm over very low heat — as you would with a pot cosy in camp — for 5-10 minutes.
However, if you are using freeze dried vegetables, Ramen Bai Toppers, freeze dried tofu, or bean curd sheets instead of seitan cubes, your soup is ready instantly: you won’t need the 5-10 minute wait and can taste immediately.
Prepare 75g egg noodles in a separate saucepan (we’ll explain below how to do this with just one pot in camp) and drain. Add to your soup.
Taste soup.
Adjust sugar, salt and citric acid, recording weights or amounts. If it’s still not punchy enough for you, add extra powder or use a laksa stock cube. The high notes of citric acid especially are essential to balance these musky flavours.
Sprinkle with dried fried onion. Taste again. Is it perfect? Tweak to your taste, recording your changes as you go. You could also consider more or less water, noodles, or protein components.
Enjoy your lunch!
Packaging for TWO
The recipe quantities make approximately 10 generous serves (ie 5 dinners) for Geoff and me; if you’ve tweaked your recipe you could have more or less.
Gather together your dried noodles, coconut milk powder sachets, dried fried onion, spice powder, dried veg, dried tofu and/or seitan/and/or bean curd sheets, and laksa stock cubes if using. Our mix is quite salty.
First make your giant flavour sachet in a sandwich-sized ziploc.
To the ziploc for TWO people (halve for single serve packs) add:
1/4-1/2 tspn salt or msg
1/4-1/2 tspn chicken (or vegetable) stock powder
3 generous pinches citric acid
2/3 tspn brown sugar
40g dried surimi (and/or tofu)
30g seitan OR beancurd sheets
30g mixed dehydrated or freeze dried leafy vegetables or Ramen Bai Seafood or Vegetable Topping Mix
Seal ziploc, expelling as much air as possible.
Place 12g dried fried onion in a small pouch or wrap in baking paper.
Get your vac seal bags. Into each vac seal bag place
150g egg noodles
1 x 50g coconut powder sachet
onion pouch
spice blend ziploc
laksa stock cube (if using)
Vac seal your bag. I par-vac, stopping and sealing just before the noodles get crushed. Label with date and amount of water needed. You’re now ready for a delicious meal in camp!
Five dinner packs (ten serves). We used different noodles (flat and thin), and different protein in different meals: some had tofu, others had bean curd sheets, others had seitan. We also used the commercial Ramen Bai toppings, our own vegie mix, as well as a combination of the two in the meals.
In Camp for TWO:
Carefully slit the top of your vac seal bag. Remove onion sachet and set aside. Take the coconut milk sachet and jumbo flavour sachet (plus stock cube if using) and empty into your pot. Add about 1200ml water (or whatever will fit into a smaller pot) mix well and bring to a simmer. Those with fast gas stoves, turn down the flame slightly.
Meanwhile, place noodles into the empty powder ziploc. Adding noodles to the soup to cook is possible, but they can make the coconut broth gluggy when cooked in insufficient liquid, and many people’s pots will be too small. (If your pot is large enough, add a little extra water at the start and then add noodles towards the very end).
You now have an empty vac seal/sous vide bag.
Pour the hot soup from the pot into the vac seal bag, close bag and pop into a cosy while you prepare the noodles.
Wipe out or wash your pot — coconut milk burns quickly as we have discovered! — and add enough water so that when you put in the noodles they will be well covered. Bring to the boil, add noodles, cover and switch off the heat to save fuel. Place pot in its cosy for 1-5 minutes. Noodle brands vary; the Vietnamese ones we use are done in about 1 minute.
When the noodles are cooked, drain the water. Place half the noodles on the pot lid and pour half the soup from the vac seal bag into the pot for one serve. Add the noodles from the pot lid into the vac seal bag: that’s two serves.
This method works really well for couples because we need carry no plates or bowls, thereby saving weight: one eats out of the bag and the other eats out of the pot.
Yummy laksa in Tahune Hut,
Frenchman’s Cap, Tasmania.
Cheat’s Clever Hacks
Dehydrate a low fat commercial laksa blend instead of making up your own.
Or, even easier, you can make this laksa entirely from purchased products without any home dehydrating. Instead assemble:
commercial laksa cubes or sachet powder blends
commercial freeze dried vegetables or noodle toppers (I’ve found no other supplier of the latter than Ramen Bai; please let slowerhiking know if you’re aware of more retailers)
freeze dried tofu (try googling Koya Dofu)
bean curd sheets
seitan (wheat gluten)
dried surimi/narutomaki (again, we’ve found no other retail source of this, Aussies please let me know if you find some here!)
Or buy an instant laksa noodle pack and add any of the proteins and vegetables mentioned above:
Instant laksa noodles are available in many Australian supermarkets
