How to make Sichuan Mapo Tofu

Mm, that mala flavor is really addictive. Once you start, be careful because you can't stop. Hey everyone, it's Caitlin from The Walks of Life, and today we're gonna make Mapo Tofu. So obviously there are a lot of tofu dishes out there, and it comes in a lot of different forms. There's silken tofu, there's firm tofu, there's tofu threads, there's frozen tofu, there's tofu puffs. But I would argue that the one tofu dish that has really broken through the mainstream is this Mapo Tofu. Tender bits of ground pork in a spicy molten sauce with chili oil and Sichuan peppercorns, and when you serve it over rice, it's just heaven. Everybody who's tried this recipe on our blog says it's the best that they've ever tasted. Comes together really fast. There are a few ingredients that we should talk about. So the first one is chili oil. Back in the day when I developed this recipe, we didn't have our recipe for homemade chili oil, so I kind of MacGyvered like a chili oil that you make quickly in the wok. But if you already have a batch of our homemade chili oil, this whole dish will be even that much easier to make. The next ingredient that I wanna talk about is spicy bean paste. So this is called dou ban jiang, and this is kind of the cornerstone of your Mapo Tofu. If you don't have it, you're really gonna wanna go out and find it. The other hot topic of Mapo Tofu is Sichuan peppercorns. In the recipe, we call for whole Sichuan peppercorns. And if that's all you can find, or if that's what you wanna use, or if that's what you have on hand, just be sure that there are no black seeds inside and that you just have the peppercorn husks. That black seed can actually cause a lot of bitterness in your dish, and you don't want that anywhere near your Mapo Tofu. What I'm gonna use today is powdered Sichuan peppercorns because frankly, it's just easier. Specifically, we call for red Sichuan peppercorns. There's a red variety and there's a green variety. They really are different, and the green one actually can taste a lot stronger, whereas the red one has a little bit of a, believe it or not, mellower taste that is better suited for this dish. So I also wanted to mention that we have a Mapo Tofu recipe on our blog and one in our cookbook. The one in our cookbook is a little bit different because over the years, many of you asked us for a version that include fermented black beans. This version is a little different in that if you're using the fermented black beans, you're just gonna wanna pull back on the spicy bean paste because both are quite salty. So we pull back to one and a half tablespoons in the book version, and then we add one and a half tablespoons of fermented black beans. The other nice part about this recipe is that we did opt to velvet the pork. If you're short on time, you don't have to velvet the pork and you'll still get a really delicious result, but velveting the pork is just gonna take the dish, that little extra step of being really a restaurant quality Mapo Tofu. First ingredient that I need is two teaspoons of water. I also need three quarter teaspoons of Shaoxing wine, three quarter teaspoons of cornstarch, followed by one eighth of a teaspoon of baking soda. And we like to do a little shortcut where we don't rinse out the baking soda, we just use so little that the flavor is really sort of unobtrusive, but you still get a little bit of that tenderizing effect. And last, I need an eighth of a teaspoon of white pepper. And as you can see, I didn't put any salt in this because the sauce is gonna be plenty salty enough. And I'm just gonna set this aside while I chop my other ingredients. This recipe uses quite a bit of garlic and ginger, so I'm gonna need three tablespoons of each. If you're sensitive to the flavor of ginger, or you're using organic ginger, put less, maybe like half of that. This is a maximalist dish, so you kinda wanna go all out. All right, that's good enough for me. And now I'm gonna do the same with my ginger. First, I'm gonna slice it into thin slices. So you kinda do thin slices to julienne to mince. Okay, so that's my ginger. Now I'm just gonna chop my scallion. The white part, I just have it down the center, and then I just cut into medallions. Now it's time to cut the tofu. And silken tofu is extremely, extremely delicate, so I like to err on the side of cutting this into larger cubes, knowing that it's gonna break up a little bit in the wok. I just cut along the sides to lift this plastic part off. There's not a ton of water in a silken tofu, but there is enough that you're gonna wanna drain it out before you take it over to your board so you don't make a mess. Normally what you wanna do is you cut it in half this way, like a sandwich bread. A Chinese cleaver is a good tool for this job because it's already like a flat, wide plane. And now I'm just going to cut into cubes. You don't want them to get too small because they are gonna break up. So this is kinda perfect here. And I've got a cornstarch slurry. It's a quarter cup of water plus one and a half teaspoons of cornstarch. And then I've also got two thirds cup of low-sodium chicken stock. That's gonna help make up the bulk of the sauce. So with that, we're ready to go to the wok. So we're at the wok, and I do just wanna mention that there is quite a bit of oil in this dish. You're cooking at home, so if you wanna reduce, you're totally free to do so. But that really traditional flavor is gonna