November 6, 2015 Dinner – Mapo Dofu

November 6, 2015 Dinner – Mapo Dofu 

Mohan Johal came for dinner.  I decided to make Mapo Dofu, a Szechuan stew made with tofu (Dofu), pork, eggplant, onion, wood ear, garlic, ginger, and chili.  I usually add mushrooms and tonight was no exception.

Last Tuesday I had gone to Talin for grouper and bought a nice Chinese eggplant, a plastic Tibet of tofu, and fresh ginger.  At 6:00 after an all day seminar, I came home and  covered the chard bed in the garden with plastic.  Then, I used the defrost setting on our new microwave to thaw two pork chops. 

I made 1½ cups of basmati rice with the addition of a little chicken stock and some dried lilly flowers.  

Suzette came home and fetched two of the Thai chilis we grew in our garden and deseeded them and then cleaned the kitchen.  When Mohan came he helped me chop chili and about three Tbsp. of garlic, while I sliced  the eggplant into 2 inch long and ½ inch wide  rectangles and diced the pork, an onion, about 2 Tbsp. of ginger and sliced 5 white mushrooms. I then got sliced wood ear and three dried Shitake mushrooms and soaked them in hot water for about 20 minutes to rehydrate.  I fetched my wok and heated it with about three Tbsp. of peanut oil and a couple of dashes of sesame oil.

I then Sautéed the meat, garlic, and ginger in the hot peanut oil to which I added a  tsp. of chili garlic paste until the meat began to change color and then I added the eggplant, chilis, and sliced mushrooms and sautéed and folded that mixture for about fifteen to twenty minutes until all the ingredients began to look cooked and had softened.

While the ingredients cooked I sliced the rehydrated Shitake mushrooms and cubed about 8 oz. of medium firm tofu.  I then added the tofu, wood ear, and sliced shitakes and the soaking liquid to the mixture in the wok plus a little extra water to bring the level of liquid in the wok up to about the top of the ingredients, so they could  stew, and covered the wok and let the ingredients stew for about another twenty minutes. 

While the ingredients stewed I made a thickening sauce with about 2Tbsp. of Chinese Rice Cooking  wine, 1 Tbsp. Soy sauce, 1 tsp. sesame oil, 2 Tbsp. of cornstarch, and about ½ cup water.  

    The line of the usual suspects found in the thickening sauce

While the ingredients stewed I went to the basement and found the bag of Szechuan peppercorns and deseeded about 1 Tbsp. of them.

Finally, after twenty minutes of stewing, Suzette stirred in the thickening sauce and after a minute or two of re-heating the mixture, we were ready to eat.

Suzette fetched pasta bowls and silverware, napkins and chop sticks and I went to the garage to fetch ginger beers.  We each served ourselves rice and Mapo Dofu and I garnished my dish with crushed Szechuan peppercorns.  We all enjoyed this simple, but delicious dish and Suzette and Mohan took seconds, so I considered the dish a success.

Bon Appetit