Koay teow (flat thin rice noodle) th’ng (soup) is the favourite food for Penang people we can eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The noodles are usually blanched first, then garnished with parboiled pork or chicken meat, sliced fish cakes, fish balls and a sprinkling of chopped scallions and some golden crisp-fried chopped garlic in oil.

Grandma’s koay teow soup method is a combination of pork bones, chicken, chicken feet’s, ikan bilis (dried anchovy) and duck. Her protein garnishing’s are chicken meat, chicken innards, and fish balls. The soup looks plain but it packs a full delicious sweet savoury umami punch. The specialty of all koay teow th’ng is not in the soup, it not in the koay teow but is the fish balls. The fish balls are specially made by the owners themselves and of course contain secret recipe that make the fish balls delicious.

I remembered grandma’s koay teow thing used to have this combination. My mom said it’s call Kai see hor fun. I am not doing what my grandma and mom does. I am making it with chicken drumsticks and prawn heads soup base that my grandma and mother had taught me. I have added bee hoon, Malaysian Hakka yong tofu; learned from my dad, vegetables and must have golden crisp-fried chopped garlic in oil for garnishing.

This dinner is time consuming effort, delicious, comforting with each mouthful bring me back to my memoirs of truly having authentic koay teow soup in Malaysia, Penang. Hopefully one day, I can go back and eat it every day. Let’s cook!!!

Ingredients

Malaysian Hakka yong tofu

750 g fish paste
600 g pork minced
1 1/2 heaped teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
freshly ground white pepper
10 pieces square firm tofu, cut half diagonally, make a small slit on the cut side, dig out and keep the flesh
10 pieces tau foo pok (deep fried tofu balls), cut half diagonally, make a small slit on the cut side, dig out and keep the flesh
3 medium long eggplant, slice at an angle, slice horizontally almost to the edge
3 small bitter gourd, remove seeds and slice at an angle
about 3 cups vegetable oil for deep frying
a small bowl of salted water
oil for frying

Koay teow and vermicelli noodles soup

2 packets of koay teow
3 blocks of bee hoon (vermicelli), soaked in hot boiling water
4 bunches choy sum, cut into bite size
2 packets of fried fish balls
1 Tbs oil
1 Tsp minced garlic
3-4 c water

Drumsticks and prawn heads stock

12 drumsticks
12-14 prawn heads, leftover and thawed
1 Tbs minced garlic
5-7 Tbs water
4-6 c water, just enough to cover the drumsticks slightly above 1”
5 garlic cloves
1 c chicken stock, bought
1 Tsp chicken powder stock (OPT)
1” ginger
oil
salt
black peppercorns, in pouch

Golden crisp-fried chopped garlic in oil and spring onions-garnish

40 g chopped garlic
1/8 c vegetables oil
spring onions, thinly cut, extra garnish

Method

Do one day in advance or in the morning Malaysian Hakka yong tofu

In a small cup, mix the salt with the water well. Set aside the salted water. Meanwhile, add about 1/3 of the salted water, firm tofu, and tau foo pok flesh, along with a dash of pepper to the minced pork and paste; continue stirring the minced pork and paste to mix well until the salted water is used up. Refrigerate the mixture of minced pork and paste with cling film to harden it a bit for 1-2 hours. Then prepare other items for stuffing.

When time up, bring paste and minced pork to room temperature, use a teaspoon or wash hands use fingers to stuff the tofu (be extra gentle with this one), fried tofu pok and vegetables. The amount of paste to use varies, bitter gourd uses up more filling. Clean up the edges and smooth out the paste with some salted water. (Avoid overstuffing the tofu and vegetables as they may tear/break during frying).

In a large wok, heat up oil over medium heat and fry the stuffed items by batches, starting with the vegetables and ending with the fresh tofu. Lay the stuffing side down to cook the mince/paste, then flip over and around to cook the vegetable/tofu, about 7-9 minutes each side as meat cooks slower than just fish. The tau foo pok is already cooked, this will take the shortest time.

Ensure oil is hot enough for deep frying to avoid oil-clogged results. Drain the fried items on kitchen towels before transferring them to the serving platter. Set aside if making overnight until cool enough to put in fridge. If doing in the morning, warmed up before adding to koay teow bee hoon soup.

Golden crisp-fried chopped garlic in oil-garnish

Put oil and chopped garlic in a deep bowl with a saucer and microwaves it 30 seconds for 3-4 times, stir in between until garlic is golden crispy. Don’t burn it and be careful, oil will splutter, I use a plate to cover the bowl. Once done, bring out of microwave and set aside until needed.

Drumsticks and prawn heads stock

Fry prawn heads with 1 Tbs oil and minced garlic until turned red, add some water about 5-7 Tbs and smashed then set aside. In a pot, add drumsticks, 4 c water and bring it to a simmer on low heat about 35 minutes. As it simmers, skim the foam (impurities) off the top with a fine-mesh skimmer or a spoon. When it is done, strain stock through sieve into another pot (I usually line it with a muslin cloth).

Add garlic cloves, 1 Tsp chicken powder stock, 1” ginger, salt, black peppercorns in pouch and simmer very gently for 1-2 hours. The longer the stock, the more flavour it will have, but the drumsticks will lose flavour. Remove the drumsticks from the pot once it has cooked. Let it cool and remove meat from bones. Keep in an airtight container in fridge; can use it for later or add to other dishes.

Now add in 1 cup of chicken stock and cooked prawn heads with remaining 2 c of water into stock. Bring it to boil for more stock flavour about 30 minutes, gives a couple of stirs and check seasoning again. Cover with lid. Microwave each packet of koay teow for easy to tear it into strips. Once done, bring kettle to boil and open bee hoon packet and put in a basin. When water boiled, pour into bee hoon to softened and then drain. Set aside.

When finished tearing koay teow, blanch them quickly in boiling water until softened and then drain. Divide koay teow and bee hoon into serving bowls. After boiling the stock for 30 minutes, remove the pot lid, add in choy sum and fried fish balls. Cook the fried fish balls until they float to the surface of the soup and the choy sum is cooked. Remove and place dried fish balls, about 1-2 in each serving bowl with koay teow and bee hoon.

Warmed up Malaysian Hakka yong tofu in the microwave for 5 minutes. Next, warm up the serving bowls with the ingredients prepared in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. Ladle some choy sum and soup onto the warmed serving bowls. Then, spoon Malaysian Hakka yong tofu into each serving bowl. Serve with a glass of wine. Enjoy!!!

Note: You can just use pork ribs instead of prawn and chicken stock. Or just use prawn heads stock. You may omit bee hoon just use koay teow only or add mee. You can add squids pieces instead of pork balls. You can add Chinese chives instead of dried shallots.

https://helenscchin.com/2022/06/16/yong-tofu-koay-teow-and-vermicelli-noodles-soup/

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