MAPO Tofu Recipe | 麻婆豆腐菜谱

Mapo Tofu is one of the most famous dishes of Sichuan Cuisine around the globe. It combines the bold flavors of chili pepper and Sichuan pepper with the silk-like softness of tofu, creating one of the most fascinating dishes stimulating all your taste buds. The bright red and green color from red broad bean paste and green scallion presents the inviting combination for spicy food lovers.

This recipe simplifies the preparation by using the Mapo Tofu cooking sauce by Shengchubao to replace many ingredients such as Broad Bean Paste, salt and etc. It  makes the whole preparation and cooking process much easier by combining many steps and thus reducing the prep time. More importantly, it maintains the original taste and aroma for authentic Mapo Tofu and recreate the famous dish with no compromise on spiciness and aroma. Lastly, the cooking sauce purposely leaves out the Sichuan Pepper as you can adjust the numbing kick from Sichuan Peppers yourself according to your own preference. You can get the Mapo Tofu Sauce from www.spicyelement.com

Ingredients:

• Mapo Tofu Sauce 50g
• Vegetable oil 50g
• Sweet Potato Starch or Corn Starch 15g
• Soft Tofu 400g
• Sichuan Pepper Powder 5-10g
• Minced beef or pork 30g
• Minced green onion 10g

1. Cut the tofu into 3-cm (about 1 inch) cube and simmer in the boiling water for 3 minutes and get out of water for later use
2. Add 80g vegetable oil in the wok and heated to about 300 F, then add 30 g (about 1 oz) of minced meat (pork or beef), stir fry it till it's fully cooked. (Vegetarians can skip the meat and go directly to step 3)
3. Add 50g the MaPo Tofu Sauce in the wok and stir fry with low heat till the flavor comes out; (tip: keep low heat to keep the aroma)
4. Add 400g tofu and about 150 g water into the wok
5. While waiting for the water to be boiled in the wok, mixed 15 g starch and 30 g of water in a bowl;
6. Add 1/3 of the starch mix in the wok after the water boiled and stir the wok and fully mix the starch with tofu;
7. Repeat step 6 twice and turn off the heat and then Mapo Tofu is ready to serve
8. Put the tofu mix in a bowl or dish and spray the Sichuan Pepper powder and minced green onion on top of it and then Mapo Tofu is ready to serve