Tofueatin'
Easy recipe for some tasty protein goodness, mapo tofu is a cheap and quick meal. Ground pork is inexpensive, but the dish can easily be made with ground beef or turkey. You can skip the peppercorn powder but don't spare the hot bean paste - it's essential for the Sichuan spiciness.
For sauce
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons hot bean paste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Additive-free kosher salt to taste
1 lb regular or soft (not silken) tofu, drained and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons corn, peanut, or canola oil
1/2 lb ground pork shoulder (preferably 75% lean)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon finely minced peeled fresh ginger
1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons Japanese sesame oil
1/2 to 1 teaspoon toasted Sichuan-peppercorn powder
3 tablespoons thinly sliced scallion
Make sauce: Stir together broth, bean paste, soy sauce, and kosher salt. Set aside.
Poach tofu: Slide tofu into a saucepan of simmering water and keep at a bare simmer while stir-frying rest of dish.
Stir-fry pork: Heat a wok or large heavy skillet over high heat until hot and add 1 1/2 tablespoons corn oil, swirling to coat. Add pork and stir-fry, breaking up lumps and adding remaining 1/2 tablespoon corn oil if meat sticks, until no longer pink. Add garlic and ginger and stir-fry over moderate heat until very fragrant, about 2 minutes.
Finish stir-fry: Stir reserved sauce, then add to pork and bring to a simmer. Drain tofu in a large sieve and slide into sauce, stirring gently. Stir cornstarch mixture and add to stir-fry. Bring to a boil, stirring gently, and cook until thickened and glossy, about 15 seconds. Turn off heat and sprinkle with sesame oil, Sichuan-peppercorn powder to taste, and 2 tablespoons scallion. Stir once or twice, then serve sprinkled with remaining tablespoon scallion.
13 comments:
Just made this. Doubled the pork. Unfortunately, I was missing the magical bean paste (Whole Foods was out of it, wtf?), and I had to substitute a Vietnamese chili paste. Worked out ok, but look forward to the real deal soon.
Yeah, the bean paste also gives it the proper glow-in-the-dark orange hue...
I make this often - about once a week or so. I'm a vegetarian, though, so I use a fake-ground-beef, but it's still damn good. I've even blogged about it, too:
http://onrockrockon.blogspot.com/2008/07/rockin-recipe-ma-po-dofu.html
Personally, I like to saute the tofu prior to cooking, as I like firmer, chewier cubes as opposed the pillowy soft cubes like you get in the restaurant.
It's like a karmic tofu convergence!
Actually, I would be that in restaurants they cook it the way you do, Daniel - it's much easier to have everything in one wok. With the small stuff I have at home, it's easier for me to do the meat separately to make sure it gets cooked enough.
I tend to avoid tofu myself, mostly because I don't trust it. True, I don't know that much about it, but it does seem to be heavily processed, and it seems like it would be hard to know exactly what it was that you were eating. Add that to the estrogen-like chemicals associated with soy protein and tofu starts to seem like a pretty bad idea. Now, I'm not trying to start a flame war or anything, but do you really think tofu is that good for you? I'm all for protein, but how do you ensure you're not eating weird processed stuff? Also, at what level of consumption to you start to find negative effects associated with it, understanding that many other foods sold also contain soy product? It seems (if you're able to eat it for whatever reason) that (anitbiotic-free, not grain-fed) meat is a much better protein solution.
Maybe I just don't like tofu either :)
Well, making tofu requires very few ingredients. I've yet to check the ingredients on commercial tofu, but I can't imagine that much processing goes into it.
Now, regarding the estrogen-like chemicals: Can you post up some science please? Preferably something that does not originate from T-Nation.
Interesting points, Scott, and it's good to be aware of these things.
Tofu is in fact not heavily processed, it is simply soymilk that has been coagulated, commonly using salts or enzymes. The curds are then collected and pressed (analogous to cheese).
As for the effect of the phytoestrogens, the jury is still pretty much out on that one. There seem to be both positive and negative benefits reported, but I have yet to see a single reliable study on the effects on healthy, young (insert old man joke here) individuals and athletic performance.
Maybe a more researched blog post is in order?
lol, T-Nation. Sure, I've got an article, I have to find it though. The basic jist was that women had periods lasting 2 days longer and with more painful cramps when including soy protein in their diet. I can't recall the amount, and I'm unsure of how that relates to men, specifically (given that we have fewer estrogen receptors), but the estrogen-like quality of soy is certainly implied in that study. I'm actually a bit busy to find it at the moment (recording), but I'll dig around later.
Kenway's point exactly: I don't know what the effects are. I am (justifiably, I think) concerned that eating a lot of soy protein is not such a great idea, but I am completely agnostic as to the amount and whether preparation has any noticeable difference. I'd like to know how it pertains to me specifically, and thus far haven't come across anything that fits the exact bill, though I have come across enough to be wary.
Also, regarding the chemicals in tofu... do you actually make your own?
I don't know what is in commercial tofu which is exactly the problem. Take bread for example. Were you to make your own, it should technically only require four ingredients: water, wheat, salt, yeast. When you buy bread at the store, I'm pretty sure it's got more stuff than that.
OK, I know you said no T-nation, but this is in fact the most well-rounded, reasonable analysis of the soy controversy that I've found, and it's by Dr. John Berardi, whose voice I generally respect: http://www.t-nation.com/article/most_recent/soy_whats_the_big_deal
Short version: Yeah, it's bad for you. HOW bad, we don't exactly know, but it looks as though you would need to eat truly MASSIVE amounts for the negative effects of the phytoestrogens to show themselves.
I'm vegetarian, as I said, so while I agree that grassfed, organic meat is probably ultimately a healthier source of protein, it's not an option that's available to me. COMMERCIAL meat, on the other hand, I suspect is far, far worse, due to the insane amount of antibiotics and hormones pumped into factory-farmed cows.
The tofu I buy (from Trader Joe's) is organic and non-GMO. It's the healthiest I can find without making my own. Processed fake meats have a bunch of bad things in them, and I do try to keep those to a minimum, but again - when trying to cram down 160-200g protein/day as a vegetarian, I take what I can get.
PS: Forgot to parse the link, sorry.
Here's the link to the paper they reference in that article that talks about how soy, whey, or a combination of the two is equally effective at building lean mass under resistance.
Here's another link to a paper that compares soy, whey, and a control group under resistance training.
I think what I'm going to take out of this is protein from soy is fine in moderation, and there's no reason to specifically avoid it. That being said, I probably won't incorporate tofu as a main staple in my diet, but it may make an appearance now and again.
As an aside, I found this paper that seems to refer to what I was talking about earlier with the increase in duration of women's menstruation periods, but here the increase is only .37 days, with the same amount of flow, but slightly more pain. Also, they aren't measuring amount of soy ingested, but rather whether the subject was fed soy formula as an infant . Perhaps I misread the article earlier?
Ok, ok, so T-Nation isn't always bad. I mean, Dan John posts there occasionally.
Thanks for the links guys. Will definitely have a read.
And Scott, flow? Seriously?
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