[Recipe] Braised Yong Tau Foo in Bean Paste Sauce

 

This dish is one of my favorite childhood dishes. If I remember correctly, it was almost considered a luxury when my mum cooked this for us. Servings were always not enough but it was good that we got to drizzle the sauce on the rice. Who can forget the taste of mum's cooking? It's so very simple and  filled with lots of love which warmed our hearts!

Quite naturally, this has become one of our family's favorite dishes too! Yong tau foo is inexpensive and it didn't even cost any more than S$8 to cook this for dinner. Comfort food has never been better.

One thing about this yong tau foo dish is that there's no restriction to what type of yong tau foo to use. Choose those that you and your family like to eat. This recipe served 4 of us. Just in case you want to know the portioning of yong tau foo I put in mine, here's what I bought :

- 1 packet of fresh fishballs (about 10 pcs)
- 1 packet of fish dumplings or herh kiao (about 10 pcs)
- 4 pcs of triangular tau pok (fried beancurd puffs) with fish paste filling
- 6 pcs of tau key (beancurd skin) with fish paste filling
- 2 pcs of bittergourd with fish paste filling
- 1 green chilli with fish paste filling
 
Here's other ingredients you need :
- a bunch of chinese parsley, cut to pieces (the more the merrier for me!)
- a few stalks of spring onions, cut to pieces
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 tsp of sugar (I use brown ones for my cooking)
- 1 tbsp of ground soy bean paste or tau cheo* (see picture below)

*do note that it is a fine paste.

Before I start cooking, I would cut the yong tau foo to bite sized pieces and then blanch them with hot water for about 5 minutes minutes so that it's partially cooked. This helps to ensure that the fish paste will be thoroughly cooked through during the cooking process and it also helps lessen cooking time. Also, set aside about 3/4 cup of the water that you use to blanch the yong tau foo for the sauce.

Method : 
- Heat up your pan with about a tbsp of cooking oil, stir fry the garlic with the bean paste till fragrant.
- Add the yong tau foo and stir fry them for about a minute.
-  Then add the water and sugar, cover the pan to let it simmer for about another 2 minutes.
- Do a quick taste of the sauce here, if it's too salty for your liking, add more water. 
- Lastly, add the parsley and spring onions. Give it a good few seconds stir before turning off the fire.
- Serve and enjoy!

Till the next post, have a wonderful day!