Mapo Tofu Recipe

Went shopping on Sunday as I had an immense craving for Mapo Tofu and it just couldn't wait, I won't bother with the 2 page life story you usually see on recipe pages, but theres some info about Mapo Tofu at the bottom, full ingredients list at the bottom.

• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or minced
• 1 teaspoon of minced or finely chopped ginger
• 3 large spring onions, chopped

Add the above into a hot wok or large frying pan, stir-fry until fragrant. If you'd like add around a tablespoon of fermented black beans or black bean paste, and some Sichuan peppercorns, I left these out because I'm lazy and don't like buying ingredients I won't use very often.

While this is heating up nicely, add the following to a bowl and stir them together

• 3/4 cup chicken broth (I used a stock cube in some hot water)
• 1 tablespoon potato starch (I used flour because I'm living in the 3rd world atm)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Once the spring onions etc. are fragrant, add 250g ground pork, once this has browned add doubanjiang (chilli bean paste). Add the tofu and gently mix it, after this add your stock mixture, and then boil until the sauce has thickened. Optionally add chilli powder/chilli oil, I like to sneak some Lao Gan Ma in. I started boiling rice halfway through cooking the mapo tofu and thankfully it was ready by the end, once the sauce is thick you can throw some more spring onions on if you want and serve with boiled rice. 

While this recipe doesn't give you the traditional "ma" in your mouth, its still tasty and quick and easy to make! Optional even quicker Mapo Tofu- buy a mapo tofu packet in the chinese supermarket for £1, cook mince, add the packet, add the tofu.

The "Ma" in má pó dòu fǔ stands for mázi, meaning pockmarks, "Po" is the first syllable of pópo meaning old woman or grandmother, thus MaPo is an old woman with a pockmarked face, the story is supposedly an old woman who invented the dish, who had a thriving business due to low prices and good taste, and after the old woman died people named her speciality Mapo Tofu in order to remember her. Traditionally Mapo Tofu is spicy with conventional heat spiciness and the "mala" spiciness that is characteristic of Sichuan cuisine, "mala" is numbing and is a signature aspect of spicy food from that region.

Full ingredients list:

• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or minced
• 1 teaspoon of minced or finely chopped ginger (substitute 1/2 teaspoon of dried ginger- its not the same though)
• 3 large spring onions, chopped
• 3/4 cup chicken broth (I used a stock cube in some hot water)
• 1 tablespoon potato starch (I used flour because I'm living in the 3rd world atm)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 250g ground pork
• 2 tbsp doubanjiang
• 600g firm tofu, drained and cut into smallish cubes, adjust the amounts of tofu and pork for your satisfaction