Heat up the wok. Once the wok is hot, add in half a bowl of oil and fry the garlic on medium heat till fragrant. Next add the the shallots do the same, followed by the ginger. Take your time to sauté well until the garlic, shallots and ginger are nicely golden and fragrant, next add in the cinnamon, star anise and cloves to sauté.
Again once these spices are nicely fragrant, add in 5 pieces of red fermented beancurd and again slowly sauté till the flavor comes out (you can smell it!) Take the time to sauté well as all these flavors combined will translate into a beautiful rich broth.
Once fragrant, add in the mutton to fry. Keep turning the meat so it sautes evenly and absorbs all the fragrant spices/herbs. (*Do not add water yet* or the taste of the spices/herbs will be diluted). Add 2 tsp pepper and 2 tsp chicken powder to the meat and continue frying.
Cook the mutton until the juices of the meat comes out. You will see the meat shrink as it cooks. Once the juices and oil comes out of the meat, add boiling water for the soup.
Add water until the meat is fully submerged. At this stage, add in the rest of the Chinese herbs (dang gui, dang shen, gan chao, the red dates) black fungus and the tau pok. The black fungus and tau pok is added here to allow it to slowly braise with the meat and absorb the lovely flavours.
Cook for ~2 hours until the meat is tender. If the soup level becomes low, add boiling water as appropriate during this time to allow the meat to braise properly.
Once the meat is quite tender, add in the fried yuba and boil for another 30 min. Taste the soup and if required, add a little more soya sauce or chicken powder if it’s not salty enough. (*Do not add salt to season the soup - see notes*). Once the yuba has braised for 30min, switch off the heat. The mutton soup is ready.