Home Cooked Food: Yong Tau Foo

Ah... another "filler" post of home cooked food. Sorry guys, not much food posting of late. I am quite lazy to take my camera out these days as my work lap top weighs a tonne ( 2.25 kg i measured ) and with so many things to carry i find that it is ... a virtual impossibility to carry my lap top, my camera and my handbag. By the year end, the lap top is probably gonna gain me some muscles.... T_T.  Looking back at my old pics taken i found some on Yong Tau Foo one of my favorite local dishes in Malaysia. And it's made by ... jeng jeng ... my mom. UNFORTUNATELY... this is one dish i have not picked up on how to cook. And it is not easy to make as your key ingredient is actually good fish.

Mom picked up this recipe from her late mother and her old neighbor in Lahat Lane ( Perak ). And i must say, fussy me is very particular about fish ball or yong tau foo. Despite this being my favorite dish, i am quite selective on which stall i pick to eat this as the quality of the y.t.f must be up to my standard. Too bouncy, i don't like, too soft i don't like. Too er commercialized - like those that come out of the pack, please keep away from me. Next year, my blog title shall be Neko Hime Blogs - Eating blog of a fussy cat. And true to a nature of a cat, i am picky. And i think i inherit my fussy-ness from my mom - who is queen fussy when it comes to food. *wink*

Anyhoo.... this happens to be my favorite dish mom cooks. And the fish used - tenggiri ( in BM ) or Kau Yue ( cantonese ) so when i asked her ... what's it called in English?? She says Mackerel... I was like EH? Really? I thought mackerel's were small. So i googled Mackerel and found some pics... Hmm does look like the fish she gets. But i think it's the King Mackerel that is closest to the description. 

My mom makes the fishballs and stuffings on her own, the only thing store bought is the tau foo and fuu-pei ( beancurd skin ) and ... the fish of course. The preparation of the dish takes about 3-4 hours. It starts with preparing the fish for fish mince. When choosing a tenggiri, my mom female fishes are better ( ?? how to tell ah ) and if the fish meat sticks to your knife, it is too oily already for making fishball ( you are gonna get softish fish ball in this case ). The meat is chopped till fine. We don't add additional type of meat or other fish meat just tenggiri on it's own. Then she stuffs it in the tau foo, beancurd skin and aubergines. And when American Idol is not on, you get it with bitter-gourd. After stuffing and shaping the fish balls, it's shallow fried in a pan. This process itself takes about 2 hours as you don't want it TOO brown or too pale.

Mom tops off her YTF with a fermented bean paste sauce, not the usual soup type. We normally eat this with rice so the bean paste gives it an additional flavor. Naturally chilli sauce is a must for this dish to give it an extra kick! No recipe this time, er .. this one no recipe one, it's in my mom's brains!