/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.15421098]

Been trying to learn how to make some Chinese food since I got a wok recently. Main one has been mapo tofu. Every time I make broth it comes out dark, and between that and the wine it always ruins the vibrant red color. Any tips on maintaining the color? I've heard you can use dried fava beans to leech color from liquids but going further, what vegetables should I use / avoid for a light colored stock?

[Anonymous No.15421108]

Go to an Asian grocer and buy a foil pouch of mapo tofu sauce.
That’s how most Chinese do it.

[Anonymous No.15421142]

>>15421108
I'm not a lazy shitter and my asian grocerer has all the shit I need to make it.

[Anonymous No.15421160]

>>15421108
Lmao, this. Faggots adding wine and beans and shit that doesn't even belong in there,

[Anonymous No.15421164]

>>15421160
Most recipes I've seen call for some amount of rice wine.

[Anonymous No.15421170]

>>15421142
>I gonna make Chinese food!
>fuck those lazy Chinese tho I’m not gonna make it like them!
K.

[Anonymous No.15421177]

>>15421160
>tofu (derived from soybeans)
>soy sauce (derived from soybeans)
>douchi (made from black soybeans)
>doubanjiang (made from soybeans and broad beans)
Huh?

[Anonymous No.15421181]

>>15421170
Yes? The average Chinese shitter is very lazy, but that doesn't mean there isn't a proper way to make it.

[Anonymous No.15421247]

>>15421177
None of these are actually whole beans (the doubanjiang is kind of a mushy bean sauce, so the closest to while beans you'll get.) OP is proposing to add whole fava beans to his mapo tofu, I'm not a food purist but that doesn't sound like complementary textures to me.

[Anonymous No.15421255]

>>15421164
Only a tablespoon or two though, and it's usually evaporated off before adding other stuff. It shouldn't have any effect on the colour. So either OP is using way too much wine, adding it at the wrong time, or just straight up using red wine.

[Anonymous No.15421319]

>>15421247
You're fucking retarded. You let the fava beans soak in the stock before cooking to lighten the color and remove before cooking.

[Anonymous No.15421347]

>>15421319
>using beans just for the sake of changing the colour and then removing them
This has to be both the most autistic and inauthentic endeavour I've seen as far as making mapo on /ck/ goes.

[Anonymous No.15421670]

>>15421347
Better than brown mapo tofu.

[Anonymous No.15421686]

my dumb ass got a wok plus made one of these and still haven't cooked anything in it. its 2 years since i bought that shit

[Anonymous No.15421689]

>Dried Sichuan Chilis
>Little bit of ground up Sichuan Peppercorn
>Tofu
>Ginger
>Garlic
>Chili oil
>Toban Djan
>Some ground pork

Fei chang hao wo de pengyou. Zenme shuo "faggot" wo bu zhidao keshi wo zhidao ni shi.

[Anonymous No.15421815]

>>15421689
Nobody cares chink.

[Anonymous No.15421864]

>>15421098
How the fuck is the wine making the broth too dark? Are you trying to use red wine? Chinese rice wine is clear. You go through the trouble of getting "authentic" mapo tofu ingredients from the chinese grocer and then try to use an italian red wine or some shit?

[Anonymous No.15421874]

>>15421670
>Better than brown
Says the guy looking to maintain some instagram-tier “vibrant red”
This is what mapo tofu, made by a Chinese chef, at a Chinese establishment, serving 98% Chinese clientele, looks like.
This is a “regular” photo.
Not a cooking blog, recipe page, or foodporn professional photo where a staged dish has likely been color-filtered.
Want to know how to get the shimmering, translucent red you see in those pics? Just take a serving and add a shit ton of lao-gan-ma and/or la-yu, and add soybean oil if you need to lighten the color. It will settle on the top, giving that visual depth effect of being able to see “into” the sauce.
It will look “perfect” and taste like mostly oil, which is how Szechuan natives tend to make it anyway; mostly oil.
Also, maybe try a real recipe and not some hacked vegan version.

[Anonymous No.15421903]

>>15421874

>peas

fucking peas man why do they always end up in food they don't belong

[Anonymous No.15422022]

>>15421874
No faggot you're at PF Chang's. Can tell by the gay ass lighting and the exact same table color they have at all establishments. It's not authentic but it's not bad either. Also if you're going to pretend to know shit about chinese food at least spell the province right. Sichuan is named that because it literally has 4 rivers, you're using the anglicized version because you r gay.

[Anonymous No.15422050]

Sidebar: Going to make some mapo tonight but all I have for bean paste is some ssamjang. Would that work a a suitable substitution?

[Anonymous No.15422102]

>>15422022
>lightbulb and brown table means PF Chang
You’re right though. Good eye. That is definitely a picture of PF Chang’s vegetarian mapo tofu. The lack of meat and pile of broccoli are dead giveaways.

