Ma Po-ish Tofu

A long time ago, I moved from Washington, DC to San Francisco.  I was the first of 3 college friends to move into an apartment on the outskirts of the city (Outer Sunset, for those of you familiar with the city).  I was sleeping on a mattress and playing a lot of music to keep myself company while I waited for various bits of furniture to trickle in, along with my roommates.

Ack I just realized that this was 2000. More than 10 years ago. Where has the time gone.

Anyway, besides playing music on a JVC stereo, I read a copious number of issues of Gourmet magazine (now, sadly, defunct). I was beyond mesmerized with an article written by a woman who traveled to China and wrote about her eating adventures, including downing live scorpions. But the real draw of this issue in particular was a recipe for ma po tofu, a dish that I enjoyed many a time growing up.  Although I had always enjoyed it as takeout, and was BLOWN AWAY by the fact that I could make it at home.  

I'm not sure what I did wrong, but the dish never turned out exactly quite savory enough, so I left the recipe by the wayside.  I didn't have the dish for many years, and when I did it was from places that did a sorry job of it.  That's how 10 years flew by.

But then a few weeks ago a Szechuan restaurant opened up nearby, and I ordered the ma po tofu.  And my love was reborn.  I have a very sentimental and emotional attachment to this dish.  I remember the excitement of my dad bringing home containers of takeout from our favorite Chinese restaurant, eagerly awaiting what I now consider the gold standard for ma po tofu.  And now I remember it as the first dish I made in my new apartment in San Francisco, when I was alone and figuring out how to flex my adulthood and identity in a new life.

I found a different recipe to use this time (I decided to evolve)--all the reviews said it was very salty, so I cut down on the amount of salty ingredients. Even so, I could have cut down by another TBS or so.  Also, since we're trying to go light on meat, I went quasi-vegetarian.  If you want to see the version with meat, just click on the link.

Adapted from Epicurious and Shirley Cheng

• 1 TBS Sichuan peppercorns (use regular black peppercorns if you can't find Sichuan)
• Two 14-oz packages of soft tofu, cute into 1-inch cubes (the original recipe called for 1 1/2 lb tofu, but since I wasn't using meat and the tofu packages in my grocery store don't come in 1 1/2 increments, I used two 14-oz packages)
• 2 TBS Chinese black-bean paste or sauce (the original recipe calls for a combo of black bean paste and hot bean paste, the latter of which I do not have) (you could go lighter than 2 TBS)
• 2 TBS oyster sauce (or a bit more black bean paste with a pinch of sugar if you want to be veggie)
• 2 tablespoons Asian chili powder (I used Korean chili flakes, which is not too hot and kind of sweet--you could use red pepper flakes or cayenne, but use very little, like a tsp or so)
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 3 TBS water
• 1/4 cup peanut oil
• 1 tsp ginger, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced on diagonal
• 1/4 cup Shaohsing rice wine (I didn't have this, so I used medium dry Sherry)
• 1/2 cup chicken stock or low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce 

Serves about 6. 

It's a long list of ingredients, but it's more simple than it looks. The actual cooking part goes pretty fast, so the name of the game is to prep all your ingredients beforehand.

Place the Sichuan peppercorns in a small skillet or sauce pan and toast over low heat until fragrant--about 2-3 minutes.  Place in spice/coffee grinder and whir away.

Smells so deelishous.

Dice your tofu. (okay, well, actually there was this whole step about placing the tofu into boiling water, turning off the heat, and letting it sit for 5 minutes before draining and patting dry with paper towels, but I'm realizing that this recipe is actually a bit complicated so if you want to skip it I won't tell.)

Hurrah

Mix the black bean paste, oyster sauce, and chili powder in a small bowl.

Savory and spicy. Behold.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and water. I did take a picture, but it was the world's most boring picture, so I'm leaving it out.

Mince your ginger and garlic, and place in a bowl with half of the thinly sliced scallions (the other half will be added later).

Heat the oil in a large skillet or saute pan over moderate heat.  Place in the ginger-garlic-scallion mixture and saute for about 1 minute.  Add the sherry/Madeira and cook until most of the liquid evaporates, about 2 minutes.

