Upgrade: Mapo Doufu (麻婆豆腐)

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.

Thai Yellow Curry with Pork

Today's post is my first foray into Thai food on No Free Lunch. It's definitely not an area of expertise for me, and I've mostly enjoyed it through restaurants. Ariel is a big fan, so we frequented the excellent Siam House back in Bloomington. These days, we no longer have such easy access. I have attempted pad thai a few times, based on Leela Punyaratabandhu's fascinating, five-part manifesto on the subject. Curry is a core part of the Thai repertoire, and probably the most accessible for home cooks, and that's where I'm starting here. Yellow curry is generally the mildest of the Thai curries, although it's still quite spicy by American standards. I definitely leaned on my Chinese cooking experience making this dish. While Thai cuisine, like many in the region, is influenced by China, it's very much its own thing. Don't take me as an authority on authenticity here (or anywhere, really). I do think I know what tastes good, though, and this dish fits the bill. 

The flavor base of Thai curry comes from curry paste. Most Asian stores have a selection of packaged curry pastes. Commercial curry pastes are very spicy, and even yellow curry paste really wakes up the senses. While making it at home could potentially yield better results, curry paste contains some hard-to-find ingredients. As such, I'm using this one from Mae Ploy. I only used a small amount of what was in this tub. Most curry pastes have a basic recipe on the package, which I used to get some sense of proportions, but ended up putting in a lot more meat and vegetables for the recommended amount of sauce. This yields a much less saucy result than I have typically seen in Thai restaurants. That's fine with me, as I think those usually have way more sauce than needed, but if I did it again I would increase the sauce ratio a bit. I was constrained by only having one can of coconut milk on hand. Increasing the curry paste, coconut milk, and water by anywhere from 50% to double would work.

The recipe is pretty loose here, and having limited experience cooking Thai, I'm not going for high authenticity, just what I enjoy. The pork is based on my recent beef chow fun recipe, but I pushed it in a Thai direction with fish sauce and coconut sugar. I have found coconut sugar in both Asian stores and the supermarket. The pork turned out just as tender as the beef did. The rest of the ingredients can be whatever is on hand. Potatoes and bell peppers are some other good options. I would recommend resisting the temptation to throw everything you have into the curry. I think one meat, onion, and then up to three other items (I used carrots, bamboo shoots, and tofu) is a good rule of thumb. As with fried rice, I like the individual ingredients to still stand out. 

Char Siu Reloaded

Char siu (叉燒) is easily one of my "signature" recipes, and was one of my early posts. My original post was based on grandpa's recipe. He was vague, as usual. He took out two jars (bean sauce and fermented tofu) and said to use half and half of each. As an afterthought, he mentioned I could throw in some five spice, but that was optional. In the early days of No Free Lunch, most of my recipes were a recounting of the first time I had made things. Naturally, the recipe has evolved over the last few years, as I've made it countless times.

In the time since the original post, I've seen a lot of char siu recipes, including those in Henry Chan's Classic Deem Sum and the venerable Peimei's Chinese Cook Book. Most of these recipes involve some combination of hoisin sauce, soy sauce, some other flavoring and coloring agents. What they typically don't include are grandpa's main ingredients. While I'm sure these recipes are fine, the combination of fermented tofu and bean sauce gives the meat a deep flavor unlike anything else. It's definitely worth seeking out these unusual ingredients.

This is, ultimately, a simple recipe, and lives and dies by the ingredients. Although you can use almost any cut of pork, I usually shoulder, which has a good mix of muscle and fat. I generally buy a whole shoulder roast and cut up about half for char siu, leaving the rest to become potsticker filling. Some grocery stores also sell "country ribs," which are pre-sliced shoulder or loin pieces that can go straight into the marinade. I don't recommend using pork steaks, as I did in my original recipe, as this tend to be a bit too thin.

Koon Chun bean sauce is a fermented soy bean product from Hong Kong. I've used it in quite a few recipes, so it's an indispensable ingredient in my kitchen. I usually use the chunky version, but the ground one works fine if you have that. Possessing a potent funk, fermented bean curd (a.k.a. fermented tofu) is the real exotic ingredient here. When buying, be aware that there are three kinds: white, red, and spicy. We want the red, non-spicy kind. The most commonly available brand, at least around here, is Wangzhihe. Both of these can be hard to find, and you need to go to a Chinese store. Both are also available on Amazon. 

