Today, my dad’s teaching me how to make Mapo Tofu
You can't cut it like that.
Do you think you're me?
Then, my whole family’s gonna grade my cooking.
Why?
I wanna challenge myself to become a better cook,
because I grew up spoiled by my dad’s cooking
and I wanna be able to do the same for my kids.
Okay, everyone write down your grade.
3... 2... 1!
I've made this only a couple of times.
Let's see how it goes.
To start, we’ll dice up a piece of green onion.
Cut it in half,
and mince into small pieces.
Line them up to cut.
Mince.
Do I split it?
No, just chop it.
Okay, yeah.
Is this for after the dish is cooked?
Yes, for garnish.
And this is how the master does it.
Shallots.
We grew these!
Smash it?
No, just cut it.
Next, we’ll dice up the shallots.
Do one at a time.
You can't cut it like that.
Do you think you're me?
Oh my gosh.
Okay, that's good.
I'm using 2 dried chili peppers.
If you want to make it spicier, you could use 3.
We don't want the stem.
Cut it into 5-6 times.
You don't need to pull it back so much, just chop down.
What my dad is saying here
is that when you’re using a cleaver like this one,
don’t push and pull like I’m doing
when you’re dicing or chopping vegetables.
You want a strong straight up and down motion
like this to chop it.
This is more a Cantonese style of Mapo Tofu.
Typically, there's a lot more spiciness and numbing.
Our family doesn't like spice too much.
so we're going to do a mild style.
You always need garlic.
2-3 cloves of garlic.
We’ll smash and peel 2 cloves of garlic.
You grew these?
Yeah.
How long do they take?
It's been a long time now.
One hour later...
Mince them.
Then we’ll mince the garlic.
Meanwhile...
Oh my god.
You're so much faster!
Pepper.
This is sweet pepper.
This is optional.
Next, we’ll cut the mini sweet pepper
in half length-wise
and remove the seeds.
Cut it across.
Like this?
No, across.
Smaller.
We’ll first cut into strips.
Okay, and then into small pieces.
Yeah, that's right.
Okay.
Two hours later...
You can cut them all together.
You don't have to line them perfectly.
Just make the cuts.
They don't have to line up exactly.
Then rotate to dice.
Notice how many dad curls his fingers
when he chops the peppers,
while mine are dangerously straight.
Do not do what I’m doing!
Now, we’re done with the aromatics.
We have all of these ingredients listed on our blog at madewithlau.com
along with step-by-step instructions and video clips
to guide you as you make the recipe at home.
Now, let’s move on to the main ingredient:
the tofu.
Cut around the 4 sides,
then pour out the water.
What kind of tofu is this?
I usually use this soft tofu.
If you like to eat firmer tofu, then use firmer tofu.
Or, there are even softer ones than this.
If you want it really firm,
get the one called "firm tofu".
Rinse it with some water.
Why do we rinse it?
In case of things like preservatives.
Just a quick rinse.
Teresa from Patreon asked,
"Does the tofu need to be pressed?"
You could press firm tofu, if you like.
What does that do?
Why?
It pressed out the water inside.
Firm tofu contains a lot of water.
You don't have to press it.
If you're going to fry it, you'll definitely want to press it.
But you can't press soft tofu.
After we rinse the tofu with water,
we’ll turn our knife horizontally and cut it in half.
Hand over there.
Here?
You have to put pressure there,
or it won't be stable.
Too much-- too little.
Like this?
Yeah.
Push it through.
Keep the knife level.
Okay.
Okay, and take it back out.
Not through?
Okay.
Then we’ll cut into 4 sections both ways.
Split into 4.
Cut down the middle,
straight down.
A cut here.
A cut there.
Split this into 4 by cutting down the middle.
Exactly perfect.
Same on this side.
Good!
One horizontal cut through the tofu.
Down the middle here as well.
This in half.
Halve it here too.
Into halves again here.
Put it on a dish.
Oh, no!
Keep your knife level.
Scoop from the bottom, okay.
Put your hand on this side.
Yes, that's it.
Put it in the dish.
Okay.
That's it.
All right, we can put away the cutting board.
I really hope to impress my family with my cooking
and master Mapo Tofu specifically, for two reasons.
One, I ate this all the time growing up,
I’d love to feed my kids this.
And two, Mapo Tofu was actually the very first recipe
we ever published on our channel.