[Anonymous No.15422220]

>>15422022
>food at least spell the province right
>Sichuan
You misspelled 四川.
Or are you just misspelling Sìchuān? Because that’s the current standard ‘official’ romanization, preceded by Szechuan which China used for decades.

[Anonymous No.15422411]

>>15422102
I should add that the wide ass bowls give it away, i hate seeing my waitress's thumb prints on it.

[Anonymous No.15422431]

>>15422050
yeah its gonna be slightly sweeter, but it should be 90% accurate

[Anonymous No.15422469]

>>15422050
Yeah but I'd throw a couple extra whole dried chilis in. Not for heat per se, but to counter the sugar in that stuff. I'm pretty sure Toban Djan has like no sugar in it.

[Anonymous No.15422549]

>>15421098
korean style mapo tofu is better anyway. use gochujang and gochugaru

[Anonymous No.15422576]

>>15422549
>korean shit
Nothing of the sort where I live

[Anonymous No.15422654]

>>15422022
Nigga how many times you going to PF Chang kek?

[Anonymous No.15424589]

>>15421098
Follow this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USoC8AqirVA
Turn on the captions.

[Anonymous No.15424611]

>>15421108
No faggot, that's Hong Kongers and Taiwanese, respect their identity.

[Anonymous No.15424617]

>>15421686
What's making the flame purple?

[Anonymous No.15424626]

>>15421874
Fat American Asians are no longer recognised as Chinese by the motherland. You guys can have them.

[Anonymous No.15424674]

Ma po tofu:

>Salty/spicy red bean shit
>Salty/spicy black bean shit
>Salty soy bean shit
>Tofu
>Ground pork
>Spicy oil

So easy even a chink could do it

[Anonymous No.15424949]

>>15421098
you can try to make dumplings.
this ones were my first and the only asian ingredient that i had was soy sauce and sesame oil.

[Anonymous No.15425799]

>>15421098
Different peppers and doubanjiang give off different colors. It's really more about the ingredients than anything else, but in the end, color doesn't determine flavor. Just add some paprika if you're really desperate to make it more red.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfsZwwrTFD4

[Anonymous No.15426057]

>>15421108
Those cost like $3 which is the cost of all the ingredients of the actual dish, lmao.

I mean I'm white but the color of the dish comes from doubanjiang from pixian as well as (homemade) chili oil. I've never had it turn out as anything other than vibrant red. The proper way of cooking the dish is where the doubanjiang is fried in oil until the oil is bright red.

[Anonymous No.15426061]

>>15421686
That looks dope as hell, anon. You should try out some wok cooking.

Personally I find it to be a convenient type of cooking because the wok is very easy to clean and you rarely need to dirty multiple dishes to make a nice dinner.

[Anonymous No.15426934]

>>15421098
>Vegetarian
How about putting beef when stirring

[Anonymous No.15427117]

>>15421170
any chinese anons mind chiming in on the common shortcuts they use? I'd rather cook like a chinese person if possible

[Anonymous No.15427126]

>>15427117
There's no shortcut for mapo doufu because it's already such an easy dish to make

I always hot chili oil and douban jiang available so when I make mapo doufu it only takes about 15-20 minutes.

[Anonymous No.15427165]

>>15427126
What else can I do with doubanjiang? I bought a big pack but to be honest I'm not as into mapo tofu as I expected to be.

[Anonymous No.15427447]

>>15425799
Looks brown then changes to red in the thumbnail

The fuck is wrong with hipsters and this fascination with mapo tofu and demanding it to be bright red??

Actually, I somewhat understand. I like New Mexico bright red enchiladas. When I make them they come out dark and not spicy. But the enchilada I am looking for is from New Mexico restaurants and is bright red and melts your face off. SO I've dealt with this exact struggle.

Fun fact: peppers are native to the America's. Eat my ass Asians. Fucking deal with it.

The problem is the pepper. You're looking for fresh peppers that are sun dried rather than toasted. Soak the peppers. Theyre red. The problem is too much red and probably tannins. Soaking and washing pulls the color out and leaves you with the washed out bright red look. If you're fucking with premade chili oils or gochujiang there's no way to control this so maybe look for a better brand. Another tip is lower heats. When I make chili oil I get the oil hot and put the peppers in while immediately pulling the heat. This balances the cooked pepper and fresh pepper flavors. Heat kills the capsaicin and a dark chili oil is a dead give away it's going to be overcooked and lack spicy and proper flavor balance. They all are. I'm looking for a blend of spicy and cooked off pepper flavors in an oil. That's proper chili oil IMO. since sichuan is spicy it has to apply here, since cooked off oil is not spicy at all. If the oil isn't sucking enough color and flavor it's because you havent waited long enough. I shove this shit off in a fridge for weeks to marinate. Heat must be seen as a time saver. But fucks your oil flavor up.

