Mapo Tofu

Not sure this recipe is the authentic one, but I've tried it and it tastes similar to what you would get in the restaurant, so works for me!

It doesn't have to be spicy if you buy a non spicy red bean paste (dou ban jiang - 豆瓣醬).

The sauce is quite oily, I think it would not hurt to remove the sesame oil but I haven't tried yet.

Ingredients - Serves 4

Base

2 minced cloves garlic - I use more

Thumb size piece of ginger, minced

Vegetable oil

Spring onions - mostly for colour

400g Tofu (the soft one, like for frying)

300g Ground pork

Sauce

2½ Tbsp spicy red bean paste (dou ban jiang - 豆瓣醬)

2 Tbsp mirin

1 Tbsp miso (I replaced with one more mirin)

1 Tbsp oyster sauce

½ Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tsp sesame sauce

1 Tsp cornstarch

4 Tbsp water

Instructions

Gather everything

Mix all ingredients for the sauce in a bowl, putting the cornstarch last in small increments as you mix everything together.

Mince the garlic cloves, ginger and sprint onions

Drain and cut the tofu in 2cm dices (I just removed the water from the box, didn't go through the whole process with the towel etc)

In a large frying pan or wok, heat the vegetable oil and add the ginger and garlic. You dont want to burn the garlic.

Add the ground pork and break it up using a spatula or wooden spoon.

When the pork is brown, pour the sauce in and mix well until all the pork is coloured with the sauce

Heat until the sauce is bubbling

Add the tofu and coat it with the sauce. Careful not to break the tofu apart, you want to lower the spatula action here to keep the tofu in square shape. One technique that I like to use is to gently scrap the bottom of the pan with the spatula, gently pushing aside the mix of tofu, sauce and meat. This is enough to coat the tofu after several increments.

Sprinkle the spring onion if using and serve with plain rice

Last edited on: 2022-06-17