Mapo doufu Wikipedia. Mapo doufu or Mapo tofu is a popular Chinese dish from Sichuan province. It consists of tofu set in a spicy sauce, typically a thin, oily, and bright red suspension, based on douban fermented broadbean and chili paste and douchi fermented black beans, along with minced meat, usually pork or beef. Ma Po Tofu' title='Ma Po Tofu' />Okay, so I know weve already posted an approximation of a Ma Po Tofulike recipe this Spicy Garlic Tofu from way back when, which is also delectable, but the. Mapo Tofu can be found in almost any Chinese restaurant around the world with hundreds of variations adapting the piquant original to suit local tastes. Ive tried another mapo tofu recipe that was not very successful. Szechuan MaPo Tofu Amandas Ninja Kitchen says May 8, 2015 at 551 pm. Ma Po Tofu' title='Ma Po Tofu' />This recipe for ma po tofu, a Chinese stirfry, is simple to make and good for you, too. Add a side of chilled melon and a cold glass of dry riesling. Variations exist with other ingredients such as water chestnuts, onions, other vegetables, or wood ear fungus. EtymologyeditMa stands for ma zi Chinese mzi, which means pockmarks. Po is the first syllable of popo Chinese, ppo which means an old woman or grandma. Hence, mapo is an old woman whose face is pockmarked. It is thus sometimes translated as pockmarked grandmas beancurd. According to Mrs. Chiangs Szechwan Cookbook Eugene Wu, the Librarian of the Harvard Yenching Library, grew up in Chengdu and claims that as a schoolboy he used to eat Pock Marked Mas Bean Curd or mapo doufu, at a restaurant run by the original Pock Marked Ma herself. One ordered by weight, specifying how many grams of bean curd and meat, and the serving would be weighed out and cooked as the diner watched. It arrived at the table fresh, fragrant, and so spicy hot, or la, that it actually caused sweat to break out. CharacteristicseditAuthentic Mapo doufu is powerfully spicy with both conventional heat spiciness and the characteristic mala numbing spiciness flavor of Sichuan cuisine. The feel of the particular dish is often described by cooks using seven specific Chinese adjectives numbing, spicy hot, hot temperature, fresh, tender and soft, aromatic, and flaky. A famous Szechuan recipe the name Ma Po Tofu is roughly translated as pockmarked grandmother beancurd, named for the old woman who supposedly invented the dish. The authentic form of the dish is increasingly easy to find outside China today, but usually only in Sichuanese restaurants that do not adapt the dish for non Sichuanese tastes. The most important and necessary ingredients in the dish that give it the distinctive flavour are chili broad bean paste salty bean paste from Sichuans Pixian county, fermented black beans, chili oil, chili flakes of the heaven facing pepper, Sichuan peppercorns, garlic, green onions, and rice wine. Supplementary ingredients include water or stock, sugar depending on the saltiness of the bean paste brand used, and starch if it is desired to thicken the sauce. VariationseditMapo Doufu can also be found in restaurants in other Chinese provinces as well as in Japan and Korea where the flavor is adapted to local tastes. In the west, the dish is often greatly changed, with its spiciness severely toned down to widen its appeal. This happens particularly in Chinese restaurants not specialising in Sichuan cuisine. Frozen Dumplings on this page. In American Chinese cuisine the dish is often made without meat to appeal to vegetarians, with very little spice, a thick sweet and sour sauce, and added vegetables, a stark contrast from the original dish. This vegetarian version is sometimes referred to as Ma. La Tofu. citation neededSee alsoeditReferenceseditSchrecker, Ellen with Shrecker, John. Mrs. Chiangs Szechwan Cookbook. New York, Harper Row, 1. Mapo Tofu. Baidu in Chinese. Retrieved 2. 7 April 2. Mapo tofu practice. Meishi China in Chinese. Retrieved 2. 7 April 2.