Laksa Yong Tau Foo

[ Collaboration with Dancing Chef and Singapore Home Cooks ]
Dish 1 - Laksa Yong Tau Foo

How time flies, next week is already Singapore's National Day and my family has been away for almost 8 months! As true blue Singaporeans who love to makan, we tend to miss local food from time to time.

Premix pastes like Dancing Chef really comes in handy whenever we have cravings. Sometimes it's too much hassle to cook from scratch or there are certain ingredients not readily available. I always stock up on our favourite pastes whenever we return to SG for visits; it's great that the packs are small and doesn't take up too much luggage space.

One of the SG local dish that we miss is Yong Tau Foo! Here in Thailand, there's no YTF stall where you can pick and choose the various ingredients like beancurd, bitter gourd, vegetables, fishballs etc...
Back in SG, we used to eat YTF at least once a week, and we always ended up ordering laksa gravy as the pairing is simply shiokalicious!

Using Dancing Chef Laksa paste, all I have to do is to prepare the YTF ingredients, cook the gravy and viola, a piping hot bowl of Laksa Yong Tau Foo!!

Laksa Yong Tau Foo
(makes 3-4 servings)

Minced fish & pork filling

• 200g fish meat (I use spanish mackerel/batang), chop into small pieces
• 200g minced pork
• 10g salted fish
• 4 tbsp water
• 2 tsp corn flour
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 stalk spring onion, finely chopped
• 1 stalk coriander, finely chopped

1. Add fish meat, minced pork, salted fish, water, corn flour and sea salt into a food processor or electric chopper. Grind/chop the ingredients into a paste.
2. Transfer the paste into a large solid bowl, add in the finely chopped spring onion and coriander. 
3. Wear a plastic disposable glove, pick up small portions of the mixture/paste and slap it back into the bowl. Do this several times until the paste turns into very soft and smooth texture. Set aside.

Yong Tau Foo
(filling above is enough for the listed ingredients)

• 2 small or 1 big brinjal, cut into 6 pcs about 1" thick with slit inbetween
• 1/4 bittergourd, cut into 6 rings about 1cm thick and hollow out the middle seed portion
• 2 blocks tau kwa/firm beancurd, cut diagonally into 4 pcs
• 3 pcs tau pok/fried beancurd, cut diagonally into 6 pcs
• 1 big red chilli, cut a slit inbetween and scrap away the seeds
• 4 pcs ladyfinger, cut a slit inbetween and scrap away the seeds
• Pot of cooking oil

1. Wash, pat fry and prepare the ingredients accordingly.
2. Using a small butter knife, stuff and spread the fish/pork filling into the prepared Yong Tau Foo ingredients.
3. Heat up a pot of cooking oil to medium heat and deep fry the yong tau food until cooked and golden brown. Drain using kitchen towel. Set aside. 

Laksa Yong Tau Foo

• 1 packet Dancing Chef Laksa paste
• 450ml water
• 250ml coconut milk
• 400g thick rice vermicelli (laksa noodles)
• 2 bunches kang kong (water spinach)

1. In a cooking pot, add laksa paste and water and bring to boil on medium heat.
2. Lower heat to simmer and stir in coconut milk. Simmer for another 5 mins and the laksa gravy is ready.
3. In a separate pot, blanch rice vermicelli for 15-20s, drain and scoop into individual bowls.
4. Blanch vegetables for 10-15s, drain and add into the individual bowls.
5. Top the bowls with desired pieces of Yong Tau Foo and finally ladle laksa gravy into the bowls.
6. Best serve hot.

Yum yum yum! This bowl of Laksa Yong Tau Foo was so satisfying! The HB also gave thumbs up! How I wish I could have more, but alas I ran out of the Laksa paste already :( Time to go back to SG to stock up?

From 1 to 31 August 2018, purchase 3 packets of Dancing Chef™’s pastes or sauces at just S$7.85 (UP: S$2.85/packet), and stand a chance to win a pair of passes to a cooking workshop helmed by local celebrity chef Lisa Leong on 16 Sep 2017. There are 30 pairs of passes to be won.

Dancing Chef promotion is available at FairPrice supermarkets exclusively.

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