Memoirs of My Thoughts: Hakka Yong Tau Foo

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Hakka Yong Tau Foo

My mum is a true blue Hakka, for her, Hakka Yong Tau Foo is a dish which brings back her childhood memory, when she spent her days with her dad, which was my dearest grandpa. Although its the biggest regret that I never see my grandpa in person, coz he passed away in his very young age due to illness. As half Hakka, though I am a Foo Chow, I love this dish to the core.

To prepare Hakka Yong Tau Foo, one needs fresh ingredients of fish meat (preferably mackerel), minced pork with little bits of fat (pork belly) and tau kwa. Tou fu can be found in Asian food markets, and this bland ingredient can surprisingly turns into a delectable dish. Its easy to blend into any dish, making it a highly versatile as well as incredibly nutritious diet.

Ingredients needed for Hakka Yong Tau Foo: 6 pieces of fresh tau kwa; half side of deboned mackerel, 400g of minced pork belly; red chillies, seeded and slit half for stuffing; 1 brinjal; 1 bittergourd. You might want to use lady fingers and chinese mushrooms for variety.

Use a spoon to scrap the mackerel flesh, leaving behind only fine bones and skin.

End product after scrapping

Minced the mackerel meat with chopper

Mix chopped mackerel meat with minced pork belly together. The portion should be 3/4 fish and 1/4 pork.

After mixing and chopping, add in seasoning to the meat paste, which are 2 tablespoon of cornflour; 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce; 1 teaspoon of sesame oil; bit of salt; and dash of white pepper.

Mix well and slapping hard the paste onto the chopping board until the texture looks springy and bouncy.

Meanwhile prepare the soup base for Hakka Yong Tau Foo: Dry fry without oil the soyabean in a wok, till little brownish, tossing continuosly. After frying, transfer the soyabeans into a pot filled with boiling water, roughly 4 bowls of water. Put in the fish bone and skin reserved from the mackerel, and some washed anchovies(ikan bilis). Let it boils for 1 hour with medium fire. Season the soup base with salt after boiling for an hour, discard the ikan bilis, skin and soya beans from the pot.

Get ready with ingredients for stuffing: Half the taukwa into triangular shape. Slit open the tau kwa carefully, make a tiny pocket in between.

Slice the brinjal and make an opening in the middle.

Slice the bittergourd and remove the seeds. Soak the prepared bittergourd in salt water to reduce the bitterness. Chillies are seeded and halved.

Deep fried 2 pieces of salted fish without bone, till crispy.

Chopped the crunchy salted fish into bits.

Add into the meat paste, and mix well again.

Put the stuffing into tau kwa, bittergourd, brinjal, and chillies carefully with a butter knife.

Now they are ready for steaming. Bring water to boil in a wok, with big fire. Steam them till cooked and done. You might want to fry some of tau kwa and brinjal after steaming. I find that fried version is very yummy too, especially the brinjal and tau kwa coz they absorb the soup better after frying.