Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐)

 

I’ve been trying to recreate mapo tofu ever since my best friend taught me about it (after having cooked it for us) in university. I’d never had it before and her version tasted *so good*. But she didn’t use a recipe, and basically all I remember her doing was sauteeing ground beef, then adding cubed tofu and doubanjiang (豆瓣醬). So in the years thereafter I proceeded to use only those 3 exact ingredients LOL. I had no idea how restaurants got it so saucy; I would add copious amounts of doubanjiang but all it ever did was make the dish saltier. Little did I know that all you needed to do was add water or broth 🤦‍♀️. In any case I finally just followed a recipe for it, and the results were very satisfying! :) And yes I no longer use ground beef for this lol; ground pork all the way (although I’d probably increase the tofu proportion next time!).

(also a nice sidenote is that that best friend, Jen, happened to make mapo tofu too a few days before I did hehe. great minds ;) her current version looked stunning, too!)

(original recipe from The Woks of Life)