/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.18356952]

I'm trying to learn how to make Mapo Tofu (or Mabo Doufu). Pic related was my last attempt, what do you guys think about it?

[Anonymous No.18356967]

lol

[Anonymous No.18356969]

>>18356952
>uses plate/bowl hybrids or just plates instead of bowls for everything
Based. Where did you get that stuff?

[Anonymous No.18356974]

this one looks better. You should make it look like this one instead of how yours looks because yours looks like shit.

[Anonymous No.18356975]

>>18356969
It belongs to my grandma, I have no idea where did she buy it.

[Anonymous No.18356977]

>>18356974
Yeah, I know. How can I make the sauce more dense? Mine is almost liquid.

[Anonymous No.18356984]

I would thicken the sauce more, and personally I crisp the fuck out of my pork, and then serve it on steamed rice. The extra crispy pork is a nice contrast between the textures of both the rice and the tofu, thicker sauce prevents it from turning the entire dish into a stew should you throw it on rice. Some green onions or something on top never hurts. Regardless, if it tastes satisfactory to you, keep doing what you're doing, mapo is a great dish and no matter what the dunning-kruger exhibits on here will say, recipes are to be personalized.

[Anonymous No.18356986]

>>18356977
>>18356952
nta but i'm assuming youre looking for advice, so you're going to need to tell us what you used, the steps, etc
you dont need to write out a recipe or anything though. you dont seem to have added much oil, and it looks a little undercooked, which is probably why the sauce is thin.

[Anonymous No.18356988]

>>18356977
You can thicken sauces by mixing flour with water on the side, then stirring the mixture into your sauce

[Anonymous No.18356998]

I bring gifts.
This is the Fushia Dunlop recipe

I caution Americans, dark soy is NOT the salty black muck your local Chinese puts on the table.
Countless Chinese dishes are ruined with the addition of cheap soya sauce.
I have seven different kinds of soya sauce on hand and none cost more than $3- but one bottle of $1 shit would have ruined half the Asian dishes I've made this year.

[Anonymous No.18357005]

>>18356988
Only use flour if you absolutely have to.
You want a pure starch, I use arrowroot but potato flour and corn starch both work better.
Flour will make a sauce claggy rather than thick.

[Anonymous No.18357008]

And before I depart, OP could probably press his tofu more, brown his pork more, use more oil generally and thicken his sauce.

We're all going to make it brah

[Anonymous No.18357042]

>>18356974
That pic is filtered, retard.
Food doesnt look like that in real life, you stupid retards.

[Anonymous No.18357068]

>>18356998

i only maggi for everything

[Anonymous No.18357075]

>>18356998
what soy sauces do you use?
is picrel any good?

[Anonymous No.18357078]

>>18356952
https://thewoksoflife.com/ma-po-tofu-real-deal/
heres the tofu in >>18356974's pic since they didnt link it, knock yourself out op
>>18357042
who the fuck thinks it does?

[Anonymous No.18357090]

>>18356952
you should be using soft tofu, not firm tofu.

[Anonymous No.18357100]

>>18357008
>press his tofu more,
what? what for? the tofu is already coddled in extra flavourful sauce. It should be soft and silken like

[Anonymous No.18357145]

>>18357075
yea Lee Kum Kee is alright. be careful not to confuse dark soy sauce with light soy sauce though.

[Anonymous No.18357148]

>>18356969
Those are just old-school soup plates. Back in the day, bowls were exclusively for salad or dessert. Only poors ate soup in bowls.

[Anonymous No.18357151]

>>18357145
i'm not an idiot dont worry i wont

[Anonymous No.18358270]

>>18356952
Looks like it is missing Sichuan peppercorns

[Anonymous No.18358283]

>>18356952
More oil and chilli, fry the pork more, use a couple tablespoons of cold water + corn starch mix to thicken the sauce, simmer it until the oil surfaces so you can get a nice glossy coating on the tofu.

[Anonymous No.18358399]

>>18356998
>Fushia Dunlop
She's fucking great. I love her book. As a white boy I'm new to Chinese/Sichuanese cooking but I'm able to follow her recipes and produce meals that rival anything I've had in legit restaurants.

