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Ingredients:
1 block silken tofu (19 oz box)
1/4 lb ground pork
3 tablespoons Sichuan spicy bean paste (辣豆瓣酱)
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons cooking oil
3 tablespoons chili oil
1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns (roasted and ground to powder)
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon fermented black beans (rinsed and pounded)
2 stalks of leeks or scallions (chopped into 1 or 2-inch length)
2 gloves garlic (chopped)
1/2 cup water
Salt to taste
Method:
Cut the tofu into small pieces, drain the water from the tofu and set aside. Heat up a wok and pour in the cooking oil and chili oil. Add the chopped garlic, ground pork, spicy bean paste and stir-fry until the pork is half-done. Then add in chili powder, soy sauce, fermented black beans and stir-fry until aromatic. Add in the tofu and water; stir gently to blend the tofu (don’t break them) well with the sauce. Lower the heat and simmer for about 3-5 mins or until the sauce thickens. Add in the roasted Sichuan peppercorn powder and chopped scallions. Gently stir and blend well. Dish out and serve hot.
Cook’s notes:
- To tone down the numbing spiciness of this dish, use less roasted sichuan peppercorn powder, chili powder, and chili oil. Adjust them to fit your palate.
- Mo Po Tofu (麻婆豆腐) literally means “Pock-Marked Old Lady Tofu” (I know!). You can read about the origin of this dish here.
- The Ma Po Tofu served at Chinese restaurants in the US has been adapted to appeal to local taste–the level of numbing spiciness is largely toned down.
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I don’t think it is too troublesome or long to make mapo tofu, especially when it yields such delicious results! This is an amazing recipe! You are sooo talented! =)
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My favorite comfort food…God does that look scrumptious! Thank you, now I’m drooling
Great recipe! I prepared with extra lean ground meat(cow) instead of pork, and it turned out perfect! Thank you so much for sharing.
This is similar to one I learned whilst doing an apprenticeship in a Chinese restaurant. In my view, you can’t really have enough of the Szechwan peppercorns!! I add rice wine to help thicken it, and thus find that the recommended cornflour I see in many recipes is not necessary. The beauty of this dish is that in summer, it lifts jaded palates, and in winter, it’s the most warming of soul foods. Whoever invented it was a genius.
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I’ve been searching the internet for the perfect mapo tofu recipe, and now I know I’ve found the one. I tried your recipe today without the chili oil, and it still turned out spicy and wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing. :)
You’re most welcome. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Hope the other recipes here serve you as well.
I spent a few months living in Buenos Aires, and my apartment-mate was Taiwanese. So, of all places, the first place I had Mapo Tofu was in Argentina! It blew my mind, and I think I’m finally going to make it myself!
I LOVE my Sichuan foods–hot and spicy, please. I have a question; when you call for chili powder, do you mean the basic chili powder in the US that smells like it’s made from dried guajillo or maybe ancho chiles, or do you mean powedered hot dried red chiles, such as Japonese chiles?
Dried chili powder, but I use Korean ones. It tastes the best.
I have indian kashmiri chili powder will that work?
I too was searching for the best Mapo Tofu recipe, this is a great one, we really enjoyed it. Another thing I have been searching for a very long time, is a recipe for Sechuan pork saussages. I was thinking perhaps you would have access to such recipe with the Sechuan connections…I would so love to make these. In China, it was delivered to me by a friend who had a family in Chengdu producing them on a very small scale, but the family that made them, would not give out the secret:(