5 hours ago, glenn said:
Woks of life called for the thai chillies for the Mapo Tofu recipe.
I was looking for a tofu recipe with a little kick. I've only made home-style tofu. I found it to be rather bland.
I found this on Amazon. It seems to be similar to the Pixian Doubanjiang recommended. Do you guys think this would be a good substitute in the woks of life recipe for Mapo Tofu? Or, is there another tofu recipe recommended that is not so bland?
I too find the Woks of Life very hit and miss. I have never even seen Thai chillies here in Sichuan. That is a huge miss. For astart Mapo Tofu traditionally uses beef and not pork as they claim. And the chilis are all wrong.
The brand of doubanjiang you found is fine. Pixian Doubanjiang has Protected Geographical Index rating in China and they do enforce it strictly.
Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe is as good as it gets and very much identical to anything I've eaten in Sichuan. If it is still too bland for you add more of the ground chili.
Below, for entertainment value only, is a photo of the mapo tofu recipe in one of my Chinese language cookbooks entitled, Everyday Family Sichuan Cooking. Not a Thai chili in sight.
Don't worry about the colors shown in the finished dish - the photographs in that book are alll washed out! It's redder than it looks.
