Continuing where we left off yesterday, today we are taking a step further into traditional Sichuan cuisine! In today's dish, we are going to play with the famous Sichuan pepper 花椒. It is not necessarily the spiciest chili pepper in Sichuan; but what is unique about it is that it produces a numbing sensation to your entire mouth afterwards. Very different from what you're used to right? Ahh I'm so excited! But before we get started I want to tell you a story behind the this dish we are about to make!
The dish we are making today is called Mapo tofu 麻婆豆腐. It translates to English as "pockmarked." The story behind this dish is that there is a woman with pockmarks, so obviously she wasn't "fairest maiden of them all." But because of her pockmarks, she was unable to find herself a husband. So she began to make this dish....that led to countless men wanting to win her hand.
- 1 lb ground pork (marinated with soy sauce and corn starch)
- soft tofu
- chili bean paste
- chopped green onions
- chicken broth
- water
- rice
Before cooking the meat, we first want to cook the tofu. Since we are going to mix all our ingredients together, we don't want our tofu to be completely smushed by everything else. We are nooottttt trying to aim to make tofu paste! So in order to semi harden the tofu, we want to boil it and then take it out to settle for later use. But while you are waiting for the tofu to boil, obtain some rice, wash it, and turn on the rice maker. By the time you have finished the dish, your rice would be ready to eat with it! (Cooking Chinese food is also about time management!)
With the wok all heated up again, throw in the ground pork and stir evenly and consistently (you don't want to only cook one side of the pork)! Now put in the chili bean paste, now the colour on your wok should be a orangey, reddish kind of colour! Isn't it pretty? :). Okay, now you want to put in 3 teaspoons of chicken broth, 3 teaspoons of water, and the boiled tofu. Once everything is almost done, add in the green onions! This adds more colour to the dish! Food presentation, remember? Haha :). Lastly but not least! Add in the sichuan peppercorn and dried chili peppers (if you wish)!
The way that you would serve this dish would generally be simple on a plate. But in our case, since everyone has their own plate. We piled up some rice onto a plate, and set the Mapo tofu on top of it or on the side (as shown below). And by now your mouth is probably watering non-stop! Take a seat and gobble up!!
I would say this is one of our more successful dishes we have made so far! I give this 10/10. However to customize it to my taste, I would definitely add some chili oil and extra peppercorn to really get the numbing sensation! Can you tell how much I love spicy food? Haha! I know, usually Cantonese people can't really eat spicy, but I guess my family and I are an exception!
Yes, my family absolutely LOVES spicy food. And one of our favourite family dishes includes Mapo tofu! I remember this one time that our entire family had a huge craving for Mapo tofu that we made it for 5 days straight. Yes, can you imagine. After that, it took us a while to want to make that again hahah. I would say this is one of the less fussy dishes in Chinese cuisine in general. It doesn't require that much ingredients, there is less chopping and cutting, and spices do in fact make a huge part in it! Oh I love Sichuan food. I have actually never been there before either. Having been living in China for 11 years, it is kind of embarrassing. Hopefully, one day I would be able to explore the grounds of my favourite Chinese cuisine.
Well....guess what folks. Tomorrow we are actually NOT going to cook! OHMYGOSH right? Our class is taking a trip down to Dallas to explore the Asian market and have some dimsum! Wanna' know what that is? Come back to read more about it! :) Have a lovely day!
Evann
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