Finished dish photo of Captain Bell's Food Journal - Chinese Master Chef - Dream Mapo Tofu

Captain Bell's Food Journal - Chinese Master Chef - Dream Mapo Tofu

Ingredients

Tofu1 piece
Garlic shootsto taste
Sweet bean sauceto taste
Fermented bean pasteto taste
Fermented black beansto taste
Sichuan peppercornsto taste
Saltto taste
Soybeansto taste
Garlicto taste
Chili peppersto taste

Steps

1

Ingredients: 1 piece of tofu, garlic shoots, sweet bean sauce, fermented bean paste, fermented black beans, Sichuan peppercorns, salt, soybeans, garlic, chili peppers,

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2

Soak the soybeans until swollen, then crush them and cook with stock and soy sauce

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3

Cut the tofu into cubes

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4

Cut the garlic shoots into small segments

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5

Chili peppers

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6

Mince the garlic

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7

Heat oil in a pan, then fry the cooked crushed soybeans (we seem to be stir-frying)

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8

Then add garlic, chili peppers, followed by fermented bean paste, sweet bean sauce, fermented black beans, etc., and stir-fry until fragrant. Then add stock and tofu, and simmer for 10 minutes

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9

Finally, add the minced garlic shoots, stir-fry a few times to release the fragrance

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10

Now, we can thicken the sauce, sprinkle with Sichuan peppercorn powder, and serve

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Cooking Tips

I have to say this is a great recipe, if rated out of five, I would give it 5. Captain Bell's Food Journal - Chinese Master Chef - Dream Mapo Tofu Usually, the Mapo Tofu we eat at home doesn't have so many ingredients. At most, we use some fermented bean paste and garlic shoots. When we followed the method step by step as shown in the animation, the aroma of this Mapo Tofu was almost as good as any popular stir-fry restaurant. Captain Bell's Food Journal - Chinese Master Chef - Dream Mapo Tofu I'm not joking, the aroma was so strong. I can describe it specifically. When we finished making it and took this plate of Mapo Tofu downstairs for our colleagues to try, a girl in the elevator asked us. "Are you taking this to someone else?" the girl said. I thought about it, well, giving it to colleagues counts as someone else, so I nodded and said 'yeah'. The girl saw my response and continued, "Do you live in this building?" After thinking, I still said 'yeah'. After all, our studio is indeed in this residential building. The girl was quite happy and then asked, "Are you selling this on a platform? How much per serving?" I was amused. I thought the girl might have found the Mapo Tofu very fragrant and wanted to compliment us, but she thought we were from some delivery platform like Meituan or Ele.me. This just proves something, right? I think everyone understands. This recipe is indeed very fragrant and delicious, except for the soybean mince. Captain Bell's Food Journal - Chinese Master Chef - Dream Mapo Tofu Maybe we didn't make it correctly, but we didn't get the meaty texture as described in the animation. Nor did we get the 'crispy' texture mentioned. Not to mention the joy of crushing those soybeans and them flying everywhere, or our drooling faces when we finished. A little secret: We added a bit of minced meat to make it tastier.