My Mapo Tofu!

This is my go-to dish when I don't know what to cook for dinner. I love having this with steamed rice. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound of ground pork or beef (I use equal parts of pork and beef)
• 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth or water
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 scallions chopped
• 1 teaspoon minced ginger
• 1 box of soft tofu or medium firm tofu, drained and diced
• 2 tablespoons of Fermented broad bean paste (dou-ban-jiang) (I use the plain version, no heat. Check here if you need help.)
• 2 teaspoons of hot chili sauce, or 1 teaspoon chopped dried red chili pepper
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine or mirin (Japanese sweet rice wine).
• 2-3 teaspoons sugar



Sichuan Pepper

• 2 teaspoons of oyster sauce (or replace by another tablespoon of soy sauce)
• 1 teaspoon ground Sichuan pepper 
• 1 teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• Slurry: 2 teaspoons of cornstarch and 1 1/2 tablespoon of water
• one tablespoon peanut oil or vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Mince garlic, ginger and scallions. Drain and dice tofu block (Tofu Types).
2. Heat up a heavy bottom skillet with one tablespoon of oil and put the ground meat (pork and/or beef) to brown on medium-high heat. Cook about 7-10 minutes. 
3. Add minced ginger, garlic and half of scallions. Toast until they are aromatic. Cook about 5-7 minutes.
4. Turn the heat to medium and add fermented bean paste (Dou-ban-jiang) and chili sauce. Saute fro 5 minutes until it is almost dried up and almost begin to stick to pan. 
5. Add soy sauce. Cook another 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the cooking wine or mirin. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
7. Add oyster sauce and sugar. Stir to mix in. Add 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth or water, Sichuan pepper and red chili flakes. Bring to a simmer.
8. Add tofu dices and gentle stir in to submerge the tofu in the liquid. Cook for 8-10 minutes.
9. Mix cornstarch and water to make slurry. Add it to the liquid to thicken the sauce. Bring to boil again and turn the heat off. Add the rest of chopped scallions, white pepper and sesame oil. Mix up.
10. Transfer to plate or deep dish. Garnish with chopped green part of scallions. Serve with steamed rice.

Note: 

• Even if you don't have all the items, you can still make it. 
• Simplified key ingredients:
• Ground pork or beef
• Tofu (duh...)
• Garlic (if you really don't have ginger or green onions on hand, you can skip those)
• Fermented bean paste
• Soy sauce
• Sugar
• When you have fewer ingredients, you have to work a tad harder to pump up the flavor base. (We're talking about 5-10 more minutes effort, not so bad.) I will tell you more about it later.
• Skip the hot chili sauce if you can't take heat or if you use the spicy version of the bean paste (La-dou-ban-jiang).