Yong Tau Foo

'Yong Tau Foo' literally means stuffed tofu. Its a dish stuffed with fish paste. Mushroom, eggplant, okra, bitter gourd and chili are stuffed and seved either in clear broth or simmered in bean paste sauce. I made mine with bean paste sauce.

Takes a lot of time but the effort was worthwhile

Steaming the vegetables for 7 minutes

Yummy !!!

Ingredients

1 lb Fish Paste ( sold at the asian grocery)

1/2 lb of ground chicken/pork (optional)

White pepper

Salt

Spring onion - chopped finely

Vegetables for Stuffing

Red Chili

Okra

Eggplant

Firm Tofu

Bitter Gourd

Fried Tofu puffs

Mushroom

Sweet Pepper

Sauce

2 tbsp fermented bean paste

2 tbsp oyster sauce

3 cloves garlic - minced

2 1/2 - 3 cup of water or chicken stock

1 tsp cornstarch + 3 tbsp water

sugar to taste

• Prepare the filling by putting all the ingredient and mix well. Set aside.
• Wash the vegetables. Slit okra in the middle, cut eggplant and bitter gourd in rings, remove seeds. Red chili remove the seeds as much as possible. Stuff the vegetables with the fish paste filling. 
• Steam the vegetables for about 7 minutes.
• Heat oil in a pan, sear and pan fry all the steamed vegetables until lightly browned. Remove and set it aside. ( at this stage, you can freeze some of it for further use)
• In same pan remove most of the oil, leaving about 2 tbsp. Fry the chopped garlic until fragrant and lightly browned, add the bean paste, oyster sauce and chicken stock/water. Let it come to a boil, add all the seared vegetables. Adjust seasoning with some sugar and see if you may need some salt.
• Add the cornstarch and let sauce thicken. Sprinkle with sesame seed.