[Anonymous No.18358698]

>>18356952
>>18356977
Shouts out to you OP for trying. A lot of people find cooking new recipes too daunting, and trying something that's foreign to you is always impressive.

That being said, if we're being honest here, it doesn't look too great, OP. It looks a bit light on the spices and definitely light on the meat. Mapo Tofu, like most Sichuan Chinese dishes, are meant to be eaten spicy. Southern Chinese people love "ma-la", translated directly it means "numbing spice". It's achieved with Sichuan peppercorns. I'm not seeing a lot of that.

If you aren't into spicy or Mala foods, then I would probably look to a different region of Chinese cooking, maybe a northern one that doesn't go too hard on spices.

And to answer your question on how to thicken it up, you've got some options. There's corn starch, corn flour, or you can add a splash of beef stock and reduce it down covered going low and slow.

But again, super cool to see someone putting themselves out thee and trying something new, good stuff OP keep it up bro.

>>18357042
My mom's Mapo Tofu (no memes pls, she's a nice lady) looks very very similar to that, no filters or anything. I mean she's from Southern China and she's been cooking this stuff her entire life, she knows what she's doing. It's not only possible but expected for your Mapo Tofu to look like that.

[Anonymous No.18358701]

>>18357075
Lee Kum Kee products are all absolute shit.

Kikkoman is better.

[Anonymous No.18358871]

I never know how to measure out the corn starch shit to thicken it up. It usually comes out with the oil congealing too much. The dihk kind of just becomes spicy slime with ground pork and tofu

[Anonymous No.18358962]

I don't understand how people fail to make such simple dishes. I literally just followed a recipe and got it right the first time. My only mistake was using soft silken tofu so it broke while mixing. Second attempt with hard silken tofu was basically perfect. How retarded does one have to be to fail to follow a recipe now that youtube videos are there to teach people how to cook everything?

[Anonymous No.18358978]

>>18358962
you had it right the first time, you use soft tofu for mapo. Just add it last and stir more gently next time. You don't need the flavor to really penetrate the tofu since it's immersed in sauce. I add the tofu cubes last and shake the pan rather than stir it, shaking causing the tofu to settle down into the sauce

[Anonymous No.18358980]

>>18358978
normal people use hard. unless you mean firm tofu. if so you are fucking retarded, i even said silken

[Anonymous No.18359017]

>>18358980
http://www.tofupedia.com/en/tofu-bereiden/soorten-tofu/
of this list, I am referring to the one labeled "silken". I have not seen "hard silken" tofu, this just sounds like regular tofu. Traditionally mapo tofu is made with silken tofu, refer to any of various recipes for confirmation.

[Anonymous No.18359019]

>>18356977
Chinese chefs traditionally used mung bean starch but nowadays, cornstarch is widespread for thickening sauces. So yeah, cornstarch + water is highly recommended.

>>18358871
You don't need a lot to thicken sauces, a pinch + water is enough for most dishes.

[Anonymous No.18359032]

>>18358980
>>18359017
actually upon further research it appears there is no set specific type of tofu to use. The first three recipes on google use silken, but wang gang on youtube uses firm. I prefer silken, and don't find it hard to keep it from falling apart.

[Anonymous No.18359113]

>>18359019
1/1 ratio of water to cornstarch by volume will always work.

[Anonymous No.18359116]

>>18359017
hard silken does not exist, silken is just a word for the soft end of the firmness scale for tofu

[Anonymous No.18359126]

the fuk nigga that shit looks terrible. That something you see from a flyover state

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGTKlmynCo

I use ground beef oppose to ground pork

[Anonymous No.18359131]

>>18359126
stupid link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T72ZgdfmlM

[Anonymous No.18359135]

OP besides the suggestions for sichuan peppercorns, you also need dry peppers of some kind and doubanjiang (pic related) to get it red and spicy. and you absolutely need a starch and water mixture, it's used in a shitload of chinese cooking for texture.

[Anonymous No.18360329]

>>18359135
I would also add that OP needs to use silken tofu.
In the pic there's pretty significant curd veins visible on the tofu surface, which is indicative of harder tofus.