Yong Tau Foo

Serves 2

This is my own version of yong tau foo. I'm really not sure how other people make it but this is how I do it. Could you buy it ready made? Yes. Is that fun? No! It's just as fast to make it yourself and there's no strange chemicals in it that make it bouncy like the store bought fish balls/yong tau foo. It's not going to be as springy as the factory made fish balls but it sure is healthier!

I've used just 4 green chilies and 2 square pieces of firm tofu here but you can go crazy and use anything you like to stuff the fish paste in! Mushrooms, capsicum, eggplant, tomatoes.

As for the soup base, I used a mixture of fish bones and chicken feet with some garlic and onions. But you can use ANYTHING you want! Best is to boil a load of soya beans for about 2 - 3 hours, throw in a few ikan billis and dried shrimp, and that's really sweet enough. If you're pressed for time, just use a stock cube! Anything goes really.

For 2 people:

About 200g of white firm flesh fish, with skin in tact (bigger fish works best)
1 egg white
Cornflour
Salt
Finely ground white pepper
Chopped spring onions, chopped (optional)
Chopped red chilies, chopped (optional)

1) Using a teaspoon, scrape the meat from the fish. You'll realise that it turns into mush pretty easily.

2) Discard the skin and any bones.

3) Don't use all the egg white. About 1 teaspoon or less is good enough for 200g.

4) Add a pinch of salt, and finely ground white pepper and about 1/4 teaspoon of cornflour just to bind everything together. Add spring onions and chilies if desired.

5) Mix it all together until you get a sticky paste. You can also grab it and slap it on the mixing bowl a few times.

6) Stuff the paste into your vegetables or tofu. (If using chilies and capsicum you might want to discard the seeds).

7) If using firm tofu, cut each piece diagonally into two triangles. Make a slit into the cut but don't slit all the way through. Start stuffing. Be careful as it's quite delicate and you don't want to stuff too much.

8) Bring your stock to a boil and add in your ingredients. Boil for about 5 - 10 minutes or until your vegetables are cooked to your liking. Firm tofu is already cooked and really only needs 3 - 5 minutes.

9) Serve with cooked noodles of your choice, rice or just on its own!

Asian Ceviche

Serves 4

1 fillet salmon, cubed and skin removed.
1 fillet white snapper, cubed and skin removed
2 large tomatoes, cubed
1 Thai honey mango, cubed
1/2 a medium bulb red onion, finely chopped
1 small clove garlic, grated
6 stalks spring onions, sliced
1 handful coriander, chopped
2 red chili padi, very finely chopped with seeds
6-8 calamansi, juiced
sliced avocado to garnish (optional)
2 pinches salt
fresh ground black pepper
Optional: flour tortillas for the basket.

1. Mix ingredients (except fish skin) together and leave in fridge for 10 mins.

2. Optional: Drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper on the skins on both sides and leave on the grill to let the fat drain about 10 -15 minutes snapper skin takes slightly longer.

3. Optional tortilla bowl: Preheat oven to 190 celsius. Invert your muffin tin and nestle one tortilla in between four cups. Bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown. Remove and cool. Spoon ceviche in the bowls and serve.

Singapore fish ball minced pork noodles

Serves 2

A. Fish balls:
2 fillets of mackerel, skin removed
¼ tsp salt
1 chili padi, seeded and chopped
3 stalks spring onions, green part, chopped (save the white parts)
½ clove garlic, minced
pinch white pepper

B. Minced pork:
minced pork, palm sized
½ clove garlic, minced
spring onion, white part, chopped
1/2 teaspoon oyster sauce
Splash soy sauce
Few drops sesame oil
Few drops fried shallot oil (you can find them store bought in a jar)
Splash tsao tsing wine
Pinch white pepper

Mushroom sauce:
5 dried shitake mushrooms
5 large fresh oyster mushrooms (you can use fresh shitake too)
2 cloves garlic, minced,
1 slice ginger, minced
1 small red shallot, minced
1/2 teaspoon dark soy
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Splash Tsao tsing wine
peanut oil
cornstarch (1 teaspoon of cornflour mixed with 2 teaspoon of water)
Pinch white pepper

C. Noodle sauce:
1 tablespoon Oyster sauce
Splash Soy sauce
5-10 drops Sesame oil
1 tablespoon Singlong Super Chili sauce
Very small spalsh of black vinegar (be careful of using too much, put a little bit at a time till you get the taste that you want)
white pepper

Fresh noodles, Hong Kong style or any fresh egg noodles, e.g mee pok
Boiling water with a handful of ikan billis and dried shrimp
Spring onions and fried shallots with shallot oil for garnish

1 Marinade mince pork by mixing all of B together.

2. Add all of A together and blitz t in food processor till it clumps. This will take quite a while. You need to be patient - if you don't process it enough you won't get smooth fish balls.

3. Transfer to a mixing bowl and pick up the mixture and then whack the clump of fish against a bowl a few times. ( I don't know why they do this but my mother said it had to be done.)

4. Divide fish mixture into 8. Wet hands and form fish paste into a patty, add a small marble sized minced pork in the middle and cover and roll into ball. Repeat with the rest. Lightly oil your hands and coat each ball so they won't stick. Set aside.

5. Reserve the rest of the minced pork.

6. Boil dried shitake in small saucepan of water till soft. Drain and reserve the liquid.

7. Cut and discard the stems off the boiled shitake and slice. Slice the fresh mushrooms.

8. Add peanut oil to a sauce pan with garlic, shallot, ginger. Saute till soft and add the fresh and dried mushrooms. When slightly brown, add tsao tsing wine.

9.  Add enough mushroom liquid to cover. Add the rest of the ingredients, except cornstarch. Boil for 10-15 mins. When taste is right, slowly add the cornstarch to thicken. Set aside on very very very low heat to keep warm.

10. Mix all the ingredients for the noodle sauce C.

11. Boil water in one pot for noodles, and boil water in another pot with ikan billis and dried shrimp.

12. Add the fish balls into the pot with ikan billis & shrimp. Let boil for 5 mins.

13. Boil the noodles for 2-3 mins and drain. Divide into bowls and mix it with the sauce.

14. While fish balls are still boiling, boil the minced pork in the same pot with a strainer/kitchen spider until meat turns opaque. Remove from water and add on top of noodles.

15. Add the mushroom sauce on top of noodles.

16. Remove fish balls and transfer onto noodles.

17. Garnish with fresh spring onions and fried shallots with shallot oil.

18. Spoon some of the ikan billis/shrimp/fishball/pork stock into bowls as side dish.

* This is my own recipe so and I'm not very good at taking down measurements so these are just estimates. I don't even normally follow other people's recipes to the tee either - cooking is all about gut feel!