Yong Tau Foo
Yong Tau Foo is a nutritious and tasty traditional Hakka dish from Southern China. Made with tofu and vegetables stuffed with fish paste.
- Prep time
- 1 hr
- Cook time
- 30 min
- Yield
- 8 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- Rice bran oil (for pan frying)
- Steamed rice (or cooked dry gluten free noodles for serving (optional))
- 2 kg large Spanish mackerel (cleaned, gutter and filleted with skin on by your fish monger (about 1kg/2Ib of mackerel flesh))
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
- 200 g gluten free puff tofu (cut into triangles (halved diagonally), then make a small cut in the middle of the cut side)
- 2 medium purple eggplants
- 2 medium medium bitter melon (bitter gourd 250g/9oz each, seeds removed and sliced into 2cm/0.8inch pieces crosswise)
- 8 fresh long red chillies (cut in the middle lengthwise and seeds removed)
- 8 fresh long green chillies (cut in the middle lengthwise and seeds removed)
- 10 okra ((lady’s fingers) cut in the middle lengthwise and remove some seeds)
- 3 tablespoons rice bran oil
- 2 cloves garlic (finely minced)
- 5 cm ginger (peeled and finely grated)
- 2 spring onions ((shallots) thinly sliced lengthwise)
- 2 fresh long red chillies (finely diced)
- 5 tablespoons gluten free black bean sauce
- 4 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
- 2 tablespoons stevia
- 1 large lemon (juiced)
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 2 cups water
- 2 sprigs coriander ((cilantro) finely sliced)
Instructions
- 1
Using a large chopping board and with a small spoon, scrape the fish meat from the fish skin and place in a large bowl.
- 2
Then put all the fish meat into a food processor and blend briefly for around 1 minute to form a thick fish puree paste. Mackerel meat is naturally sticky, do not over-process the fish meat otherwise they will become very tough.
- 3
Return the fish paste to the large bowl and marinade with salt and ground white pepper.
- 4
Using wet hands, stuff all the vegetables and tofu with some of the fish paste. For the chillies and okra, use a small butter knife to help fill the cavities. Clean any fish paste on sides of the vegetables.
- 5
Avoid overfilling with the fish paste to prevent tearing during cooking. Place all the stuffed pieces on a large plate or tray.
- 6
Heat up a non-stick frying pan with some rice bran oil. Pan fry all the stuffed vegetables for 2 minutes on each side or until fish paste is just cooked on low to medium heat. For the stuffed puff tofu, pan fry for 1 minute on each side or until fish paste is just cooked on low heat. Serve on a large platter.
- 7
Heat up a frying pan with 3 tablespoons of rice bran oil. Pan fry the garlic and ginger on low heat until lightly golden, then add in all the gluten free black bean sauce, sweet chilli sauce, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest and stir-fry for 2 minutes on low to medium heat.
- 8
Follow by adding in the water, stir well and bring to a boil. Add in half the chillies and all the spring onion and turn off the heat. Place in a medium serving bowl and garnish with remaining chillies and coriander. Serve as a dipping sauce or drizzle sauce.