A Winning Mapo Tofu Recipe

In an effort to cut back on my meat consumption, I have been trying to make more things using tofu. My friend Susan sent me this recipe from Rasa Malaysia and I tried it out last night. It was a big hit with everyone in the house and I will definitely be making it again. Once you have all the sauces, this dish becomes something that would probably cost less than $10 to feed a family of 6. It's also very fast to throw together and you can play with the ingredients to make it more or less spicy.

[This is where a photo would normally be inserted but we ate everything before I could take a photo. I'll update this post when I make mapo tofu again!]

Recipe adapted from Rasa Malaysia

Ma Po Tofu

Ingredients:
1 block organic tofu (14 oz box)
1/2 lb ground pork
3 tablespoons Lee Kum Kee Sichuan spicy bean paste
2 tablespoons Lee Kum Kee Mapo sauce
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons cooking oil
3 tablespoons chili oil
1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns (roasted and ground to powder)
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 stalks scallions (chopped into 1 or 2-inch length)
2 gloves garlic (chopped)
1/2 cup water
Salt to taste

Directions:
1. Cut the tofu into small pieces, drain the water from the tofu and set aside.
2. Heat up a wok and pour in the cooking oil and chili oil. Add the chopped garlic, ground pork, spicy bean paste and stir-fry until the pork is half-done.
3. Add in chili powder, soy sauce and stir-fry until aromatic.
4. Add in the tofu and water; stir gently to blend the tofu (don’t break them) well with the sauce.
5. Lower the heat and simmer for about 3-5 mins or until the sauce thickens. Add in the roasted Sichuan peppercorn powder and chopped scallions. Gently stir and blend well.

Dish out and serve hot.

Special notes:
1. All of these ingredients can be (not) easily found at Ranch 99. I'm pretty sure it took me longer to locate all the sauces on the shelf than it did to actually make this meal.
2. Don't be afraid of the amount of chillies that is required for this recipe. It actually wasn't even that spicy.
3. I served this with rice and a side of garlic baby bok choy. You can find the recipe for that here. It helped cut the spiciness of the mapo.

Good luck!