The secret to this is Korean hot chicken sauce!
One of the classic dishes in Chinese cuisine, Mapo Tofu can be easily whipped up in 30 minutes, if you've got all your sauces on standby. Traditionally, Mapo Tofu is made using chilli bean paste aka dou ban jiang and those numbing Szechuan peppers. However, I'm not really a fan of the latter and hence in my version here, I am introducing a twist to this dish by using Samyang's hot chicken sauce instead.
If you're familiar with the instant noodles, these hot chicken noodles are quite numbing too but they are sooo delicious to eat. Well they also have the sauce in bottles, so these make for a really convenient seasoning whenever I need to make Mapo Tofu.
This has become a favourite for me on busy weeknights since prepping of ingredients is almost minimal and it goes really well with rice. I always have mine with Japanese white rice and it's extra delicious!
Ingredients:
(serves 2-3)
250g pork
1 tub of silken tofu, cut into cubes in the box
2 tbsp chilli bean paste (dou ban jiang)
2 tbsp huadiao wine
2 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp Samyang hot chicken sauce
Dash of sugar
Ra-yu (chilli oil) (optional)
2 cm of ginger, thinly sliced
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 spring onions, whites chopped into pieces
2 tbsp water
Cornstarch slurry
Directions:
In a pan with 1.5 tbsp oil, stirfry the chopped ginger, garlic and spring onion whites.
Add the chilli bean paste, then the minced pork.
Stir your pork briskly around to cook.
Add the huadiao wine to deglaze the pan and continue to let it sizzle.
Add the hot chicken sauce, a dash of sugar, oyster sauce and some water.
Pour your cut tofu into the pan and stir around to break the tofu pieces.
When it comes to a simmer, add a few drops of chilli oil and cornstarch slurry to thicken the gravy.
Serve with rice
