I first made mapo doufu seven years ago, the first of my many adaptations from Peimei's Chinese Cook Book. Although I love the dish, Ariel did not, and stopped making it for years. Recently, I've reexamined the recipe and come to the conclusion that it needed an upgrade. My new version offers plenty of savory sauce, a well-balanced spice level, and delicious silken tofu, while not being overly oily. I'm pleased to say this one won her over. It helped to leave the mouth-numbing Sichuan pepper on the side and allow individuals to sprinkle it on their own portions. I enjoy it, but not everyone is a fan!
The tofu is the centerpiece of the dish. Peimei recommended deep frying the tofu before adding to the sauce. Not only do I find this completely unnecessary, I think it's wrong. No mapo doufu I've ever had involves that. In my old version, I stir fried it, but I don't do that now. The tofu can remain soft and simply warm up in the sauce. Since I'm not frying it, a firm tofu is also not needed. Instead, I recommend soft silken tofu. It will break up a bit, but that's fine. Silken tofu usually comes in a carton instead of a plastic tub and can typically be found at Asian markets.
Another major change here was increasing the amount of sauce. I like lots of sauce to serve over rice. To balance the spice level, I mix the Sichuan-style hot bean paste (doubanjiang) with Koon Chun bean sauce. This is not traditional, but keeps it balanced. If you like it spicier, feel free to shift the balance towards more doubanjiang. I used the chunky version of the Koon Chun sauce, rather than the ground one. The final major upgrade is the stock. I used my homemade pork stock, made by simmering two pork shoulder blades with ginger and scallion for a few hours. The stock is unsalted; using a salted stock could result in the sauce getting too salty.