That was less than two years ago,
and it’s pretty crazy to think about
how far we’ve come since then.
With the tofu cut,
we’ll set up our stove and wok to start cooking.
Now we are going to cook
the Mapo Tofu!
High heat?
Yes, high heat to get the wok hot before we add oil.
It's this color now.
When it gets hot,
the middle of the wok
will turn almost like a white color.
Add oil then, and your food won't stick to the wok.
What grade would you give me for my chopping?
For chopping?
It was okay.
Let's go with 80.
Since you cut it like this,
you cut it nicely.
That's not too bad.
After heating the wok on high for about a minute and a half,
we’ll add oil.
Do you see it starting to smoke?
Just pour it in the middle.
Lower the heat.
Add 2 tbsp of oil.
A bit more.
More... okay, good!
Spread the oil up.
Pull it up.
Not with such big motions.
Spread it there too, all around.
Scoop the oil up against the wok,
don't pick it way up.
Notice how my dad spreads the oil
evenly in the wok,
both left and right, forward and back.
My first time spreading the oil.
Okay.
Okay, lower the heat.
I haven't finished spreading it.
It's enough, it's good!
After 30-40 seconds of heating the oil,
we’ll add the garlic, shallots, and dried chilis.
Add the garlic.
Lower.
Put it all in.
All of it.
Just fry the aromatics.
Okay.
That's good.
After the aromatics are fragrant,
or 15-20 seconds later,
we’ll add 3 oz of minced pork.
Toss it in.
Break it up.
Separate and loosen it up.
Like this?
Flip it.
Note how my dad constantly
moves the pork around
and breaks it up into smaller pieces,
which is better for this dish.
"What is the best substitute for pork?"
Original mapo tofu is made with pork,
but you can use chicken or whatever meat you like.
Or shrimp.
There are beef and tofu dishes,
but that's not great for this.
The taste comes from the sauce but you can adjust the ingredients.
Different meats taste different.
Any change to the preparation stage?
It's the same, stir-fry the ingredients
add water, add seasonings, add tofu, cover it up.
How would you make this completely vegetarian?
Just don't add the pork!
Don't add meat.
Add things like mushrooms.
Add vegetarian ingredients.
You'll have to add mushrooms for the best flavor.
After stir-frying the pork for about a minute,
we’ll add an essential sauce for flavor.
Okay.
Enough.
Add all of it in.
1 tbsp of ground bean sauce.
Add a little more.
Okay, mix it in.
Mapo Tofu has a somewhat unfortunate origin story.
Also known as maa po dau fu in Cantonese,
It originated from the Sichuan province of China
just 150 years ago.
The dish is named after the woman who created it,
with the word maa, meaning pockmarked,
a reference to the smallpox scars that covered her face.
Po means wife or old woman,
and the family restaurant was eventually named after her
and still exists today.
There are a few differences between my dad's recipe
and the more traditional Sichuan version
which features chili bean sauce, or laat dau baan zoeng,
which is often called “the soul of Sichuan cuisine”,
and includes fermented beans and chili peppers.
It also often includes the signature Sichuan peppercorns
which create a spicy numbing sensation in your mouth.
My dad’s mapo tofu is more of a Cantonese homestyle version
and instead uses ground bean sauce, or min si zoeng,
another fermented bean sauce,
which serves the same purpose as chili bean sauce
but is not spicy.
Instead, we’re adding dried chilis
and some chili sauce
to add just a bit of spiciness to our liking.
After adding the bean sauce, we’ll add water.
We're going to add water now.
Just pour it in.
Hold it a bit higher.
Okay, good!
Okay, now we're adding salt and seasonings.
Turn it down to the lowest heat.
Let's add it.
We’ll let the sauce simmer on low
as we add the seasoning.
1 tbsp of oyster sauce.
1 tbsp of light soy sauce.
1 tbsp of dark soy sauce.
1 tsp of sugar.
1/2 tsp of salt.
And chili sauce?
Add it according to how much spice you want to eat.
Scant 1/2 tsp.
We’ll add about a 1/2 tsp of chili sauce here,
but you can adjust according to your taste.
We’re using Guilin Style chili sauce here.
Some people asked,
"How do you get a really bright red color?"
You can use sauces to make it look red
but it won't naturally turn out bright red.
I had a classmate in nursing school
and her parents were from Sichuan.
