Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Yong Tofu

I grew up with traditional Hakka food and to me yong tofu is just that -  stuffed beancurd with mince meat (most times of pork but fish is more popular now for health reasons I suppose). I only learnt to eat all the different types of stuffed veggies when we were stationed in KL years ago. 

Mui Fong has taken on the task of marketing for me these days. She reckons home-grown veggies without pesticides and chemicals are easier to find in Tamparuli. These are some of the very fresh veggies she brought over, a few of each. 

So, to make a feast out of them, I sliced, slit and stuffed them...

The yong tofu without the tofu
 
I like to cook this dish as a one-pot-meal and the veggies go down easier for the young ones.
I was lazy so I bought two packets of minced pork from the Lido market, minced some fish flesh (about 300g) and mixed it into the pork. 
Stuff the veggies. 
Deep fry the stuffed eggplants, bitter gourd and chillies to brown, not to cook them but just to make them more attractive to the young ones. Drain and keep aside.
Fry some chopped shallots and garlic with a tablespoon of oil until fragrant. Set some aside for garnishing (which I forgot).
Add  a tablespoon of oyster sauce into the same wok.
Before the mixture burns add in 2 - 3 cups of stock (use the remaining fish bones to make stock or just boil some ikan billis or bonito flakes in water for 10 minutes, strain and use the stock). 
When boiling, place bitter gourd in first as they will take the longest to cook (omit this if some members of family don't eat this veggie), then chillies, egg plant and then lastly the lady fingers.
Cook until the stuffing turns color and the veggies slightly soft.
Thicken the gravy with 1t cornflour + 1T water. For a soupy dish, omit the thickening, just add more stock, season to taste.
Eat with a chilli/lime/garlic/soy dipping sauce.
My favorite from this selection has to be the stuffed red chilli (do deseed them before stuffing).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

my mum's favourite one pot meal too! it goes really well with some " dao chu " gravy

ganache-ganache said...

U know, I won't eat anything from the gourd family, if I have to eat yong tofu, I'll usually dig out he fish paste in it, if not, will choose tofu only, but your pics make me want to dig in !!

a feast, everyday said...

kbcg, yah, the sweetish sauce, yummy.

ganache, the gourd is very good with lots of fiery chilli padi sauce and lime, give it a try, u might get hooked.

Anonymous said...

I love this dish, as do most people I know, we go to the Ampang Yong Tau Fu (Taipan branch) for lunch at least once a month. In fact it's one of the two ways I take the bitter gourd (the other being the crispy salty thinly sliced and dry fried baby gourds coated in curry powder. Anyways back to the YTF.

It's an exceptional dish cos you don't need to eat rice with it, and therefore not risk putting on more lbs than necessary. Yummy!