Mapo tofu is a famous product in Sichuan cuisine, one of the eight major cuisines of the Han Chinese. Founded in the first year of the Tongzhi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, there is a storefront originally named "Chen Xingsheng Restaurant" next to the Wanfu Bridge in Chengdu. The owner Chen Chunfu died early, the small restaurant was run by the hostess, and the female boss had a slight hemp on her face, known as "Chen Ma Po". At that time, the Wanfu Bridge was a cross-river, and there were often coolies who stopped and pointed here. The main patrons of the rice shop are porters who pick up oil. Chen has a unique set of cooking techniques for cooking tofu, the tofu cooked is full of color and flavor, extraordinary, and deeply loved by people, and the roasted tofu she created is called "Chen Ma Po Tofu", and its catering shop was later also named "Chen Ma Po Tofu Shop".
The main raw material of Mapo tofu is composed of tofu, and its characteristics are hemp, spicy, hot, fragrant, crisp, tender, fresh, and live, which is called the eight-character proverb. The main ingredients are tofu, minced beef (pork can also be used), chili pepper and peppercorns. Hemp comes from peppercorns and spicy peppers, and this dish highlights the characteristics of Sichuan cuisine "spicy". The common practice is to simplify the method of mapo tofu, which is convenient and easy to do.
Mapo tofu is not only spicy and fragrant to eat but also colorful in color. The tender white diced tofu stood in a neat "line" on the plate, wearing a "yipeng" made of bright red hot sauce, which looked like a fiery red piece, mixed with some crispy and tender meat foam in the middle, and the green green onions were scattered on the plate, just like pieces of green leaves, which looked particularly eye-catching against the background of green leaves. The enticing scent emanating from the plate is mouth-watering.
The method of Mapo tofu is actually very simple: cut the tofu into small pieces, let them "jump" into the steaming water one by one, and then fish them out. Next, cut the meat into tiny pieces and sauté them in vegetable oil. Then, pour the appropriate oil into the pot, add the dried peppers, peppercorns and ginger slices prepared in advance to the oil, add the diced tofu at eighty degrees, stir-fry a few times, and finally slowly burn it for two minutes over a low heat, and the ma po tofu, which is full of color and flavor, is finished.
Eating mapo tofu is very exquisite. When eating, first clip a piece of tofu, gently put it in your mouth and chew it slowly, eat it, spicy, this taste fills any corner of the mouth. When eating, first lick the hot sauce on the tofu, suddenly, the spicy sauce and spicy taste of the hot sauce into the mouth, and then eat the tofu, tender tofu from the mouth, smooth and refreshing. If you're lucky, you can also eat a little bit of meat foam, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, which further adds to the flavor of mapo tofu and plays a role in finishing touches.