Ma Po Tofu

I cooked our first dishes out of the Every Grain of Rice cookbook about two months ago (can't believe it's been that long), so it's long overdue to post the recap of the final dish from that dinner: the vegetarian version of pock-marked old woman's tofu, also known as ma po dou fu (麻婆豆腐).  I love ma po tofu (even if we've only posted about it twice) and really hoped this dish would come out well. 

Ingredients 

Some of these ingredients belonged to the other 2 dishes but I bet you can figure out which ones

- 1 container of plain white tofu ($1.09)

- 5 spring onions, green parts only ($0.30)

- 2.5 tbsp Sichuan chili bean paste ($0.10)

- 1 tbsp fermented black beans ($0.05)

- 2 tsp ground red chillies ($0.05)

- 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger ($0.05)

- 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic ($0.10)

- 1/4 tsp ground white pepper ($0)

- 2 tsp potato flour (mixed with cold water) ($0.05)

- 1/2 tsp ground roasted Sichuan pepper ($0)

- Water ($0)

- Cooking oil ($0)

- Salt ($0)

We bought several of these ingredients new for this dish (the chili bean paste, black beans, chili powder, potato flour) but since they are now stocked in our pantry and we continue to use them in other dishes, I'm only counting the amount we used. (If we weren't finding other uses for them, I would count the whole thing as a sunk cost.) That puts the cost of this tasty dish at around $2. The prices of tofu and spring onions may vary each time, but I don't think the total cost would come out to more than $3.

Process

Once you start cooking, it all goes rather quickly. I took no photos the first time and managed only one pic the second time.

Step 1: Prep everything. This, as usual, took awhile, but not as long as the chives dish. The spring onions needed to be chopped thinly in diagonal slices, the black beans needed to be rinsed, the ginger and garlic had to be finely chopped, the Sichuan peppercorns had to be roasted and ground, the tofu had to be drained and sliced and then placed in hot water to steep. 

The wok at the end of step 2

Step 2: Stir fry everything in a wok over medium flame once the cooking oil is heated. The order is chili bean paste, black beans + ground chillies, ginger + garlic, tofu, water + white pepper + salt. It doesn't all go in at once, but each set of ingredients is allowed to "gently sizzle." You have to be really careful with the tofu, especially since we use the silken kind, since it breaks up a lot.

Step 3: Bring it to a boil, simmer for a few minutes, add the potato flour/water mixture, let it thicken, add spring onions, and "nudge gently" into sauce.

Step 4: Pour into deep bowl and sprinkle with the Sichuan pepper. 

Review

The first ma po tofu 

I loved this dish and thought it came out really well. Many ma po tofu dishes come with meat, and it was great to find a vegetarian version that could taste just as good. It definitely packed a spicy punch though, so if you're not good with spicy food, maybe cut back a little bit on the ground chillies or the chili bean paste. It's a good burn though and was balanced well between the heat and flavor.

Ma po tofu, the second time

It came out a little differently both times, but it was delicious each time. The tofu was nice and soft, and we loved the spiciness and the flavor. The black beans also made this really unique, and the whole dish was so good over rice. I could eat this weekly. Maybe we should, considering how affordable and tasty it is!