Mapo Doufu, or Mabo Tofu as is known in Japanese, is when tofu is cooked with ground pork in a soy sauce based spicy sauce. It's fairly simple and quick to make, and it has enough flavor to sit on its own if you don't feel like making anything else with the meal. So far I've made two version of this, one with a pre-packaged sauce and one with my own sauce/seasoning blend.
Start with ~1/3 lb ground pork and soft or silken tofu. Firm tofu can certainly be used as well, but it tastes better with soft or silken. Cut the tofu into small cubes.
Heat ~2 tablespoons oil in a pan. After oil is hot, add in chopped ginger and a few dry red chilies. Fry for a few seconds to let the flavor extract into the oil.
Add ground pork and stir it up into small pieces.
Cook the pork until you see brown.
Now here's the part where you can either make your own seasoning or use a pre-packaged one
1st method: make your own
Add some cooking alcohol followed by soy sauce and some water.
Simmer for a minute.
Add the tofu.
Add Chinese spicy sauce of your liking. They come in jar form from Asian markets.
Cook for a few minutes to let the flavors set in.
2nd method: pre-packaged sauce
Here it is. It can come in a jar, a pouch, or whatever else they put it into now. Look for the name "Mapou Doufu" or "Mabo Tofu" on the package.
Follow package directions, dump some of that seasoning into the meat. Add tofu and cook it for a few minutes.
Throw in a handful of chopped green onions at the end, right before you take it out of the wok.
And there you have it. Mabo tofu.
Mabo Tofu:
(estimated ingredient list, because you know, I don't measure)
- ground pork
- silken/soft tofu, cubed
- 1 Tbsp chopped ginger
- dry red chilies
- 1-2 stalk green onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup soy sauce & 2 Tbsp spicy sauce
- or
- pre-packaged sauce pack
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