This budget-friendly Chinese-inspired dish oozes with flavour and shows off just how silky tofu can be.
INGREDIENTS
120g Vegie Delights Mince
1 block Bean Supreme Tofu (chopped into 1 cm pieces)
1 tsp soy sauce
½ tsp ginger (minced)
½ tsp garlic (minced)
1 tsp oil
2 tsp Sichuan pepper corns
4 tsp spicy fermented bean paste (Doubanjiang)
½ tsp Chinese 5-Spice
1 cup vegetable stock
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp chilli oil
½ cup spring onions (chopped)
Crispy shallots
Cornstarch
Cooked rice to serve.
METHOD
Marinate the tofu
In a bowl, add the Bean Supreme tofu and the marinade ingredients.
Mix well and set aside.
Mapo Tofu
Heat the oil in a medium pan. Fry the Sichuan pepper corns. Once they are just golden, take them out and dry them on a paper towel. Then blitz them up in adry blender or a mortar and pestle. Set aside.
Heat oil in a hot pan. Fry the bean paste and the Vegie Delights mince for a minute.
Add half a cup of spring onions and toss for 30 seconds.
Add the marinated tofu to the pan gently. Do not break it up. Add chilli oil, 5 spice powder and sugar. Add the vegetable stock and bring to a boil.
Then simmer immediately for between 10-12 minutes. Mix 1 tsp of corn starch in ½ cup of water. Add a little ofit to the sauce and mix until it thickens. Check that it is a silken thick sauce. Add more corn starch of necessary. Once ready, remove from the heat.
Transfer the MapoTofu into a bowl. Garnish the Mapo Tofu with the Sichuan pepper corns, crispy shallots and spring onions. Serve with rice.
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In Dream Escape, we journey from Japan and Morocco to Italy, India and beyond, sharing recipes inspired by travel, heritage and comfort. We celebrate the champions of the Outstanding Food Producer Awards, explore the stories and recipes of chefs shaped by their cultural roots, and warm up with everything from West African soups and slow-braised lamb to porchetta, butter chicken and beef noodle soup. Alongside destination menus, Scandinavian sweets and cosy pub classics, Chrisanne Terblanche shares her favourite street-side dining spots in Bangkok, while Yvonne Lorkin explores red wine varietals. This issue, we invite you to slow down, turn the pages and escape through food.