Yong Tao Foo is a Chinese dish where vegetables are stuffed with fish paste, pork, or seafood and cooked in broth, steamed, or fried. Tofu is a key ingredient, and the dish can be served with dipping sauces. Chili, okra, and bitter gourds are common vegetables used.
Yong Tao Foo is a Chinese dish that is eaten throughout the country and in Southeast Asia. The name translates as “stuffed bean curd,” although it is generally used to describe any vegetable that has been stuffed and cooked. The filling for yong tau foo can be fish paste, pork, and fish paste, or seafood such as prawns that have been pureed and mixed with ground pork. Stuffed vegetables can be cooked in a variety of ways, including being boiled in a flavored broth, steamed, or even fried. The finished yong tau foo can be served as a soup with the cooking broth, individually on a plate with the broth on the side, or with dipping sauces such as hoisin sauce or a spicy sambal.
The stuffing for the bean curd or vegetables is one of the key ingredients and helps give yong tau foo its name. In early recipes, this was a combination of pork and other seafood that formed into a paste. Later derivations of the dish simplified this process by using commercially available fish paste or fish paste powder to make the filling. Cooks who don’t use premade pasta commonly use mackerel or a combination of mackerel and pork in the filling. Soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and pepper are usually the only flavorings added to the filling.
Most recipes include chili, okra and bitter gourds as the main stuffed vegetables, although other types can also be used – such as eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini or tomatoes. The vegetables are either stuffed with the stuffing and then cooked or cut into small medallions after being stuffed and then cooked to create smaller pieces. Depending on the amount of stuffing used and the size of the cavity in the vegetables, the density of the stuffing can play a role in how the vegetables are prepared to ensure everything is cooked through.
In nearly all yong tau foo recipes, tofu is included as a filling element in the dish. These can be tofu squares that have a slit in the side, or they can be fried tofu skins that are rolled up with the filling inside. Almost any variety, including fermented and puffed tofu, can be used. In parts of Malaysia, the yong tau foo that is often served is mostly made from stuffed tofu and served with sambal and cooking broth on the side.
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