Homemade Yong Tau Foo

Have you ever experience eating Yong Tau Foo that has the real taste of fish? or purely 100% made from fresh fish. I doubt you do... but instead, you normally get a fish ball that mixed with flour and the texture is very chewy ....some you can throw it on the wall. it is tasteless too...so what's the solution? there's no option for this except to do it yourself... even if you can buy from any stall mostly chinese, the status of Halal is still questionable??

The main and basic ingredient for Yong Tau Foo is the Fish Paste... this is the most tricky part...very technical and I am initially was in doubt on the methodolgy explained by my chinese colleague with the advice from her mother..... and that's a real indication that you need a skill for this.....

The only ingredient for Fish Paste is just a fish... salt and pepper... and water

but it is not any type of fish ...you'll need

Ikan Tenggiri

or

in english we called it

Mackerel, a type of salt water fish with thin and smooth skin

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how does it look like???

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for those who has never seen a mackerel

make sure you choose the one in medium size as the size may effect the texture of your fish paste

Method & Techniques

Firstly, the fish need to be cold. Put it in refrigerator for a while.. A room temperature fish will not give a good texture to the paste.

Remove the skin and debone the fish to get the flesh... take everything from the fish and use spoon to scoop out the flesh from the bone.

Chop with your knife until smooth while adding in cold iced water to the fish until you get the exact texture... remember to pour bit by bit otherwise it will be  hard.

and the best part of all

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you need to give your 100% focus on this

form a ball of a fist size (besar penumbuk)

then start throwing the fish to the big basin or on a chopper board

repeat it for 10-15 times

until you can feel the glue from the fish flesh came out

don't over do it , otherwise it will be so chewy....

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that's it

fish paste done

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now is the stuffing part... sessi sumbat menyumbat... you can choose any vegetable that you like.. if I may suggest you can have variety of the following

Soft Tofu

Dried Tofu

Ladies finger (Ocra)

Red Chilli

Brinjal

Bittergourd (My favourite)

Cut each vegetable as picture shown... and stuffed it.

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and next is to steam it... you can keep in refrigerator for next day consumption... it's very economical...

Prepare the soup and the sauces to serve with the Yong Tau Foo... a healthy dishes for a happy big family...