I've only made mapo tofu once and used home made chili oil and never inspected the color. Only flavor. If you just want pictures film under different lighting and use photoshop.

[Anonymous No.15427462]

>>15421686
what's the mileage on that oven?

[Anonymous No.15427480]

>>15424611
What I remember as chinese food growing up as a young kid in Hong Kong

>turtle/shark fin soup
>fried chicken feet
>pig uterus noodles
>fried rice with pork knuckle gristle
>unidentifed fish balls on a stick
>boiled dog meat
>one time, monkey brains

Americans have no idea how bad it really is. No one in china knows what the fuck beef and broccoli is or sweet and sour pork. Chinese food is disgusting. Literally the worst parts to eat of any animal. Makes sense because chinks are the race of humans closest to animals. They make disgusting noises when they eat, slurp everything, men in the streets lift their fucking wife beaters over their sweaty stomachs while laughing and chewing with their mouths full of food. Like what kind of idiot decided 2 sticks is the most practical way to eat grains of fucking rice. Starving Nigerians who eat grass have a better diet than the average chinese.

[Anonymous No.15427486]

>>15427480
Somehow still better than Mongolian food.

[Anonymous No.15427495]

>>15427447
>premade chili oil
I used chopped up toasted bird's eye, and doubanjiang.

[Anonymous No.15427513]

>>15427495
That said I still got a decent color out of it this time. I often throw leftover radishes (and sometimes purple cabbage) into my stock but this time I kept it more simple.
>onions
>celery
>carrots
>dried mushrooms
>dried kombu

[Anonymous No.15427512]

>>15427480
bushcrafting sticks sounds smart if you're doing primitive shit rather than lugging around a set of silverware. granted I have a set of mess kit silver ware in my pack. Most seaweed salad comes in frozen bricks from china. Whyte pipo pay out the ass for that at sushi restaurants. Fucking checkmate. it's a product of china and flown over in a frozen brick. Mala chicken is ok as a sometimes thing. Kung pao and orange chicken are both authentic and legit if you make it right. Maybe just before the commies tho. My only experience with chinese are chinese americans that came over either fleeing or before the commie starvation thing happened.

[Anonymous No.15427550]

>>15422050
No.
If you can't find djoubanjiang use fresh chilli and whole fermented soya bean
>>15422220
This is /ck/ not /gook/- nobody cares.
>>15422549
Shan/Burmese mapu tofu is the best.
>>15424949
Did you use pasta wrappers and boil them?
Try to steam them, and wrap them just by twisting the top into a little money bag- you fit more in the steamer.
>>15421108
Yes, it is one of those dishes that nobody makes from fresh.
The mix looses nothing for being in a packet, just try off the sauce, add tofu, thicken as needed and add green onion- done.
>>15426057
That's too much, either it's enough mix for 3KG of tofu or your grocer is shit

[Anonymous No.15427586]

>>15427495
I just shove in garlic black bean paste to taste in whatever demands fermented beans flavor. Ive got chilis, and beans. No sense in buying them premixed in my mind.

https://mexicanfoodjournal.com/guajillo-chile-salsa-recipe/

This is probably why Koreans are so hostile on the idea they have a unique pepper not descending from south america. Fresh peppers are completely different than a toasted or dried pepper unless you soak them and kick up the scoville with ceyenne or scorpion peppers.

I've dropped some images to help better demonstrate what Ive learned from New mexico red enchiladas. I think it applies here since peppers.

[Anonymous No.15427611]

>>15421686
>You will never have an afterburner stove.

[Anonymous No.15427628]

This is the best tutorial I've seen about how to make ma po tofu -- and just as importantly, all the ways one can fuck it up. https://youtu.be/AujuLHK3hvs

[Anonymous No.15427794]

i ate it once and got super shits
why the fuck is it so oily? are chinks retarded or something, youre not supposed to just drink oil

[Anonymous No.15427892]

>>15427447
>reddit spacing

[Anonymous No.15428014]

I make it with my wok on a gas grill.

[Anonymous No.15428018]

>>15427892
>kissless virgin

[Anonymous No.15428019]

>>15428014
That looks fucking horrid.

[Anonymous No.15428020]

>>15427165
Anything dude. Toss that with some brown sugar and oyster sauce into a stir fry and it'll be delectable.

[Anonymous No.15428026]

>>15428020
Same with douchi. That shit's fucking delicious.

[Anonymous No.15428034]

>>15428014
>>15428019
Unironically looks like something a wife beater wearing chinese man would be making in the gutter. Most authentic dish in the thread kek.

[Anonymous No.15428054]

>>15428014
horrific

[Anonymous No.15428141]

>>15428018
Just went to a pinsaro last week.