Mapo Tofu 麻婆豆腐 — cooked in silence #Shorts

Mapo Tofu — 麻婆豆腐 — cooked in silence. No talking. No music. Just the wok. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ FULL RECIPE — Mapo Doufu · 麻婆豆腐 · Sichuan ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ INGREDIENTS - 400 g soft tofu, in 2 cm cubes - 100 g minced beef (Chengdu uses beef, not pork) - 1 1/2 tbsp Pixian doubanjiang (fermented broad bean paste) - 1 tsp douchi (fermented black beans), chopped - 1 tsp Sichuan chilli powder - 2 garlic cloves, minced - 1 tsp minced ginger - 250 ml chicken or beef stock - 1 tsp light soy sauce - 3 tbsp neutral oil - 2 green garlic sprouts, cut on the diagonal - 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, toasted and ground fresh SLURRY - 1 1/2 tbsp potato starch - 3 tbsp water METHOD 1. Blanch the tofu cubes 1 minute in hot salted water - not a violent boil. This firms them and takes off the raw taste. Drain and hold in the warm water. 2. Hot wok, oil, minced beef. Stir-fry until it dries out and crisps at the edges, about 3 minutes. Push it to one side. 3. Lower the heat. Add the doubanjiang and fry it slowly until the oil turns red and fragrant, about 30 seconds. Do not burn it - burnt bean paste makes the whole dish bitter. 4. Add the douchi, chilli powder, garlic and ginger. 20 seconds. 5. Pour in the stock and soy sauce. Bring to a simmer. 6. Slide in the tofu. Do NOT stir with a spoon - nudge the cubes apart with the back of the ladle or shake the wok. Simmer gently 3 minutes. 7. Thicken with the slurry in THREE separate additions, letting it come back to a simmer between each. That is what gives you a sauce that clings to every cube. 8. Stir in the green garlic sprouts, kill the heat, transfer to the bowl and dust the ground Sichuan pepper over the top. ⚠️ Mapo tofu is not a meat dish. The beef is a seasoning, not a filling - 100 g to 400 g of tofu. And the Sichuan pepper goes ON TOP at the end, off the heat: cooked, it loses the ma, the numbing tingle the dish is named for.