I think this classical Sichuan dish is the one that makes people fall in love with Chinese cuisine ^-^.

There's a story behind the dish name; it is said that Mrs Chen, a lady who invented this dish and sold it in her restaurant has a pocked face, so people call her Chen Mapo ("mapo" means pocked-face lady) and therefore this dish is called Mapo Tofu.

In Sichuan, Mapo tofu is powerfully spicy with both conventional "hot" spiciness and the characteristic "mala" (numbing spiciness) flavor of Sichuan cuisine. But as it landed on foreign countries where not a lot of people can take the spiciness, it has been adapted to the local favor and added very little spices. I cannot take too much spiciness either, but I would still love to have the original version, just with A LOT of rice and water...

Ingredients

425g tofu, 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger, 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic, 1 teaspoon finely chopped green onion, 100g ground beef, 2 tablespoons spicy bean sauce (辣豆瓣酱), 2 teaspoons corn starch, 1/4 teaspoon grounded Sichuan pepper (花椒粉), 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Seasoning sauce:

1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine (yellow wine, 黄酒), 1 cup water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon light soya sauce (生抽)

Please visit Glossary for explanations of Chinese spices or seasonings.

Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆

To make the Mapo Tofu 1. Cut tofu into medium cubes. In a sauce pot, heat up half a pot of water with 1 teaspoon of salt to boil. Plunge tofu cube into boiling water and drain the tofu as soon as water boils again. 2. Heat up the oil in a big pan or wok, stirfry the ginger, garlic, onion together, and then add the ground beef and spicy bean paste, saute until all well combine. Add the seasoning sauce and tofu cubes, cover the pan. After water boiled, turn heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes. 3. Dissolve corn starch with 1 teaspoon of water and add that to the pan to thicken the sauce. Sprinkle Sichuan pepper powder and serve hot.