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My Most Popular Chinese Recipes ❤️
Tips, tricks, and recipes for perfect Chinese dishes
FREE EMAIL BONUS:
My Most Popular Chinese Recipes ❤️
Tips, tricks, and recipes for Chinese dishes
What Does Mapo Tofu Taste Like?
Mapo Tofu is a classic Szechuan dish that features tofu covered in spices and minced meat. It pairs extremely well with rice, and may even be necessary with how spicy it can get.
The name literally translates to “pockmarked old lady tofu”, inspired by the old lady that made this dish. The more you know!
It has now become a staple in Chinese restaurants, with many ordering it for takeout. However, did you know how easy it can be to make it at home?
Chinese Mapo Tofu from Scratch
Recently, my colleague asked me for my Mapo Tofu/麻婆豆腐 recipe. He has just gotten into cooking and wanted to try making it at home.
I went through the recipe with him in great length. But he ditched the idea of making the tofu from scratch.
It was too complicated and troublesome, he said. He bought a packet of instant Mapo Tofu mix instead.
How Hard Is It to Make?
Is Mapo Tofu/麻婆豆腐 so hard to make at home? Does the long list of ingredients appear intimidating to a novice home cook? I asked myself. The answer is–unfortunately–yes.
Making a plate of this Szechuan tofu that oozes the signature mala/麻辣 (numbing spiciness) flavor without losing its originality is not easy…
Authentic Mapo Tofu
I learned my Mapo Tofu recipe from a Sichuan friend, the birthplace of this famed Chinese recipe. My friend’s mother attended the Sichuan Culinary Institute at Chengdu, so this Mapo Tofu recipe is as authentic as it can be. The Mapo Tofu recipe is not for the faint-hearted, it’s lip-smackingly spicy and downright incendiary (think Angelina Jolie’s lips after eating this!)
BEE-STUNG SWOLLEN LIPS ARE IN, but consider yourself warned. ;)
How Many Calories per Serving?
This recipe is only 266 calories per serving.
What Dishes to Serve with This Recipe?
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
Mapo Tofu
Ingredients
- 1 block silken tofu
- 1/4 lb (113g) 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 leeks or scallions (chopped into 1 or 2-inch (2.5cm - 5cm) length)
- 2 gloves garlic (chopped)
- 1/2 cup water
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
Nutrition
What an awesome recipe! Easy to follow and delicious! I used Kashmiri chilli powder, pixian doubanjiang (spicy bean paste) and Laoganma chilli oil – the spiciness was just right with the measurements you recommended. I love your recipes- so authentic, pls keep them coming! Just wanted to ask more about the fermented black beans – it’s the same as salted black beans right?
thanks!
Hi Bee,
Your recipes never failed me! I halved this recipe for dinner, using Lao Gan Ma chilli flakes in oil for chilli oil and omitted the pork. I actually forgot to put the water in with the tofu and remembered to do it just before serving! After adding the water the sauce still looked runny so I added two tsps of corn starch made into slurry – the consistency came out right!
Spice level was just perfect for my husband and I. He polished off the sauce even without the rice!
Just want to say, thank you for the great recipe! Looking forward to exploring more on your website.
Hi Xuan, thanks for trying my recipe. Yes, please try more recipes on my site, for example: char siu and siu yuk and all the other recipes are easy and delicious: https://rasamalaysia.com/recipe-index-gallery/
This is a five stars recipes! Mapo Tofu is one of my family’s favorite dish. Bee, do you have a Chengdu Pork recipe? I had Chengdu Pork a few times in a Chinese restaurant, but now the restaurant is not offering the dish.
Thank You
What kink of chili powder? Is it American, korean, Thai, etc?
Doesn’t matter.
Hi, I’ve been making this recipe for many, many years now, its by far still the best Mapo Tofu I’ve ever eaten. But I have made some changes to it, especially in regards to the chili powder. I am really curious: is it really supposed to be 2 tablespoons? What kind of chili powder is it? When first making this, I used the red chili powder you typically find at the Asian food market. When I first made this recipe, I found that 2 tablespoons of chili powder was PAINFUL. And not just to my Western palette. I have fed this dish to many Han Chinese foreign college students. I watched a spicy-food-loving Sichuan native shove ice cubes in his mouth after eating the dish when I used the “correct” amount of chili powder. I don’t believe ANYBODY short of Chili Klaus could eat this dish comfortably.
I still use 2 tablespoons now, but exclusively ancho chili powder, so it still has the flavor but without setting everybody’s mouth on fire. Once I switched to ancho this dish became absolutely amazing, and STILL quite spicy from the chili oil and spicy bean paste. I am SO curious if I was always doing something wrong back then. As this recipe is something I make quite frequently I just had to come back after so many years and ask this. I think this about every time I make this recipe. So: is it really supposed to be 2 tablespoons of red chili powder?
Yes two tablespoon of red chili powder. There are many different types of chili powder some super spicy and some are just red and not much heat. Yes acho is the way to go or Korean chili powder. Certainly not going to use cayenne pepper.
Mapo tofu is one of my favorite foods in the entire world, and this recipe makes a fantastic mapo tofu! Thank you so much for sharing it!
Me too! My daughter has a pork allergy so I made an extra batch for her with ground (light and dark) chicken. She loved it!
Hi Rasa,
I’ve been wanting to make Mapo Tofu for ages, and I finally decided it’s time to put some action in it.
Your recipe appeals to me most, but I don’t quite understand how much a block of tofu weighs. I buy mine fresh at the Asian supermarket close to where I live, and since I live in the Netherlands, it’s not the first time I’m having a hard time understanding foreign measurements on the internet.
Thanks in advance for helping me out!
Hi Mirjam, the ones we have here is about 12-16 oz
We also live in NL and I would not recommend the fresh tofu from the toko. We much prefer the silken tofu
I absolutely love your Nonya recipes. Several year of living in Singapore with meals regularly taken at gourmet place as Orchard Rd Car Park, Albert Street and Newton Circus. Whenever I can I try to duplicate those flavors this leads me to a questin: when you call for “chili powder”, what exactly do you mean”. There are several choices: chili powder as is used in Mexican cuisine (usually a mix of long red, ancho & pasilla chilis; cayenne and straight red pepper powder from dried long reds. In the quantities called for in most Asian recipes cayenne is way too much, the Mexican powder probably does not offer the right flavor leaving only red pepper powder or so it seems.
What ami missing?
Thanks much.
Terimah kaso
Jb