All the dishes on her table were all red.
She told me the color was from chili sauce.
Now, we can add the tofu.
All right.
Add the tofu in.
Already?
Slowly, gently put it in.
Use the spatula to ease it in.
Lower it, place it gently.
Yeah.
Gently separate them
without breaking the pieces.
I don't want to break it.
Will I get points off if I break the tofu?
Of course you'll get points off if you break the tofu.
I'm breaking them already!
Gently, scoop the bottom.
"How do you prevent breaking the tofu?"
Scoop up from the bottom of the wok.
If you smash the spatula through the middle,
the tofu will break.
And be gentle, not forceful.
If you want it to have more sauce,
then you can add more water.
If you don't want as much sauce, add less water.
Okay?
Cover it with the lid.
After adding the tofu
and mixing it into the sauce,
we’ll cover the wok.
I also wanted to make a special shoutout to thank all of our
wonderful Patreon supporters for helping bring this video to life.
If you enjoy our videos and are interested in supporting us directly,
head on over to patreon.com/madewithlau to learn more!
While the tofu simmers, we’ll create a cornstarch slurry
with 1.5 tbsp of cornstarch and 2 tbsp of water.
Then we’ll mix so that the cornstarch is dissolved into the water.
Lower the heat.
Good, low heat.
Take the lid off.
We’ll uncover the wok after
1.5 to 2 minutes of simmering.
Do you like the color?
If it's not deep enough, darken it with more dark soy sauce.
Up to you.
No.
If it's not dark enough, add 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce.
Because every brand of dark soy sauce
will be different.
Some are darker than others.
Good.
Add it all in.
Give it a mix.
Just use it to mix.
We added another half tbsp
of dark soy sauce here
to get the color we wanted.
Then it’s time to add the slurry.
Mix it well.
With the slurry,
it's up to you again.
Gently pour it in,
pour it around.
Okay, slowly flip it from the bottom,
flip the bottom up and over.
With our slurry,
you don’t have to use all of it like I do here,
but just enough to reach
your desired consistency.
Get your spatula all the way to the bottom
and put it over here.
Then we’ll mix in the slurry and let it thicken the sauce.
Taste test?
Sure.
Not bad.
After letting the sauce thicken
and simmer on low for another 2 minutes,
we’ll add our final garnishes.
Add some, but leave some for garnish on top.
Enough, now add these.
These are for garnish.
Add all these?
Yes, add all of it.
After adding some of our green onions,
we’ll add the sweet peppers.
No need to mix it in yet.
Sesame oil.
How much?
1 tsp.
Oh, gosh, sorry!
Add it all.
Finally, we’ll mix in our sesame oil.
Add the rest.
Gently mix it in, I'll turn the heat off.
Now, we could turn off the heat and plate,
but if your consistency
is not exactly as you like it…
Here, we can add a bit of water.
Why?
I think this is too thick.
My dad added a tbsp of water to his,
because he thought it was too thick,
then heated it back up before serving.
Okay, all set.
Plate it.
That's not how you hold a spatula, son.
Hold it like this, okay?
Okay.
Look at that!
Put it in the middle.
Now we can plate and garnish
with the rest of our green onions
and let my family grade my cooking.
Let's taste Daddy's first.
That's spicy this time!
Daddy's is a little bit more spicy.
Should we taste yours now?
Randy's is more mild.
I like Randy's mild spicy.
But that's subjective.
Some people like spicy, some people don't.
I like Dad's gravy better.
Your gravy is kind of too thick.
How did you grade him on preparation?
89.
Because he's still not familiar with it,
he needs more time to cook like me.
And that's a 89?
That's high!
To encourage you to improve.
Write it big!
3... 2... 1!
Okay! Wow!
90, 93, 95.
That's an A, A-.
That's not bad, okay!
Looks good, smells good, and tastes good.
What do you think I could improve on?
You could have broken up the meat more.
It wasn't broken up enough.
I'm so proud of you.
Thanks, Mom!
You did a good job, Randy.
Good job!
Mapo Tofu is complete!
I hope everyone enjoys it!
Hong Doy, time to eat tofu!
Cheers!
Mui Mui's first cheers!
And your second time in a video!
Say "Hi, everybody!"
Thank you for watching our Daddy's video!
Hi, Mui Mui!
I'd love to eat it too, but I can't eat yet!
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