Mabo Tofu

I fixed this for the first last Sunday when eM, Luz and Yoichi came for dinner after our morning meditation and  yoga. I went to Asia Mart this evening after the gym to pick up the ingredients to cook it again for these photos.

This is cheating on a grand scale but the resulting viand is grander still, worth using a store-bought sauce! "Chinese Mabo Tofu Sauce" is distributed by House Foods Corporation of Tokyo, Japan. The ingredients list contains about thirty items including soybean paste, palm oil, corn starch, ginger, garlic, "fermented seasoning," red and black pepper, sugar, sesame oil, leek, soy sauce and salt.
For tonight's dish, having had last Sunday's taste experience, I decided to "doctor" the recipe with quite stunning results!

First I heated 1 1/2 TB canola oil in a wok until very hot. I fried finely chopped garlic, ginger and crushed Chinese red pepper until garlic is golden. I added half a pound of ground pork and simmered until no longer pink.

Then I poured in the store-bought sauce and cooked for two minutes before gently folding in 14-oz or one package of silken (firm is not as good) tofu cut into 1-inch cubes, along with 3 scallions cut into short pieces. I cooked this until the tofu is just heated through then poured into a bowl.

This would taste great with Japanese white rice but I used Japanese medium-grain brown rice which was chewy and nutty, making for an awesome supper tonight.

I checked out several recipes on the Internet. Not one included the ingredients I would use if I made the sauce from scratch. I would use fermented black beans, Sichuan hot chilli paste, red soy bean sauce (optional), and maybe saki, rice wine or sherry. Chinese oyster sauce might help, too, but I would try to cut back on the oil since ground pork exudes oil when cooked and not add any salt. And, no MSG!