I discovered this dish about a year ago here in Austin at a Chinese market/restaurant called Asia Cafe. It's a little hole in the wall place and they serve really good food. Since the first time I ate mapo tofu I thought it would be great if I could make it at home. I stumbled across recipe for it on the NPR site of all places.
I've never cooked with Sichuan peppercorns before I and thought they were going to be hotter. The numbing effect they had on my mouth was not something that I was expecting. I didn't have any doubanjiang chile bean paste, I used sambal oelek as a substitute.
With some modifications this recipe is a keeper. Next time I'll use triple or quadruple the amount of everything but the pork, and I'll at least double the tofu. I didn't remove the black seeds from the sichuan peppercorns, I didn't see any black seeds. I'll also add way more sichuan peppercorns next time. I made two recipes in two different pans because my youngest son doesn't eat spicy food and I wasn't sure if my oldest son was going to be able to eat it either. I used double the sichuan peppercorns in the spicy version and the spicy dish wasn't very spicy.
Have any of you gent's cookd this dish? Do you have any pointers for me? Is this recipe missing anything?
Here's a link to the recipe.
Ignore the fish sauce in the picture.
I've never cooked with Sichuan peppercorns before I and thought they were going to be hotter. The numbing effect they had on my mouth was not something that I was expecting. I didn't have any doubanjiang chile bean paste, I used sambal oelek as a substitute.
With some modifications this recipe is a keeper. Next time I'll use triple or quadruple the amount of everything but the pork, and I'll at least double the tofu. I didn't remove the black seeds from the sichuan peppercorns, I didn't see any black seeds. I'll also add way more sichuan peppercorns next time. I made two recipes in two different pans because my youngest son doesn't eat spicy food and I wasn't sure if my oldest son was going to be able to eat it either. I used double the sichuan peppercorns in the spicy version and the spicy dish wasn't very spicy.
Have any of you gent's cookd this dish? Do you have any pointers for me? Is this recipe missing anything?
Here's a link to the recipe.
- 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth
- 2 teaspoons potato starch (halve if using cornstarch)
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 medium cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons minced ginger
- 4 green onions white part only, minced
- 1 tablespoon fermented black beans, roughly chopped (black bean paste will also work)
- 1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns, black seeds removed then ground (optional)
- 6 ounces ground pork
- 2 teaspoons doubanjiang (chili bean paste)
- 14 ounce block of silken tofu, drained and cut into 3/4” cubes
- green part of green onions minced for garnish
Directions
- Add the chicken stock, cornstarch, soy sauce and sugar to a small bowl and stir to combine.
- Heat a wok or large frying pan until very hot. Add the sesame oil, garlic, ginger and green onions and stir-fry with a spatula until fragrant. Add the black beans and Sichuan pepper and continue stir-frying.
- Add the ground pork and use the spatula to break it up into small grains (you don’t want clumps of meat). When the pork is cooked, add the doubanjiang and stir to distribute. Add the tofu, and toss to mix (if you stir it, the tofu will lose its shape).
- Give the stock mixture a good stir to incorporate anything that may have settled, and then pour it over the pork and tofu. Toss to coat, then boil until the sauce thickens.
- Garnished with the green parts of the green onions, then serve with hot rice.
Ignore the fish sauce in the picture.