Mabo Tofu

Categories: Chinese, Japanese, beef, entree, not tried, with rice

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups liquid dashi soup base (Mix 1 1/3 cups water with 1/2 tsp Hondashi powder.)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp miso paste
• 3 or 4 cloves garlic
• Ginger in equal amount to garlic
• 8 oz ground beef (we substitute a vegetarian meat product)
• 1 pkg tofu, (either Japanese silken or Chinese firm)
• 2 or 3 stalks green onion
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper
• 1 tbsp corn or potato starch mixed in small amount of water

Directions

1. Mince the garlic and ginger. Finely chop green onions. Dice your tofu.

2. Blanch diced tofu in boiling water for about a minute. Then drain. This will firm the tofu pieces so that they won’t break easily when you stir them in the sauce later. If you don’t mind your tofu a bit crumbly, you can skip this step.

3. Heat a sauce pan and stir fry the garlic and ginger in sesame oil for about a minute.

4. Add ground beef (or beef substitute) and stir fry till brown.

5. Add the dashi mix to your pan. Add miso and crushed pepper. To enhance the flavor, you can add a bit of cooking sake, soy sauce, and/or hot chili paste into the mix.

6. When the flavoring is done, add your diced tofu gently and toss in the green onions. To stir, shake the pan so as not to break the tofu.

7. Finally, slowly add the starch dissolved in water until you achieve the desired consistency (should be thick and saucy).

8. You can serve mabo tofu with steamed rice like this. Add red chilli paste for extra spice.

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