The last thing to mention is the whiskey. You can substitute, within reason, whatever booze you have. That being said, I always use Jameson's Irish Whiskey. It just happened to be what I had the first time I made char siu, and it just stuck as a tradition. Let's call it my secret ingredient.

The recipe is also now in a more convenient per-pound formulation that can easily be scaled up. 

Ingredients

• Pork shoulder, cut into strips (can substitute other cuts)

Marinade, per pound of meat

• 2 Tbs Koon Chun bean sauce or ground bean sauce
• 2 Tbs red fermented bean curd, mix of liquid and tofu
• 1 Tbs honey
• 1 Tbs whiskey
• 1/4 tsp five spice powder

Instructions

Cut the meat into thick strips. It is important to keep some fat, but you can trim off large chunks on the sides. 

In a large bowl, prepare the marinade. Combine the bean sauce, fermented bean curd, honey, whiskey, and five spice. Mash the tofu and mix everything into a paste. Add the pork, and toss until the meat is well-coated. Cover with plastic wrap and move to the refrigerator. Marinate for at least 5 hours, or overnight.

Bean sauce (left) and fermented bean curd (right)

If using a grill, cook on relatively high flame with the hood open. Turn occasionally, until well browned on all sides. Alternatively, you can broil the pork, turning once. 

Let cool a few minutes before slicing into thin pieces. Char siu keeps well if frozen, and can be defrosted in the microwave. It is excellent on its own, or as part of another dish, like Yangzhou fried rice or a noodle soup.

Five Stir Frying Tips and Sauce

Today, I want to talk about stir frying with a wok. I use this method a lot. It's usually not too difficult to put together a nice, quick dish from what I have sitting in the refrigerator. With a reliable sauce (recipe at the end of this post) to tie the dish together, it's a sure winner. Pictured below is a delicious dish of tofu, shiitake mushrooms, onion, napa cabbage, and green onion.

Here are my five best tips for using woks and stir frying a great dish. The sauce recipe is at the end.

Use a well-seasoned carbon steel wok. Woks are different from standard frying pans in two main ways. First, they are thinner. This means they heat up and cool off quicker, enabling the cook to control the heat on the fly. Second, a wok is deep. When stir frying, this means you can move things around in the pan without them flying out. This also makes woks versatile tools for other cooking methods, something that is often overlooked. The depth makes them ideal for deep frying or boiling. When I make chao mian, I usually boil the noodles right in the wok, dump the water, and then get on with the rest of the ingredients.

Seasoning the wok is important to reduce sticking. Every time you finish cooking, clean out any stuck debris immediately (I find that a Scrub Daddy is ideal for this task). Soak a paper towel with a little vegetable oil and rub it all over the wok.

Cook on high heat with plenty of oil. High heat is essential to achieving the unique flavor of stir frying. A gas flame is definitely preferable, and when weather permits, I often use the side burner on the grill. If you have to use an electric burner, which I often do, it can be difficult to maintain contact between the burner and the grill. A wok ring can help with this. 

Such high heat, even if the pan is well seasoned, can result in sticking. Add plenty of oil before adding the food, and swirl it around to coat. Don't be afraid to add more as needed. Sticking and burning is also mitigated by frequent tossing and stirring.

Cook ingredients separately, and then combine at the end. This is basically a corollary of the previous point. Proper stir frying is all about maintaining pan contact and dry heat on the food. Avoid the temptation to dump all your ingredients in at once. It's best if all the ingredients are able to brown properly rather than being cooked without contact. Adding a lot of water-retaining vegetables can result in a wet pan and prevent browning. I cook each vegetable (or sometimes two at a time) and then set them aside in the serving bowl. Once everything has been cooked, I combine them all back in the wok and then add sauce (see below).

Cut down on moisture as much as possible. Another good way to prevent water in the pan is to get rid of it ahead of time. Two of my favorite ingredients are tofu and cabbage. To dry out your tofu, lay out the tofu block on a cutting board, and place a paper towel on top. Put a plate or another small board on top of this, and then put something fairly heavy on top. Let this sit for a few minutes, and then flip it over and repeat. You don't want something so heavy that the tofu starts to fall apart, but you do want to see some compression. I used the stovetop espresso maker for two blocks of tofu today. After this, you can cut the tofu into blocks.