Madeira.  How Chinese!

This mixture gave off the most wonderful scent ever.

Put the bean paste sauce into the pan, and cook for about 2 minutes.

Pour in the broth, soy sauce, and the remaining scallions.

Add the tofu. Bring to a boil.  Rewhisk the cornstarch mixture and add into the pan, cooking until juices thicken, about 1 minute.

Pre-cornstarch.

Post-cornstarch

Stir in peppercorn powder.  Serve over rice.  I also lightly braised some celery in a bit of chicken broth (5-7 minutes), and added a few tsp of soy sauce and a pinch of five spice powder.

Apparently it was midnight and very dark by the time I ate this.

Ta-da!

NOT a summer night dinner

The other night I went with my friend to eat at Casellula, a small plates and wine bar which serves a most delicious creation call the Pig's Ass Sandwich.  Oh holy yum.  We also shared a bottle of sparkling rose on that 100 degree day.  Perhaps it was a combination of the heat and the bubbly, but I somehow thought that walking home a mile in the heat (I just checked the distance on Google but I swear it felt like 5 miles), and then decided it was absolutely necessary to cook a meal so that we would have leftovers for lunch. Couldn't leave well enough alone, could I?

I've been on a tofu kick and decided to make pan fried tofu with Chinese black bean sauce.  I doubled the recipe, but the measurements below are for a single recipe.

• 1-pound block of extra-firm tofu
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1-inch chunk of fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons Chinese fermented black beans (I didn't have this so I just used my jarred Black Bean and Garlic Sauce)
• 11/2 cups water
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons Sherry (dry or sweet)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• vegetable oil

I also added: 

• 4 small or 2 big heads of broccoli, stalks peeled and chopped, florets chopped (for a double recipe)

Cut the tofu into fairly hefty chunks. I sliced each block lengthwise in two long pieces, and then crosswise into six pieces, for a total of 12 pieces from each block.  Since you are going to be pan-frying these, you want to get out the excess moisture.  I put layers of paper towels (I'm sorry, trees) in a pan, laid out the tofu, covered the tofu with more layers of paper towels (the Ents must hate me), place a pan on top, and weigh it down to squish out the moisture.

When you chop up your broccoli, don't forget the stems! They are my favorite part.  Just peel them and chop, along with the florets. Set aside--this will be cooked last.

It looks like I beheaded an Ent. I'm going to hell.

In a food processor (or with a knife), grind together the garlic and ginger.

In a bowl, mix together the wet ingredients and the cornstarch.  I doubted whether the cornstarch would dissolve properly in such a big vat of liquid so I took about a 1/2 cup of liquid out into a measuring cup and stirred the cornstarch into that.

I ask you, what says Chinese food more so than maple syrup and apple cider vinegar?

Hm, why am I telling you how to make this when I posted a link to the recipe?

But since I've started...this is what it looks like after you saute the garlic-ginger mixture, with the liquids and cornstarch brought to a simmer. Set aside.

Now here's the really really fun thing to do on a 100 degree night--stand over a stove and fucking fry tofu, gingerly checking and turning over without crumbling the blocks for that perfect degree of golden color, while the oil splatters all over you, constantly for about 30 minutes because you decided to double the motherf'in recipe.

After the inferno step, turn to husband and tell him how much he should appreciate you.  Put the broccoli into the pan where you had fried the tofu, and toss with some of the liquid and water.  Cover with lid or foil (my skillet doesn't have a lid) and steam for about 10 minutes, or until it gets to the consistency that you like.

Serve sauce, broccoli and tofu on top of rice.  Please note that I first thought there must have been a mistake in the recipe because of the gigantic amount of sauce that was produced.  I used it sparingly with it when preparing the lunches (example below), and had a ton leftover.  What you should really do is drown the stuff in the sauce--I think it's meant to be a very saucy dish. Saucy and sassy.  Remember it was mostly water.  Whatever--just be more generous than what you see below.

I know this picture is really appealing and makes you want to go out RIGHT NOW and buy the ingredients, yes?  Nothing is as appetizing as food in Tupperware.  I would have plated it nicely but I was still tipsy and about to fall over from heat exhaustion.

