Mapo Tofu

Mapo Tofu

by Looking for Peach Blossom Island

4.8 (1)
Favorite

Difficulty

Easy

Time

10m

Serving

2

Mapo tofu is a very famous and popular Sichuan dish, which can be eaten all over the country. Even foreigners know its name, and Japanese even list Mapo Tofu as the top three in the "most popular Chinese cuisine list."

Authentic Mapo tofu pays attention to the characteristics of "spicy, spicy, fresh, fragrant, hot, tender, tied (tofu is intact), and crisp (minced meat is crispy)". When we make mapo tofu at home, some will appear: the tofu is more than spicy, not delicious enough, the tofu has a beany taste, the taste is not smooth enough, the inner core of the tofu is not tasty, and the thin soup is too watery to hold the taste. In fact, these problems are not difficult to solve. From the selection of ingredients, to the processing and production, there are some tips that need to be paid attention to. Let me talk about it while doing it.

First prepare the raw materials.
North tofu: 200g-North tofu is tough and elastic. Traditional Mapo tofu is commonly used in North tofu. You can also choose the softer southern tofu according to your personal taste.
Beef or pork with a little fat: 40 grams-yellow beef was first used in this dish, and later it was replaced with pork. Meat with a little fat is more fragrant during cooking.
Pixian Doubanjiang: 1 tablespoon-Use Sichuan Pixian Doubanjiang for a more mellow and rich flavor.
Knife-edge chili: 1 scoop-Use Sichuan bullet-head dried chili and green pepper to explode the fragrance in vegetable oil, and then chop it for use. It is called "knife-edge chili" in the industry. If you find it troublesome to make at home, or if you don’t have this kind of pepper, you can also use crushed dried pepper and peppercorns in oil to fragrant.
Butter: 1 scoop-adding butter can increase the aroma of dishes. If there is no butter in the home cooking, you can use a little butter in the hot pot soup base, which is the orange-red agglomerated part at room temperature. You can also use lard instead.
Canola oil: 2-3 scoops-Use canola oil to burn this dish instead of soybean oil to avoid the beany smell.
Corn starch: 1 tablespoon-the thickening process before serving has a great influence on the taste and appearance of the finished dish. Corn starch has good gloss. It is often used for smooth frying and thickening. The juice is translucent and will not slacken when cooled (juice); potato starch has strong water absorption, but thickening is relatively milky white, and its gloss and transparency are not as good as corn starch.
Douchi: A few pieces-Chongqing Yongchuan Douchi is the best. If it is not made in the family, it will not be a problem. Use shredded.
Other seasonings: 2 tablespoons of salt, a little bit of monosodium glutamate or chicken essence, half a tablespoon of white sugar (used for freshness), a little minced ginger, a little garlic sprouts and a little chives (garnish).

Ingredients

Mapo Tofu

1. Cut the tofu into 1 cm square pieces. Mix dried chili and peppercorns and grind.
Tips: The tofu cubes should not be too big, not easy to taste, and not too small, because they are too crumbly to eat. A small square of 1-1.2cm is just right.

Mapo Tofu recipe

2. Add appropriate amount of water to the iron pan, add 1 tablespoon of salt, pour in the tofu cubes, and boil the water over medium-low heat for about 1 minute. Before the water boils, pour out the tofu and drain the water for later use.
Tips: Boiling water is to remove the beany smell. When stirring, use the back of the spoon to push the tofu in the water, otherwise the edge of the spoon will easily cut the tofu. Serving before the water boils can make the tofu not boil and have a more tender texture.

Mapo Tofu recipe

3. Pour a little oil in the pot, pour in the dried chili and peppercorns, stir up the aroma on low heat, and set aside.
Tip: This is a simple way to replace knife-edge chili in home production.

Mapo Tofu recipe

4. Heat the wok, pour in rapeseed oil and butter, heat to melt, pour in beef cubes, stir-fry on medium-low heat until the color changes.
Tips: The meat fried in oil is tenderer and more fragrant.

Mapo Tofu recipe

5. Seasoning: Pour the "knife-edge chili" made in the second step, minced ginger, tempeh, and Pixian bean paste, add appropriate amount of water, boil over high heat, then add salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar and stir well, then pour in tofu cubes. Turn on a low heat and cook the tofu for 5 minutes to taste.

Mapo Tofu recipe

6. While cooking in the pot, adjust the water starch, the ratio of starch to water is about 1:5 (depending on the dishes made, the ratio of water to starch can also be adjusted appropriately).

Mapo Tofu recipe

7. Pour the water starch along the side of the pot over medium-low heat, gently push the back of the spatula and stir evenly to thicken.

Mapo Tofu recipe

Tips:

Everyone knows that tofu "spits out water" during the cooking process, and it feels that the more water you boil, the more water you get. Therefore, when making Mapo tofu, if you only tick the gorgon once, the gorgon juice will be quickly diluted by the tofu spit. When you eat it in your mouth, the gorgon juice will not cover the tofu, and it feels that the taste is thin and not tender enough. So we have to hook 2-3 times. If you thicken it twice, you must thin it first and then thicken it; if you thicken it three times, follow the order of "1 thinner-2 thicker-3 slightly thinner".

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