For cabbage, either regular green cabbage or napa, cut the cabbage into small pieces. In a bowl, combine the cabbage with plenty of salt and toss to coat. Let stand for about 20 minutes. Take handfuls of cabbage in a towel and wring out as much water as possible. The result is nice, crunchy cabbage that won't give off water in the pan.

Add sauce at the end. A good sauce will bring your whole dish together. Adding sauce is generally the last thing I do, other than throwing in some green onion. Again, this is because we need to keep things dry for browning. The recipe here is my standard sauce for stir frying. This sauce works well for a dish to be served with rice, or with stir fried noodles.

Stir Fry Sauce

• 1 Tbs cornstarch
• 1 Tbs bean sauce
• 1 tsp Chinese hot mustard
• 2 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 Tbs sherry or rice wine
• 1/2 cup chicken stock

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until cornstarch is dissolved. For a Sichuan-style sauce, replace the bean sauce with hot bean paste. This recipe makes just short of a cup of sauce.

Mapo Doufu (麻婆豆腐)

My first offering from Pei-Mei's cookbook is Mapo doufu (tofu), one of the most iconic dishes of Sichuan province in western China. It is also one of the more popular Chinese dishes in general, and I ate it with some frequency in Shanghai. My grandparents also made a less spicy version of the dish quite often. The dish is, essentially, tofu and ground meat with a spicy sauce. The word mapo refers to a pockmarked old woman who, according to folklore, invented the dish. I enjoyed making (and eating) this dish, and it reminds me that I really should feature tofu more often on this blog.

As with some of my previous Chinese recipes, it is necessary to discuss some of the more exotic ingredients used. This dish uses two. The first is "hot bean paste," a Sichuan specialty that combines fermented beans and various spices. In Chinese, it is called la dou ban jiang (辣豆瓣酱). The best way to make sure you have the right Chinese product is to compare the actual Chinese words on the can or jar with what you're looking for (incidentally, I also recently used this technique to order dimsum). The second ingredient is Sichuan pepper, sometimes called brown pepper. This spice gives the dish a distinct aroma. I was able to find both of these at the local Chinese grocery.

Hot bean paste and Sichuan pepper powder

Ingredients

• 2 packages extra-firm tofu, 400 grams (14 oz) each
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbs Hot bean paste
• 2 Tbs soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 2 tsp water
• 1 tsp Sichuan pepper powder
• 1 Tbs green onion, chopped
• Vegetable oil for frying

Instructions

Tofu is packaged with water, and the more you can get out of it before cutting, the better. Slice the tofu into small cubes, about 3/4 inch a side. I cut each big slab into 8 long rods and then each of these into 6 pieces, for a total of 48 cubes. Heat some oil in a wok on high heat, enough to coat the surface. Add the tofu and stir fry for a few minutes. Remove the tofu and set aside.

Full tofu slab and cut-up cubes

Adding more oil as needed, fry the pork. As the pork begins to brown, add the minced garlic. Once the pork is browned, add the hot bean paste, soy sauce, sesame oil, chicken broth, and the previously cooked tofu. Boil the whole mixture for three minutes, which will reduce the liquid.

Mix the corn starch and water into a paste, and stir this into the mixture. Stir in the Sichuan pepper powder, and transfer everything into a serving dish. Finally, sprinkle the green onion on top. Serve with white rice.

Notes

I made a few changes from Pei-Mei's original recipe. She recommends deep frying the tofu rather than stir frying at the beginning. I did not think it necessary to use so much oil, and I also don't think this changed compromised the dish in any way, since the sauce is so strongly flavored anyway. The original recipe also includes 2 tsp salt. I did follow this, and the dish was too salty. As such, I don't recommend this, and have omitted it from the ingredients list. If in doubt, taste at the end and then make the decision. Finally, I doubled the amount of pork, and since this was intended as a main dish, I liked the proportion.

My version of mapo doufu ended up being a little spicy, but not overwhelming at all. The brand of hot bean paste you happen to get will be the determining factor, but you can also crank up the heat by adding chili oil, as recommended by Pei-Mei.