Chef Sherson Lian remembers peeling a lot of onions and garlic while he was growing up because his mother was running a small café in Kuala Lumpur and she often enlisted his assistance to prepare traditional pastes at home. It slowly formed his interest in cooking and made him the celebrity chef and television host he is today in Malaysia.

Lian is at the Sharjah International Book Fair(SIBF) 2021, churning out various Malay delicacies including Laksa – a traditional spicy Malay soup made with coconut milk, glass noodles and a host of condiments that makes many South-East Asian dishes distinctly flavourful.

Through his demonstration, Lian engages the audience with interesting titbits about the dish – how the Chinese introduced it and how each of the 14 states in Malaysia has its own version of the world-famous laksa.

For the laksa paste, Lian pulsed fresh turmeric, ginger, garlic, shallots, galangal, chilli, vegetable oil and dried shrimp in a blender. The smooth paste was then sautéed; the Cookery Corner at SIBF 2021 was engulfed by the pleasant aromas released by the spices on the hot pan.

“To make prawn broth, take shelled and deveined prawns and fry them in a pot before adding chicken stock and water. Once it boils and simmers, add the prawn paste”, the chef told his audience.

An essential ingredient of the soup is fresh or canned coconut milk, he further noted,adding that the diverse ingredients of the laksa, like fish cake, tofu slices, blanched beans sprouts, cucumber and boiled egg make it a delicious one-pot meal.

Chef Lian seasoned the hot, aromatic soup with a dash of fish sauce and lime, and palm sugar to lift up the flavour, and lastly garnish edit with coriander, mint and ginger torch.

Like most South and South-east Asian dishes, the process seem a bit complicated to the uninitiated and too strong to those who are used to milder spices. But the chef’s infectious smile and charisma were enough to make even the fearful taste and appreciate the soup’s richness.