As a part of my previous investigation into the profundities of doubanjiang, I was going to make three separate batches of ma po dofu. Then realized that that was kind of pointless.

However, I did try a new version, based on what I read on the tubes. Most ma po dofu recipes call for cooking the tofu briefly in salted water . . . which seems a bit pointless, unless you’re using soft (silken) tofu. This one did, so I tried it. Stay tuned for the result . . .

I was able to find this amazing 73 percent ground beef!

This was a new brand of Sichuan peppercorn for me. Looked dodgy, but after I picked out the prickly bits, roasted it and ground it up, it was excellent.

Lots of ma, lots of la!

The silken tofu, even when ‘cooked’ in the almost-boiling salted water for 10 minutes (the recipe I used called for one minute, which would have been pretty much pointless) was still pretty soft, and no matter how gently I stirred, broke up somewhat. But the recipe also called for a more gentler seasoning, and the combination of that and the softer tofu was really nice. Maybe on another day I’ll make my usual stiffer and more macho ma po dofu, but for some reason this was perfect on a warm and rainy winter day.

-R