Mapo Tofu eller Spicy Beancurd with minced sauce

Its been a long while and I have been feeling guilty about not updating the blog but I'm still here and cooking everyday! We were away in Singapore for a couple of months and I have been pampered by the ease of just buying what we want to eat or having my dear Dad cook meals for us that it was starting to become a habit.

However, now that we are back to reality (and Sweden), its home cooked meals most days now and this is one of those dishes that I have been cooking so often that I thought I must have post it up, but no, I haven't. It's a very good recipe from Fuschia Dunlop, who, if you haven't heard has a new cookbook called Every grain of Rice. Since I already had two of her cookbooks, I was quite wary that the recipes might repeat themselves but I was pleasantly surprised that there were plenty of new recipes, with just a few duplicates. I skipped the salted chilli and used a fresh chilli padi instead.

Ingredients
100g minced pork
½ teaspoon dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons Shaoxing wine
1 block (about 550g) firm tofu
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
2 soaked and drained dried shiitake mushroom, diced finely
1 chilli padi sliced finely (optional)
1 tablespoon chilli bean paste
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
150g water or stock
1 teaspoon potato flour mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water (for thickening the sauce)
3 spring onions, green part sliced finely
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
3 tablespoon cooking oil
Sprinkle of roasted ground Szechuan pepper


Steps

1. Mix the pork with the dark soy sauce and Shaoxing wine and set aside.
2. Cut the tofu into large cubes and let it simmer gently for about 5 mins in a pot of salted water. This, according to my Chinese friend helps the tofu stays firm, I also think it flavours the tofu a bit making it more tasty. Drain and set aside.
   
   
   
   
3. Heat the wok over high heat until smoke rises and add the cooking oil, then the minced pork, stir-frying it until it separates and changed colour.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Add the garlic, mushrooms, chilli bean paste and stir fry until fragrant. 
5. Add in the chilli flakes and chilli padi and fry a little bit more.
6. Add the tofu into the wok and add in the water, along with a sprinkle of chicken stock granules if you are not using stock.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Reduce the heat and let it simmer until the sauce has reduced a bit with the tofu absorbing the goodness.
8. Add in potato flour mixture a little bit at a time until the gravy reach your desired consistency, then add in the spring onions and sesame seed oil and give it a quick stir.
9. Serve hot with a sprinkle of roasted ground Szechuan pepper.