I am really sorry that I haven't updated this in a while but things over here got quite busy and I haven't had time for and to myself in a while. Things have settled down again though, so I will try to put up more recipes again! (Can't make definite promises though because real life tends to change on me very quickly.)
Anyways, today's dish is:
★★★MapoTofu★★★
The original recipe can probably be found all over the internet. This one here is my original take on it because the first time I tried to make it outside of Japan, I made it from scratch and with ingredients I had at home.
I read up on which things can be substituted with other things and also thought about the tastes and flavours my family is more familiar with from our home cuisine.
RECIPE:
1 Tablespoon chili-garlic oil (also called saté but do not confuse it with the 'westernized' peanut butter kind)
1 Tablespoon peanut oil (cooking oil)
1 Tablespoon Hoisin Sauce (or more, depending on your taste)
2 Sticks of green onions (optional)
1 Small onion (around golf ball size) or 1/2 or smaller increments of a larger one
2 Cloves of fresh garlic
1 Teaspoon Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Ketjap Manis
250 gr chicken breast meat (you can also use pork)
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce (alternatively soy sauce or salt work, too and it also depends on how salty it turns out to be - aka the hoisin's saltyness, which varies with the brand you use)
1 tiny piece of ginger (optional)
2 blocks of tofu
250 ml water or soup stock
How to:
Boil Tofu if needed (some kinds do not require boiling anymore, they're pre-boiled), then cut it into little blocks. Set aside for later. If you get the kind that does not require boiling, make sure you get rid of as much of the water inside the tofu as you can (put them on kitchen towels or so, do the same thing to get rid of the water after you boil the tofu that needs boiling, otherwise all the water will go into the sauce and dilute it).
Use ground meat if you're lazy but I prefer cutting up fresh meat. I like chicken best and it's cheapest over here, so I used about 1/3 to 1/2 of a whole, big breast and chopped it small into little block-bits. Marinade the meat with the soy sauce, ketjap manis and one of the cloves of garlic (chopped, or use some garlic powder as an alternative). You can also use pork. If you do, you can make use of any fatty bits the pork meat has to substitute some of the cooking oil (this is the less healthy alternative though, I'm told, as animal-based fat is a lot less healthy than plant based one :X but maybe that's just me ^^;).
Put oil into the pan, add chili-garlic oil and heat (be careful, the chili fumes can sting/bite). Once the oil is hot, add the additional chopped up garlic and finally the chopped onion. Stir until the onion turns a bit glassy (if you can see it with the red chili oil coating it). Then put in the chicken and stir until most of the chicken changes color.
Add the hoisin sauce to the water/soup/broth and stir until it dissolves. Then add it to the mixture in the pan and let it boil (if it's too much liquid, use some starch [needs to be dissolved in water first or it will form nasty lumps] or sauce/gravy thickener (Soßenbinder) to thicken the sauce again). Stir the sauce until it thickens. Have a taste to see how the sauce is coming along. If it's not salty enough add some fish sauce or salt or soy-sauce. Same goes for chili if it's not spicy enough for you yet (the chili-garlic oil is super spicy and super tasty so no problems there for me *yummy*). You don't have to be overly careful with the seasoning. If it's too salty or spicy you can balance it later with rice, PLUS the tofu still needs to go into it and soaks up a lot of the flavour.
Once the sauce is thick, turn down the heat a little bit and add the tofu. Stir carefully so you don't make the tofu fall to pieces (this is why I also prefer to finish all the seasoning and tasting before adding in the tofu). Cook for a while until the tofu's hot (again - unless it was still hot) and has soaked up all the flavour.
Sprinkle some of the green bits of the green onions on top. Serve with white rice and enjoy!
Vegetarian:
If you are vegetarian or vegan, you can just leave out the meat and just cook a sauce without it or you can use vegetables instead of using meat. There's also a 'maponasu' (eggplant) dish, where the tofu is substituted by eggplants but it also has meat. So I thought why not substitute the meat instead? ;)
Also, a word on Tofu for people who are not living in Asia or well, for people living in Europe maybe - I don't know how things are in the US.
I am not a fan of the mainstream, industrial tofu that is sold at normal supermarkets. It tastes like nothing and is chewy like it's some kind of rubber or something. I prefer to get my tofu from an Asian Supermarket. It can be fresh or packaged or whatever but in my opinion and from my experience, it tastes a lot better than the 'western supermarket' one. Good tofu has a silky texture to it and is both firm and yet soft at the same time, like it keeps its shape when you cut it but it crumbles or mashes when you apply a lot of pressure and it melts in your mouth...a bit hard to describe.
