Mapo Tofu 麻婆豆腐 — 2024-07-24

recipe taken from:

½ cup oil (divided) 3 fresh Thai bird chili peppers (thinly sliced) 9 dried red chilies (roughly chopped) 1 1/2 tablespoons Sichuan peppercorns (powdered or finely ground, reserving 1/4 teaspoon for garnish at the end; if you want a milder flavor use 1/2 or 1 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorn) 3 tablespoons ginger (finely minced) 3 tablespoons garlic (finely minced) 8 ounces ground pork 2 tablespoons doubanjiang (depending on your desired salt/spice levels) 2/3 cup low sodium chicken broth (or water) 1 pound silken tofu (cut into 1 inch/2.5cm cubes) 1/4 cup water 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch 2 scallion (finely chopped) 2 scallion whites

Put rice on the rice cooker
marinate ground pork in 1 tbsp shaoxing wine and 1 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
prepare all the ingredients
toast the drief and fresh chilis in 1/4 cup oil for ~5 min and set aside
use other 1/4 cup oil add ginger and then garlic, fry until fragrant. then add the pork, break apart, and fry until cooked thru 3-4 minutes.
add sichuan peppercorns and doubanjiang and stir, then add chicken broth and simmer.
immediately prepare cornstarch mixture and mix it in and let reduce until the sauce thickens a little.
Add chili oil and tofu. stir and let cook for 3-5 minutes.
Garnish with scallions and and sichuan peppercorn powder

TODO: Modify recipe to use my chili oil, remove sichuan peppercorns and the making of the chili oil.

thoughts: maybe cut out or reduce marinade. the pork has a lot of liquid and isn't crisping like i want. i want to experiment with a small amount of onion to replace the sugar that's common in many recipes. too spicy and mala, not salty or umami enough. i think look more at omnivores cookbook maybe or add some soy sauce somehow? maybe go up to 1 cup of chicken broth? i think the sichuan peppercorns were over toasted and a little bitter. alice says quite salty. the garnish of sichuan peppercorn looks nice but actually tastes bad sadly. do i like the white scallions? idk

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