Trillium
rec.food.cooking
9/22/99

Ma Po Dofu (pock ma's tofu)

This is the bf's all time favorite dish, over any other.  The legend is that the wife of a famous chef (Chen Shen Fu) invented this dish. A while ago I promised to post it, and I'm finally coming through. I believe we have perfected the recipe, because this is better than any versions we've ever had. This dish is a blissful combination of textures and flavors.

Ma Po is a northern Chinese dish, which I bring up to emphasize the importance of using either a fermented broad bean chilli paste or a fermented yellow (soy) bean chilli paste.  You'll see many versions with fermented black beans (a more southern ingredient), but try to resist, you owe it to yourself to try it with broad bean paste at least once.   

Now that I've been dogmatic about the fermented bean paste, let me contradict myself by saying that it's better with the more southern style preserved mustard green (hum choy, if you want more info on this, look up a past thread in dejanews) at least here in the US.  The Sichuan version available in the cities we've lived in is either an insipid canned one, or an overly sweet, mushy on-site version.  If you are lucky enough to live somewhere with a decent version, then by all means use that, otherwise, search out the fresh, tangy southern hum choy, try to avoid the canned ones.  Fresh roasted Sichuan peppercorns are another imperative ingredient in this dish.  I would almost say don't bother making it if you don't have them.  Use fresh Chinese firm tofu, not a non-refrigerated variety.  The peas are optional, not necessary.  
We put them in to stretch the dish or when we feel like having them there or when we are making a vegetarian version for non-meat eating friends.  Lastly, we don't really like the hot chilli sesame oil combos that are out there (mainly marketed to round eyes), they don't have the right fragrance.  Use a roasted sesame oil and a homemade chilli oil if possible.


Ingredients:

marinade for the meat:
2 t thin soya
2 t thick soya
3 t Shaohsing wine (the unsalted kind!)
2 t sesame oil

1/2 lb fresh minced pork (or ground if you don't want to mince it)
4 oz preserved mustard greens (hum choy)
2 packages of firm tofu (the kind with two cakes in them) drained in a  colander under a weighted plate
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2 t potato flour, plus 2 T water
3 T broad bean chilli paste (or yellow bean chilli paste) or more to taste
1 t thin soya
1 c of water or meat stock
a bag of frozen peas (optional)
4 scallions, thinly sliced, white parts separate from green
sesame oil
chilli oil
about 1 t of fresh roasted Sichuan pepper, ground (can be crushed with cleaver  handle or mortar or in a grinder)
2 red chillies, thinly sliced on the diagonal
a handful or more of cilantro (coriander) leaves

peanut or corn oil

Put the minced pork aside in a bowl and add the marinade ingredients.  Let it sit covered at room temp while you prepare the rest of the stuff.

Cut the preserved vegetable into match sized pieces, cut the tofu into 1 inch cubes (after it has drained off a lot of water).

Mix the potato flour with the water.

Heat a pan or wok over high heat until there are faint wisps of smoke coming off it.  Put some oil in the pan quick! and swirl it around.  Throw in the garlic and flip it around, very quick and add the pork.  Flip it around until it's half cooked, then add the preserved vegetable, the white parts of the scallions, the bean paste and the soya.  Stir it around until it incorporated into the meat.  Pour in the water or stock and bring to a simmer, over med heat.  Add the tofu pieces.  Mix gently, and allow the sauce to be absorbed by the tofu about 5 minutes.  Add the peas if you're going to.  When the peas are barely warmed through, add the potato flour water mix (stir it well) and turn up the heat until it thickens.  Take off heat.  Drizzle with sesame and chilli oils, sprinkle with Sichuan pepper, sliced chillies, the green parts of the scallion and the cilantro.  Eat immediately with steamed rice.

regards,
trillium

=======
Trillium
rec.food.cooking
9/23/99

(Follow up)

>Ma Po is a northern Chinese dish, which I bring up to emphasize the 
>importance 

It's been pointed out to me that this statement is not true.  Sichuan is not strictly northern, especially if you mistakenly believe that the point of reference should be Bejiing <ah hem>. My Chinese food education has been from a strictly Cantonese or Fukien viewpoint, and I'm afraid I've accepted the bias that anything farther north than Hong Kong or Guan dong is northern. 
Someone from Bejiing on the other hand would view Sichuan as south west and find it strange to be considered northern.  I should have been more careful in my statement, perhaps changing it to Ma Po is a northwest Chinese dish if you are from Canton, western if you are from Shanghai and southwestern if you are from Bejiing.  I believe it technically falls under the "western" catagory. 

Regardless, please do not use fermented black beans in this without trying broad or yellow ones first.

regards,
trillium

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trillium
rec.food.cooking
3/22/00

Ma-Bo Tofu

Here's my favorite:

Ingredients:
  
 marinade for the meat:
 2 t thin soya
 2 t thick soya
 3 t Shaohsing wine (the unsalted kind!)
 2 t sesame oil
  
 1/2 lb fresh minced pork (or ground if you don't want to mince it) 
4 oz  preserved mustard greens (hum choy)
 2 packages of firm tofu (the kind with two cakes in them) drained in a colander under a weighted plate
 6 cloves of garlic, minced
 2 t potato flour, plus 2 T water
 3 T broad bean chilli paste (or yellow bean chilli paste) or more to taste 
1 t thin soya
 1 c of water or meat stock
 a bag of frozen peas (optional)
 4 scallions, thinly sliced, white parts separate from green
 sesame oil
 chilli oil
 about 1 t of fresh roasted Sichuan pepper, ground (can be crushed with 
cleaver handle or mortar or in a grinder)
 2 red chillies, thinly sliced on the diagonal
 a handful or more of cilantro (coriander) leaves
  
 peanut or corn oil
  
 Put the minced pork aside in a bowl and add the marinade ingredients.  Let it  sit covered at room temp while you prepare the rest of the stuff. 
  
 Cut the preserved vegetable into match sized pieces, cut the tofu into 1 inch  cubes (after it has drained off a lot of water).
  
 Mix the potato flour with the water.
  
 Heat a pan or wok over high heat until there are faint wisps of smoke coming off it.  Put some oil in the pan quick! and swirl it around.  Throw in the garlic and flip it around, very quick and add the pork.  Flip it around until it's half cooked, then add the preserved vegetable, the white parts of the scallions, the bean paste and the soya.  Stir it around until it incorporated into the meat.  Pour in the water or stock and bring to a simmer, over med heat.  Add the tofu pieces.  Mix gently, and allow the sauce to be absorbed by the tofu about 5 minutes.  Add the peas if you're going to.  When the peas are barely warmed through, add the potato flour water mix (stir it well) and turn up the heat until it thickens.  Take off heat.  Drizzle with sesame and chilli oils, sprinkle with Sichuan pepper, sliced chillies, the green parts of the scallion and the cilantro.  Eat immediately with steamed rice.

regards,
trillium