Anyways, today's dish is:
★★★MapoTofu★★★
 |
| Mabodofu/Mapotofu |
The original recipe can probably be found all over the internet. This one here is my original take on it because the first time I tried to make it outside of Japan, I made it from scratch and with ingredients I had at home.
I read up on which things can be substituted with other things and also thought about the tastes and flavours my family is more familiar with from our home cuisine.
RECIPE:
1 Tablespoon chili-garlic oil (also called saté but do not confuse it with the 'westernized' peanut butter kind)
1 Tablespoon peanut oil (cooking oil)
1 Tablespoon Hoisin Sauce (or more, depending on your taste)
2 Sticks of green onions (optional)
1 Small onion (around golf ball size) or 1/2 or smaller increments of a larger one
2 Cloves of fresh garlic
1 Teaspoon Soy Sauce
1 Teaspoon Ketjap Manis
250 gr chicken breast meat (you can also use pork)
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce (alternatively soy sauce or salt work, too and it also depends on how salty it turns out to be - aka the hoisin's saltyness, which varies with the brand you use)
1 tiny piece of ginger (optional)
2 blocks of tofu
250 ml water or soup stock
How to:
Boil Tofu if needed (some kinds do not require boiling anymore, they're pre-boiled), then cut it into little blocks. Set aside for later. If you get the kind that does not require boiling, make sure you get rid of as much of the water inside the tofu as you can (put them on kitchen towels or so, do the same thing to get rid of the water after you boil the tofu that needs boiling, otherwise all the water will go into the sauce and dilute it).
Use ground meat if you're lazy but I prefer cutting up fresh meat. I like chicken best and it's cheapest over here, so I used about 1/3 to 1/2 of a whole, big breast and chopped it small into little block-bits. Marinade the meat with the soy sauce, ketjap manis and one of the cloves of garlic (chopped, or use some garlic powder as an alternative). You can also use pork. If you do, you can make use of any fatty bits the pork meat has to substitute some of the cooking oil (this is the less healthy alternative though, I'm told, as animal-based fat is a lot less healthy than plant based one :X but maybe that's just me ^^;).
Put oil into the pan, add chili-garlic oil and heat (be careful, the chili fumes can sting/bite). Once the oil is hot, add the additional chopped up garlic and finally the chopped onion. Stir until the onion turns a bit glassy (if you can see it with the red chili oil coating it). Then put in the chicken and stir until most of the chicken changes color.
Add the hoisin sauce to the water/soup/broth and stir until it dissolves. Then add it to the mixture in the pan and let it boil (if it's too much liquid, use some starch [needs to be dissolved in water first or it will form nasty lumps] or sauce/gravy thickener (Soßenbinder) to thicken the sauce again). Stir the sauce until it thickens. Have a taste to see how the sauce is coming along. If it's not salty enough add some fish sauce or salt or soy-sauce. Same goes for chili if it's not spicy enough for you yet (the chili-garlic oil is super spicy and super tasty so no problems there for me *yummy*). You don't have to be overly careful with the seasoning. If it's too salty or spicy you can balance it later with rice, PLUS the tofu still needs to go into it and soaks up a lot of the flavour.
Once the sauce is thick, turn down the heat a little bit and add the tofu. Stir carefully so you don't make the tofu fall to pieces (this is why I also prefer to finish all the seasoning and tasting before adding in the tofu). Cook for a while until the tofu's hot (again - unless it was still hot) and has soaked up all the flavour.
Sprinkle some of the green bits of the green onions on top. Serve with white rice and enjoy!
Vegetarian:
If you are vegetarian or vegan, you can just leave out the meat and just cook a sauce without it or you can use vegetables instead of using meat. There's also a 'maponasu' (eggplant) dish, where the tofu is substituted by eggplants but it also has meat. So I thought why not substitute the meat instead? ;)
Also, a word on Tofu for people who are not living in Asia or well, for people living in Europe maybe - I don't know how things are in the US.
I am not a fan of the mainstream, industrial tofu that is sold at normal supermarkets. It tastes like nothing and is chewy like it's some kind of rubber or something. I prefer to get my tofu from an Asian Supermarket. It can be fresh or packaged or whatever but in my opinion and from my experience, it tastes a lot better than the 'western supermarket' one. Good tofu has a silky texture to it and is both firm and yet soft at the same time, like it keeps its shape when you cut it but it crumbles or mashes when you apply a lot of pressure and it melts in your mouth...a bit hard to describe.
Wow, this is completely different from how I make mapo tofu! Mine has about 400% more chili heat in it, going by the ingredients. ^_^
ReplyDeleteWe should have a mapo tofu-off! :D
Adele
XD wait until you try the chili oil...although, I don't have the hot HOT version with me
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