Mapo Tofu, take 2
01-14-06 · Cooking with Tofu, Mighty meaty Tags: Asian, Chinese, pork
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The last time I cooked mapo tofu, I used tausi, or salted black beans. It was great although I found the cooked dish a tad too “strong”. I wanted it more mellow, the saltiness less pronounced. So, I substituted salted yellow beans, added minced ginger and some fresh Chinese coriander, omitted the soya sauce and added a few other ingredients…
What do you know? My mapo tofu just got better. And, guess what? I handled the silken tofu better this time–I was able to cut them into perfect cubes and they retained their shape during cooking. Practice makes perfect. 
Ingredients :
1 200-300 g. pack of silken tofu, cut into 2-inch cubes
1/4 kilo of ground pork
1 tbsp. of finely minced garlic
1 tsp. of finely minced ginger
1 heaping tbsp. of salted yellow beans
1 tbsps. of chili bean paste
1 tsp. of sambal oelek
1/2 tsp. of minced lemongrass
1 tbsp. of cooking oil
1/2 c. of meat broth
a few stalks Chinese coriander, leaves removed and stalks discarded
Cooking procedure :
Heat the cooking oil in a cooking pan. Add the ground pork and cook until lightly browned. Add the minced garlic and ginger, and cook, stirring, for a few minutes or until fragrant. Add the salted yellow beans, lemongrass, chili bean paste, sambal oelek and cook for about a minute. Pour in the broth and bring to a soft boil. Add the cubed silken tofu and stir lightly. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter and garnish with fresh Chinese coriander.
Serve hot.
[tags]cooking, mapo+tofu, silken+tofu[/tags]
One of my food resolutions is to cook something with tofu this year.
I love tofu! I’ll be cooking lots more of tofu this year.
Hello Sassy,
Hello again
. I always visit your blog.. but did not have much time to leave comment.
You see it takes me so much time to just construct a phrase in English.. LOL. Why not tagalog.. kasi i want to practice and improve my english. Useful din kasi!
Looks delicious na naman ang dish na yan! I rarely find tofu here, i love that fried with sauce “suka,toyo bawang ..he he pinoy talaga!. Still not able to try your Salmon tofu recipe.
great site madam!!!! more power
i also love tofu, healthy and yummy.
relly, i agree. english is useful. in fact, being fluent in any second or third language is a definite advantage.
thank you, wedell.
hi, lani. yeah tofu is great. half the world still has to discover it though.
tofu burger is nice too!
HI,
Thanks Sassy, I agree. I’m just personnally nulle in learning any language. I read a lot ….
“cookbooks” he he he .. I have one TV channel that features anything and everything about cooking. 7/7 DAYS; 24/24 hours. And it is good to find that a lot of filipino women really loves cooking. Unlike here the women are less enthusiast when it comes to cooking, they often go for frozen or canned goods.
Please do not publish this comment.. i just appreciate you. Being a good host of your blog.
MORE POWER TO YOUR BLOG AND EVERYTHING!
is chinese corriander also known as Wansoy? i’m confused when it comes to parsley, flat parsley, kinchai, wansoy, etc…
btw,
your korean beef stew ( the 2nd try) is the best!
Love mapo tofu! Hope I can try it soon.
what is “sambal oelek”. where can I get it? at any asian supermarket? can I substitute it with something else if it’s not available in my area? Your blog site is great. It’s the first thing I go to and check as soon as I turn on my computer.
Thank you for being a part of our kitchen table.
Boris
Dalandan_soda, coriander (cilantro) is wansuy. Small round leaves with curves along the edges. Chinese coriander has small pointed leaves (in the photo). Am not sure if wansuy is a generic term that applies to both varieties.
Great, Jher!
Boris, that’s good to read. L)
Sambal oelek… it’s a Thai chili paste. Comes in jars. If unavailable, you can always substitute fresh chilis but you’ll have to cut down the proportion by half.
love your website! I always check it to see what delicious dish you’ve concocted once again. But how come I can’t access the recipes? I need the recipe for mabo tofu – it looks really yummy and I want to try it immediately!
Chit, i inserted pagination so that the pages don’t get so long. There are links just below the title.
Hi Ms. Sassy!
If silken tofu is not available, can i use firm tofu?
thanks…you’re website is indeed a big help to me and my family-best seller lagi ang pizzaron and tuna lumpia ko which I learned from you…
more power….
Jo, I guess you can but you may have to pan fry them first. And the overall texture of the cooked dish will be different.
I have never tried tofu, i have tried many different things in my time but never tofu so i guess i will have to try it sometime.
Just a slight correction, I believe sambal oelek is Indonesian/Malaysian
From the top of my head, I usually find Yeo’s and Conimex (an inferior brand compared to others according to some people) at Australian Asian grocery stores. There are tubes and jars of pre-chopped chillies in any big grocery stores outside Asia that will be equally good substitutes if you don’t want to chop the chillies yourself (like me, too lazy… haha).
Got inspired by your Tofu dish success…specially on the “silken tofu” description. I have started substituting soya-based tofu with “fish tofu” for a number of my recipes. Wonder how I can create a “silken” character to it?
Ciao for now!
nico
Hi, want to try this recipe and would want to know how the salted yellow beans look like. do they come in jars? where can i get them? sorry for my ignorance…
thanks again and looking forward to many more new exciting recipe entries in your site…
more power!
in cans, brandy. supermarket.
My mom used to cook us this tofu. She used the egg tofu (Japanese tofu) instead of silken tofu.
Hi, Lee kum kee’s chili garlic sauce is also good for this dish
, I believe it’s easier to find in supermarkets