The ultimate winter warmer
/Hello my loves,
I've been in the grip of a tofu obsession this week. Clearly there's something in it that my body needs right now, because I just can't get enough of it. But it's not just any tofu I've been craving. It's spicy tofu. Spicy, rich, warming, tingly ma po tofu to be exact. Ma po tofu is a Sichuan dish of firm tofu, swimming in a spicy minced meat sauce. Yup, tofu and meat together as one. It totally works. It more than works. It's straight up damn delicious. And who would I be to keep this wonder of Sichuan cuisine to myself? I'd be cruel and selfish, that's who I'd be, and I'm not either of those things, so I present to you my recipe for ma po tofu - the ultimate winter warmer.
This recipe will require you to visit an Asian grocer, or make an online purchase of a couple of ingredients that really make this dish. Both are available in my local Miracle supermarket. The first is doubanjiang, a spicy fermented broad bean paste that is OFF THE CHARTS in flavour. Having recently discovered it, I'm obsessed. You really do want a jar of this in your pantry. The second is salted, fermented black beans (douchi). Oh my sweet earth. These tiny nuggets of black gold have been a complete revelation. They are just soooo good. As with the doubanjiang, you really do want them in your pantry. Mine came loosely floating around in a plastic packet labeled 'salted black beans'. The doubanjiang jar was labelled 'toban djan', and I've included pics of both below for your reference. If you're vegetarian or vegan, you can susbsitute mushrooms for the beef mince in this recipe.
Ma po tofu
Ingredients
500g beef mince
2 tablespoons sesame oil
A little vegetable or olive oil
1/4 cup doubanjiang
6 cloves garlic, sliced
2 1/2 tablespoons fermented/salted black beans
1 large stalk of spring (green) onion, sliced
2 teaspoons grated ginger (leave skin on to grate)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
500ml water
1 tablespoon cornflour
350g firm tofu
Mix the beef with the sesame oil. Heat a large frypan or pot with a lid, add a little oil and cook the mince until it's lightly coloured. Add the doubanjiang and fry for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently until fragrant. Add the garlic, salted black beans, spring onion and ginger, and fry for another couple of minutes, until fragrant. Add the water and the soy sauce. Bring everything to the boil, cover, turn the heat down and simmer for ten minutes.
At this point, remove two thirds of the meat sauce and freeze for future occasions when the ma po craving strikes you (all you have to do is loosen with a little more water, add the cornflour as below, and add the tofu :)). I've provided the recipe in this quantity because mince tends to come in 500g packs, and it's worth simmering up the whole lot to have some spicy ma po richness up your sleeve.
Mix the cornflour with 1/4 cup of water, add to the remaining meat sauce, and cook for a couple of minutes, or until the sauce is slightly thickened. Chop the tofu into 1-2cm cubes, add to the sauce, then cover and simmer for 6-8 minutes, until the tofu is heated through. Serve with steamed rice, or my favourite, thin wheat noodles - you can buy these in your Asian grocer too, they're the ones that look like little birds' nest piles of dried noodles. Steamed winter greens would also go beautifully with this.
So there we are my darlings, I hope that warms you up as much as it does me. I wish you a cosy winter's weekend, full of all the snuggly joy of the coolest of seasons. Until next week my loves ❄️.
Love, Rachel xxx
