← Nouns Cooking · Malaysian & Singaporean

Ingredients

• 300 g Raw fish paste (for yong tau foo / fish balls)
• 150 g Minced pork
• 2 Spring onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp Soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Cornflour (cornstarch)
• ½ tsp Toasted sesame oil
• ¼ tsp White pepper
• 300 g firm tofu, cut into 8 triangles
• 8 Fried tofu puffs
• 6 Okra
• 4 large mild red chillies
• 1 small bitter gourd, cut into 2 cm rings, seeds scooped out
• 3 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 2 l Water
• 50 g Dried anchovies (ikan bilis), rinsed
• 3 cloves Garlic, lightly crushed
• 1 tsp Salt
• 200 g Choy sum (Chinese flowering cabbage), cut into lengths
• 4 tbsp sweet sauce (hoisin)
• 4 tbsp chilli sauce

Method

1. Put the water, ikan bilis and garlic in a large pot, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 20 min. Strain, return to the pot and season with the salt.
2. Meanwhile mix the filling ingredients and stir hard in one direction for 2 min until sticky and springy.
3. Cut a pocket in the long side of each tofu triangle and each tofu puff, slit the okra and chillies lengthways and scrape out the chilli seeds. Fill everything, and the bitter gourd rings, with a generous spoon of filling, smoothing it with a wet finger.
4. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat and fry the tofu triangles, filling side down, for 3–4 min until golden. Fry the chillies and okra briefly too, for flavour.
5. Simmer all the stuffed pieces in the broth for 8–10 min until the filling is firm, white and cooked through. Add the choy sum for the last 2 min.
6. Serve the pieces in bowls of broth, with the sweet sauce and chilli sauce for dipping and rice or noodles on the side.

Tips

• Ready-made fish paste from Asian grocers makes this an easy weekend project; buy extra stuffed pieces from the stall if short of time.
• Leave out the pork for an all-fish filling. Contains fish, soy and wheat (sauces).

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

What To Cook Today Taste Asian Food Wok and Kin