Mapo Tofu
Certainly the most famous and most beloved tofu dish. A great classic of Sichuan cuisine.
Ingredients
- 400 g tofu (firm or soft, as you prefer)
- 35 g minced pork or beef (as you prefer)
- 3 slices ginger
- 3 pickled chillies (otherwise fresh chillies *)
- 1 spring onion
- 3 dried chillies
- 0,5 tsp Sichuan peppercorns
- 1 tsp doubanjiang
- 1 tsp fermented black soybeans (DouChi *)
- 500 ml water≈ 500 g
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 dash dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp cornstarch (mixed in a ladle of water)
Method
- 13 days ahead, if you're feeling ambitious: prepare the pickled chillies (recipe in the footnote).
- 2Cut the tofu into roughly 1 cm cubes.
- 3Mince the ginger and the pickled chillies after deseeding them. Set aside.
- 4Rinse and mince the fermented soybeans. Set aside.
- 5Mince the doubanjiang. Set aside.
- 6Finely slice the spring onion. Set aside.
- 7Blanch the tofu in salted water for 1 minute over medium heat. Drain and set aside.
- 8Heat a pan over low heat, add oil. When the temperature reaches 150 degrees: add the dried chillies and Sichuan peppercorns. Stir-fry for 15 seconds. Stop before the chillies darken too much.
- 9Carefully reserve this aromatic oil at the bottom of the pan. Grind the chillies and peppercorns you just toasted into a powder using a mortar. Or, even better, chop them with a knife.
- 10Heat the pan, add the minced meat and cook for 1 minute over medium heat, stirring.
- 11Add the doubanjiang, pickled chillies, ginger and fermented black soybeans. Cook for 1 minute, still stirring, over medium heat. Stop when the oil turns red.
- 12Add the chilli/Sichuan peppercorn powder. Stir, then add the water.
- 13Add the sugar and a dash of dark soy sauce.
- 14Add the tofu and cook for 5 minutes, covered at first (until boiling) then uncovered. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning if needed.
- 15Add one-third of the cornstarch slurry, stir gently for 10 seconds. Add the second third, stir for 10 seconds, then the last third (if needed) and stir until you reach the desired consistency. Serve, garnishing the top of the dish with the sliced spring onion.
Notes
The dish can be served with white rice. For heat lovers, you can crank up the spice level by adding chilli oil at the same time as the tofu and a sprinkle of dried chilli and Sichuan peppercorn powder at the end. Even though it's less traditional, leave out the minced meat and your mapo tofu becomes vegetarian. Fermented black soybeans come as salty, semi-dried black seeds. If needed, replace with a teaspoon of "black bean sauce", "sweet bean sauce" or even both. If needed, replace the doubanjiang with another spicy fermented bean and soy paste ("chili bean paste") such as Korean gochujang or Hong Kong Toban Djan. It would still be a shame though, because doubanjiang is truly the signature taste of Sichuan. Here is the pickled chilli recipe: Pickled chilli "Pao La Jiao" If you replace the pickled chillies with fresh ones and if you use the Hong Kong version of doubanjiang (Toban Djan), remember to add salt and maybe even reduce the sugar a little. The original doubanjiang and pickled chillies are quite salty.