be quite oily. It's a dish that's kinda marked by having a good level of red oil floating on top. So we call for a quarter cup of oil. I would say if you're trying to reduce, I would reduce by no more than half. So the ginger is the most resilient to high heat, so that's gonna go in first. We're just gonna fry this for about a minute. Next, I'm gonna add in the garlic. And the garlic is super important that we don't let it brown or burn, because that's gonna add an undertone of bitterness, and we don't want that. This big wok can get pretty hot, so at home, medium heat should be fine. If you wanna reduce to medium low, go for it. So now I'm gonna add the pork. It's just gonna go straight in. And I'm just gonna break it up lightly. So this is gonna help cool down the wok, kinda protect that garlic. And it really doesn't need to get crispy, per se. So the pork is just about cooked through. So I'm gonna add the ground Sichuan peppercorn, anywhere from one teaspoon to one tablespoon. So you may be wondering why mapo tofu became as popular as it is. And the reason is because of that ma la flavor profile. Normally, when you eat spicy food, it's just burning, and your tongue's just getting burned. And there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I mean, there's really nowhere to escape to. But when you layer on this Sichuan peppercorn, somehow kinda softens things and numbs your tongue just enough that you keep going back for more. And that spicy numbing flavor profile is actually the signature flavor of all Sichuan cuisine. If you're using ground Sichuan peppercorns that you ground yourself, be careful not to over-burn, over-cook, over-toast. So now I'm gonna add my spicy bean sauce. So this is made with fermented broad beans, chilies, a little bit of wheat flour, so it's technically not gluten-free, and salt and spices. You want to try to find one that is Pixian doubanjiang, because that means that it's actually from Pixian, which is a county northwest of Chengdu, which is the capital of Sichuan province. It's kinda like when you buy champagne, you can only call it champagne if it's actually from the Champagne wine region of France. And I'm also gonna put in my fermented black beans. And now is when you're gonna see the red color and all that yumminess starts to form. So we're just gonna let this fry for about 30 seconds because we want that flavor to deepen. I'm gonna add 2 1⁄3 cup of chicken stock. You can also use water. So now I'm just gonna let this simmer for a minute. The wok is nice because it's easier to kinda scoop the silken tofu around without breaking it, but this is actually a really forgiving recipe to make in just like a regular skillet. Now I'm just gonna stir up my cornstarch slurry, and I'm gonna add this whole thing in, and we're just gonna let the sauce thicken up. And if you want to use tapioca starch, you can do that too. We just use cornstarch because it's so readily available and it's cheap. So now I'm gonna add a quarter cup of our chili oil. And this is where having a homemade one really comes in clutch because it's best to use just the standing oil and not really have a lot of chili flakes get into it. And you're gonna get so much flavor from all this delicious spices and aromatics that went into that chili oil. And it's all gonna go into your Mapo tofu. So now I'm gonna add my tofu. And now we do wanna let the tofu cook. So I'm just gonna carefully toss it in that luscious sauce. I'm gonna gather it up in the center of the wok. I'm gonna add about a quarter teaspoon of sugar and a quarter teaspoon of sesame oil. So once we fold in those delicate cubes of tofu, we're not gonna touch it too much. We're gonna let it simmer for about four to five minutes. We're gonna stir it once at the halfway mark just to make sure everything gets warmed through. Then we're gonna add the scallions and we're ready to eat. So I'm ready to stir the Mapo, and you can see some of the tofu's gonna get a little broken up. It's really not worth losing any sleep over. So now I'm gonna add the scallions. I'm just gonna give everything a gentle toss and we're ready to dish it up. It's just a couple pinches of that citron peppercorn powder. And that's my much loved Mapo tofu recipe. Let's go give it a try. Just gonna get a little more tofu here. Mapo is one of those dishes where it's hard to decide what the best part of it really is. It's really good, mm. There's some recipes that we've developed years and years ago and then we go a long stretch without making it and this is one that we really should make more often because it's so good. It's kind of hard to find a good Mapo tofu recipe out there. For this dish in particular, you really wanna make sure you're at a good Sichuan restaurant because that's where you're gonna get the best Mapo tofu. If you're in a Cantonese restaurant, don't bother. That's just not their forte. It's just not what they do. It's like going to a Chinese buffet and getting the pizza. The sign of any good Mapo tofu is a little glisten of sweat on your brow. And this definitely passes the test. So if you enjoyed this video, give it a like, subscribe to our YouTube channel and visit us at thewalksoflife.com for more of your favorite Chinese recipes. Thanks everyone. It's like going to a Colombian restaurant and expecting a Mexican burrito. It's like going to the Thai restaurant and ordering sushi. It's like going to the steakhouse and getting the vegan entree. Not gonna end well.