Awhile ago I wrote a post on Yong Liew. In this dish, you stuff fish paste into different vessels. Then you fry them or cook them in your chosen broth. Please refer to this recipe here
Today I have an update. I tried this combo a few times. I found I really like it. Good fish paste is very hard to get in the UK. More often than not, I am most disappointed. Can’t even get the fish I want most times when I feel like making. So I decided to combine chicken and prawns and I found it very palatable. So this is a new take on Yong Liew I am not posting again my recipe again. Please use the link above as guide. Instead this update will be all pics with guidelines.
This paste is 500g chicken meat, 500g prawns, 1 tsp shallots oil, 2 heap tsp cornflour, salt + pepper to season and half cup water.
As I am frying the stuffed vegetables, I decided to fry some prawn crackers first. This not only flavoured the oil but less wastage because I will bin the oil after.
TIPs 1 – Put in more oil in the beginning when frying the prawns crackers. Then remove as I go on.
TIP 2 – First fry the inside out stuffed toufo-pop. They need more oil to crisp all round evenly.
TIP 3 – Then comes the stuffed aubergines as they also needs more oil to fry. If you have stuffed the paste well, the stuffing will remain intact. Your pot must be just right for the pieces to sit up close and personal. This ensures the stuffing does not break loose or fall out.
TIP 4 – When frying the toufo, it is a MUST to handle gently and this soft toufo breaks easily. Remove some oil before placing the toufo in stuffing side down. Leave them to fry for a good 2 minutes before flipping gently or you will mess them up, aka breaking.
TIP 5 – Remove even more oil before frying mushrooms and chilies. When you tidy your chilies to stuff, you must consider which side to place them. This way, they can be placed stuffing side down in the oil. You literally only need to fry the paste side. Remember you do not need to fry the vegetables. This means your paste stuffing will NOT fall out of your chilies.
TIP 6 – You can stuff bak choy and anything you wish. Just needs to gently press the paste into the nooks and corners. Again you make sure oil is only like 1cm deep. Just fry the paste side for 2 minutes. Then flip and remove. The residue oil will wilt the leaves.
TIP 7 – You can freeze toufo-pop because they freeze well for months. You can also freeze ‘hard/tough’ vegetables like bitter gourds. But soft vegetables like aubergines, bak choy, long beans, do not freeze well. They become horribly soft and mushy when defrosted. Well, you can if you like baby food.
Side Note – After you stuffed your vegetables they are all in room temperature. When hot oil hits them, they cook in minutes. Please do not fry too long. This is especially important for the toufo-pop if you want to freeze them and air fry another day. Today I braised some with ginger and yellow beans because hubby is nursing a bad tooth abscess. Hence all the soft toufo goes to him but he loves the stuffed chilies too.
