This Mapo Tofu is Simpler and Cheaper 麻婆豆腐

Hey everyone, I'm Flo. Dude is behind the camera and we're all about simple food, simple faith. We are making mapo tofu today and this is my version and it's simpler than the authentic version because it uses ingredients that you are likely to have on hand. If you like this video, please click like and subscribe for more simple food ideas. We're starting with three quarter pounds of ground pork or it's about 342 grams. I'm going to add about a quarter teaspoon of salt and about a teaspoon of sesame oil. I don't normally marinate my pork but because this pork, if you look, it's kind of kind of fluffy and I don't know why. I bought it from somewhere different than I normally buy meat from today so maybe that's why. But I want to kind of mush it around a little bit so that it's not so, I don't know, fluffy when I cook it. All right, that should break up well when I start to cook it. The meat doesn't have to be marinating for very long. I just set it aside while I get the rest of my ingredients ready to go. I have three green onions here and we're going to separate the white from the dark green parts. We're going to cook the white and the light green parts along with the pork and the dark green part we're going to add at the end. I'm also going to chop up one clove of garlic. When you crush it a little bit, it makes it easier to to mince. Cut off the end. I have a small piece of ginger, about thumb size, that I've already peeled and I'm just going to grate it on top of my garlic. I'm going to add it to the wok at the same time and you're going to want about a tablespoon but again everything you can adjust to however much you like. No big deal. I have about a pound and a half of medium firm tofu and tofu comes in different textures so we want a medium firm because we don't want it to be breaking up when we're cooking it too much so it doesn't get all mushy. We want the texture of the cubes so I'm going to cut them into about one inch cubes. I'm just going to do it in the container here. In more traditional versions of mapo tofu they use a bean paste which we are not using today. It's called doubanjiang and if you find it and you like it and you want to use it absolutely go for it but if not you have all these other ingredients that you may have already in your pantry. I'm starting with a tablespoon of dark soy sauce and if you don't have dark you can always use just regular soy. I also have a quarter cup of chicken stock in there that I forgot to mention but if you don't want to use chicken stock you can also just use water. One tablespoon of Shaoxing wine. Shaoxing wine is a rice wine. If you don't have Shaoxing wine you can use sherry or a white wine. One tablespoon of rice vinegar and if you don't have rice vinegar you can just use another tablespoon of the rice wine. Two tablespoons of oyster sauce. Oyster sauce gives it that extra flavor that you wouldn't normally get with just soy sauce so it's really worthwhile to pick up oyster sauce. It comes in a vegan version that's made with mushrooms and ancient Chinese secret three tablespoons of ketchup. Mix that up and then we're ready to get cooking. All right we're going to heat up my wok on a medium low. All right once you see a wisp of smoke you can add your oil. I'm using a tablespoon of just avocado oil. You can use any neutral tasting oil. We're going to add the white and light green parts of the green onion. Just cook this for maybe about a minute or so. If you don't have a wok you can always use a large frying pan. Next we're going to add our garlic and ginger. That will only take about 30 seconds. Just want to stir fry it until it's a bit fragrant. If you wanted to add some spice you can add some crushed red pepper. So I'm using about just a pinch to add a little bit of a kick. We actually don't eat too spicy so it's just enough. I'm going to push this to the side and we're going to add the pork. Just going to let it sear on one side before moving it around. All right it's been about a minute. Dude was worried that I didn't put any oil at the bottom but it's pork yo. You can see all the fat rendering out now. Just get the other side. I'm going to bump up the heat a little bit. Now you can cook it through. I'm going to add the aromatics back in. This will take about three to five minutes. Make sure that the pork is no longer pink inside. All right adding the sauce. Move the meat to the side and we just want that to come to a simmer. The sauce starts to simmer. We're going to add our tofu and we're going to gently toss ingredients. Try not to break up the tofu. Okay we're going to let it simmer for about three to five minutes with the lid on just to make sure that the tofu is heated through completely. Okay we're going to thicken up the sauce. I'm going to make a slurry with about a tablespoon of cornstarch and about a tablespoon of water. It has to be cool or room temperature water. If you use hot water it'll just become one lumpy mess so don't do that. All right guys oh my goodness it looks so good. Smells delicious. Let's see if I can push some of this to the side so I can add the slurry in the middle. It's probably not going to cooperate. Everything's too heavy now but we'll try. All right see how that sauce is now thickened up and now it will cling on to the tofu and the meat. This is what I love about using the wok. I can scoop and then not disturb the tofu too much. Now it's completely heated through. I'm going to turn off the heat. Add the green onion. Mix that around. One last thing. If you want you can add a teaspoon of sesame oil. That will give it some just beautiful aroma. This is so inexpensive to make at home you guys. For us everything in Canada is so expensive so the ground pork was maybe like four bucks. The tofu $3.50 and then with all the other sauces that you already have at home maybe 50 cents and so eight bucks for this dish. You're looking at 25 bucks in the restaurants. I don't think I can fit any more in that bowl. And there you have it guys. Mapo tofu. Are you all ready for it? This is the taste. I'm Dude and this is a bowl full of goodness. Mapo tofu is one of those dishes that is on heavy rotation in our household and this is this version is one that she cooked for quite a while before she thought yeah I'll get some Dao Ban Jiang and cook the more traditional version. Great look with the ketchup. Gives that color, that contrast. So I'm gonna try not to destroy the tofu. I got a cube without killing it. It's good. This tofu is keeping its shape just right. Not too firm, not too soft. Sauce is sticking to the tofu nicely. Nice flavors. Heat from the chili flakes. I'm going to add more which I will likely. Got a bottle of Lao Gan Ma in the fridge. It's going to rock that later. Add some Chinese veg on the side and you have a full and complete meal with leftovers to boot unless you have big eaters like my son. So do try this. Awesome thanks Dude. Another simple and tasty dish to help you eat well and save money. Check out the recipe on my website lowlum.com