Name: Pock-Marked Old Woman’s Tofu (Vegetarian Version) (Ma Po Dou Fu 麻婆豆腐)
Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients: 4 baby leeks or spring onions, green parts only; Salt; ¼–½ tsp ground roasted Sichuan pepper; 4 tbsp cooking oil; 2 tsp potato flour mixed with 2 tbsp cold water; ¼ tsp ground white pepper; 100 ml stock or water; 500–600 g plain white tofu; 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger; 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic; 1 tbsp fermented black beans, rinsed and drained; 2½ tbsp Sichuan chilli bean paste; 2 tsp ground red chillies (optional)

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Every Grain of Rice

By Fuchsia Dunlop

Published 2012

About

Mapo doufu is one of the best-loved dishes of the Sichuanese capital, Chengdu. It is named after the wife of a Qing Dynasty restaurateur who delighted passing labourers with her hearty braised tofu, cooked up at her restaurant by the Bridge of 10,000 Blessings in the north of the city. The dish is thought to date back to the late nineteenth century. Mrs Chen’s face was marked with smallpox scars, so she was given the affectionate nickname ma po, ‘Pock-marked O