Cooking: Mapo Tofu

May Po Tofu Mah Po Tofu... whatever. I call it what I want to be silly.

If you recall, Wandering Chopsticks sent me a package that I won by sheer luck. One of the things in the box was some Szechuan peppercorns to make a dish called mapo tofu. Man... first I make salad rolls and now another dish from my box (har har)? Cool!

The only ingrediants I needed were firm tofu, ground pork and some gai lan (Chinese broccoli). However, before I left, I started the rice so it would be done and out of the way. When I got home from Marina (aZn grocery store), I got my ingrediants ready by chopping up the Thai bird chilies, garlic, tofu and green onions.

The next thing I did was prep the sauce and heated up the wok to toast the Szechuan peppercorns that Justyn had crushed up in his mortar and pestle. Once the peppercorns were toasted, I added the chilies and garlic. The kitchen started to smell good after that so I added a little sesame seed oil and the pork. I sauteed the pork until it was nicely browned and added the fermened bean curd. I let the pork mixture heat while I added cornstarch to some soysauce instead of mixing it with broth. I mixed the soysauce and green onion into the wok until it became thick. A splash of broth later, and it was done. Pretty simple! And taste wise? Well, I asked Justyn if he preferred this over the packaged nastiness that I used to use. He said this was much better. Now that I know how to make mapo tofu from scratch I'm gold!

Thanks Wandering Choppy for the great recipe!

Maybe tomorrow I'll make some Vietnamese iced coffee :D