Chicken laksa recipe

Ingredients

• 3 dried red chillies
• 4 red Thai (bird’s eye) chillies
• 5cm piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 3 shallots, roughly chopped
• 3 lemon grass stalks, outer leaves removed, bottom 10cm only, cut into thirds
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 120ml vegetable oil
• 4 tsp Thai shrimp paste
• 225g fresh wide rice noodles
• 800ml tinned coconut milk
• 750ml water or chicken stock
• 2 tsp palm sugar (jaggery) or light brown sugar
• 2 whole chicken legs (about 670g), leg and thigh attached, skin on
• Fish sauce, to taste
• 4 large soft-boiled eggs, halved
• 2 Persian (or regular) cucumbers, cut into matchsticks
• 115g bean sprouts
• ¼ bunch mint, leaves only
• 2 limes, cut into wedges
• Sambal oelek (Indonesian chilli paste), to taste (optional)