Thursday, July 5, 2007

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

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sure looks delicious.

Anonymous said...

Mapo tofu has always been my favorite! Yummy! But too bad, Wandering Chopsticks did not send me Szechuan peppercorns to kick the tofu up a notch. :P

JadedOne said...

Cooking Ninja - Thanks :) You should try out the recipe and let me know how it is!

Tigerfishy - Werd, I've always liked mapo tofu, but I've never made it like this before. The Sezchuan peppercorns really made a difference.

Wandering Chopsticks said...

Yay! Recipe number 2. It's easy huh? How much of the peppercorns can you stand. Recently I was eating at my favorite Sichuan restaurant and they put in so much that my mouth was numb and I swear the water tasted like the peppercorns too!

JadedOne said...

WC - It really is easier than I thought. :) I wanna make it again, but my hubby'll probably get too burnt out on it if I make it this week. Perhaps next week!

Hey! Since you like Szechuan peppercorns and spicy foods, you might enjoy a restaurant called South Legend in Milpitas (for the next time you're in the area)

Check it out:

http://jadedskitchen.blogspot.com/2007/04/review-south-legend.html