I grew up in China and love eating Mapo Tofu. This dish carries a lot of nostalgia for me and I have cooked it A LOT of times. This is the best version! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 400 g medium firm tofu

Meat Marinade:

• 100g minced pork
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

Braising:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• 1 tbsp or to taste of spicy douban sauce or chili bean paste or 辣豆瓣醬
• 1 tsp of Chinese Chili oil or to taste
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 tsp five-spice powder
• 1 tsp of sugar
• Cornstarch slurry (1 tsp of cornstarch and 2 tsp of water)
• 1/2 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorn
• 1 stalk of scallion (chopped into small pieces)

Instructions: 

1. Marinate minced pork with light soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine.
2. Cut tofu into bite size cubes.
3. In oiled wok, add minced ginger, minced garlic and marinated pork. Fry until meat turns brown
4. Add chicken stock, spicy douban sauce, chili oil, five-spice powder, sugar. Mix together.
5. Pro-tip: Best to use medium firm tofu if you are learning to cook this dish. Soft tofu is too easy to break apart. Add tofu carefully.
6. Pro-tip: cook tofu over low heat for 5 min so the it can absorb the flavor of the seasoning. Add cornstarch slurry over medium heat. Combine.
7. Secret ingredient, add ground Sichuan peppercorn for that numbing flavor.
8. Garnish with scallions.