Japanese Style Mapo Tofu

 Mapo Tofu 1

Mapo Tofu (麻婆豆腐) is traditionally a Szechuan dish characterized by the tongue-numbing ma la flavors from the red chili oil and Szechuan peppercorns. Although Szechuan food is one of my favorite cuisines and I always jump at the opportunity to eat it, my husband is not a huge fan. Luckily, Japan has it's own variation of this dish that's milder in heat but just as flavorful.

Mapo Tofu Aromatics

First, prep the aromatics. Mince the ginger and garlic. Slice 2 of the scallions and mince the other. Then, mix the sauce ingredients.

Prep Tofu for Mapo Tofu

Pre-boil tofu cubes, drain, and dry on a paper towel lined tray. By pre-boiling, you remove some of the moisture from the tofu so that it doesn't water down the dish. Pre-boiling can also soften the tofu if you're using something a little bit firmer.

Saute Aromatics for Mapo Tofu

Now heat up a wok over medium high heat and coat with oil. Add the aromatics and sauté for 30 seconds until fragrant. Be careful not to burn the garlic.

Ground Beef for Mapo Tofu

Next, crank the heat up to high and add the ground beef. Break apart the meat with a wooden spoon and sauté until the color changes (around 3 minutes).

Mix the sauce again to incorporate the potato starch and add to the wok. Simmer for a minute until the sauce thickens. Add the tofu cubes and toss to coat. Let it simmer for another minute or two.

Add the sliced scallions and give it one last mix. Serve with rice and enjoy!

Mapo Tofu 3

Mapo Tofu 2

Japanese Style Mapo Tofu
 
Author: Yukari
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 3 servings
Ingredients
  • 1 pack soft tofu
  • 1/2 lb ground beef
  • 2 scallions
  • Aromatics
  • 1 inch knob ginger
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 scallion
  • 1.5 tbsp tobanjan
  • Sauce
  • 1 tsp miso
  • 2 tsp soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp sake
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 2 tsp potato starch
Instructions
  1. Prep the aromatics by mincing the ginger, garlic and scallions and slice the other 2 scallions
  2. Mix the sauce ingredients
  3. Cube the tofu and pre-boil in a small pot, drain and dry on a paper towel lined tray
  4. Heat a wok over medium high heat and coat with oil. Sauté the aromatics quickly for 30 seconds until fragrant
  5. Turn the heat to high and add the ground beef. Break apart the meat with a wooden spoon and sauté until the color changes (about 3 minutes)
  6. Remix the sauce ingredients until the potato starch is fully incorporated, mix into the wok and simmer for a minute
  7. Add the tofu cubes and toss to coat. Simmer for another minute or two
  8. Mix in the sliced scallions
 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quicker and Easier Shokupan

Image
  The  shokupan post  is without a doubt my most popular and I'm so grateful that people love it. I continue to make it on a weekly basis because our family loves toast for breakfast. Because I make it so often, I noticed that I don't always have the full 3 hours to devote to bread making. For the time constrained days, I simplify the ingredient list and use a food processor. It shaves off about 45 minutes from the original method. So I wanted to share with you the quicker version today. In fact, the food processor is a better tool for building up the gluten in shokupan. Since I don't have a dish washer and the food processor has so many parts to hand wash, I switch it up with the stand mixer when I have plenty of time to spare. If you are lucky enough to own a dishwasher, I highly recommend using the food processor. Step 1 - Measure: Before I do anything, I measure out 20g butter and cut it into small pieces so that it comes up to room temperature by the time I need it. Th
Read more

Shokupan

Image
  If you don't have 3 hours to devote to bread making and own a food processor, I've written up a quicker version  here !  EDITED (1/29/17): I've made this countless times now and have a few minor tweaks for an even fluffier bread. Main changes are upping the speed of the standmixer to 4 from 2 for more kneading, dividing the dough into 2 balls instead of 3, bench rest of 20 minutes instead of 10-15 minutes, and proofing the second round until the dough is about 4 inches in height. Also, I often skip the water roux and just add the flour and water portion into the dry and wet ingredients because 1) I'm lazy and 2) I freeze my bread once cooled and sliced so it stays fresh without the roux. I have updated the directions and recipe below for these changes.   There are countless recipes for Hokkaido milk bread on the internet, which is shokupan's sweeter cousin. It's absolutely delicious but too sweet for the daily bread. The shokupan is the true workhorse. It make
Read more

Purin: Japan's delicious take on pudding and custard

Image
  Hi everyone! It's so good to be back. I know it's been years since my last post so I wanted to do a quick recap on what's been happening in my life. I'm now a mother to two wonderful humans, H (3 yo) and A (6 mo) and enjoying everyday with our family of four. After having H, I wrote a couple of posts thinking I could keep up but being a stay at home mother proved to be a lot more challenging than I ever anticipated. I even wrote a bunch of recipes, took photos and had plans to start delving into the baby food blog world but somehow almost 3 years have passed without a single post. I've contemplated coming back to this blog so many times but the one thing that has always stopped me was predictable time. With a toddler and a baby in the house, I never know what the day will be like. And if you have a food blog of your own, you may already know this, but photography is one of the most time consuming aspects of a food blog. I write recipes constantly to feed my family
Read more