Ta-da! 

Summer Night Supper: Tofu with Soy Dressing, Bok Choy with Garlic Black Bean Sauce, Rice with Ginger and Cilantro

It is so hot outside. So hot. I'm very intolerant of heat. In order to reduce my time in front of stove while still making something to eat, I turned to another recipe I got from our friends.  It was a really light and tasty tofu with soy sauce dressing.  To go along with it, I also made rice with ginger and cilantro, and bok choy with black bean garlic sauce.


The tofu dish is very flexible in terms of amount and the seasoning.  This is what you need:

• Block of silken tofu (I used two 14.5 oz packages because we had someone coming over, but you can make as little or as much as you like) 
• Soy sauce (about 3 TBS)
• Sesame oil (about 2 TBS)
• Rice vinegar (about 2 tsp)
• Green onions, sliced thinly (I used two)

Sorry the "recipe" is so loose, it's really to taste.  For the sauce, I used about a 3:2:1 ratio of soy sauce to sesame oil to rice vinegar.  Mix the three together, and throw about 2/3 of the sliced scallions into the sauce (leaving some scallions to scatter on top fresh).  Let it sit for about 5 minutes.  I did this because I thought just fresh scallions would be a bit too harsh, so "marinating" them made them into more palatable salty bits.

While the sauce is sitting, slice up the tofu.  For presentation, I kept it in the block shape, but you don't have to do that.

Pour sauce over the sliced block of tofu, making sure to pour sauce down the crevices as well. Sprinkle remaining fresh scallions over top. Serve.

For the bok choy:

• about 2 tsp of black bean garlic sauce (actually I'm totally not sure but just be careful this stuff is salty)
• 2 tsp water
• about 1 TBS sesame oil
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
• 4-5 heads of baby bok choy, washed well, trimmed, and leaves separated (I separate them because I find them easier to clean this way, but you can keep them whole--just make sure tehre are no little pockets of dirt/grit hiding toward the bottom of the leaves)
• 1 tsp cornstarch

Mix together black bean garlic sauce (there was this Lee Kum Kee bottled stuff at the store so that's what I used) with water. Put aside.

Place sesame oil and sliced garlic into deep skillet. Turn stove onto medium-low heat.  Watch carefully so that oil and garlic doesn't cook too fast.  After garlic becomes all fragrant but before it turns brown, turn up heat to med-high, and then throw bok choy in. Toss to coat with oil.

Pour in sauce mixture and toss.  Add more water if it looks a bit dry, cover and simmer for about 5 minutes (adjust heat if necessary). You're basically doing a really quick braise. At the end, remove a little of the cooking liquid (a few tsp) into a bowl and mix well with the cornstarch. Stir the cornstarch mixture back into the pan with the bok choy and cook for a few more minutes. Then you're done.  I don't have any pictures of the final product. It was good.

For the rice (you can obviously adjust this to taste and/or for the amount of rice you're making):

• 1 cup jasmine rice (this was the only rice I had lying around)
• 1 1/4 water
• 1 tsp slivered ginger (next time I would use about 2 tsp)
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

After years of screwing up rice, I think I've got a system.  First, rinse the rice really really well. Second, I always used to put in way too much water because I thought it was supposed to be 2 parts water to 1 part rice.  But now, I use 1.25 parts water to 1 part rice (and keep in mind that the rise is already water-logged after the rinsing, so in reality it's probably more like 1.5 parts water to 1 part rice). But anyway.  I have a rice cooker so I threw the rice, water, and ginger in there.  Cook according to instructions.

When it's done, fluff with fork...


Are you all getting really annoyed at me for telling you how to cook rice? Yeah, the stuff that comes in packages that has its own set of instructions? I'd be annoyed, except like I said I've been an idiot about cooking rice for the longest time.


...and place top back on, but leaving it a crack open, for about 5-10 minutes.  Sprinkle with cliantro and serve.


By the way, you could also put salt in this to make it more flavorful.  I didn't because of all the salt in the tofu and bok choy, but a little salt would have been nice.

Ta-da!