The Jiggly Mapo Tofu of Your Dreams

Ingredienser

If your feed is anything like mine, you've probably seen that video of a restaurant in Japan that serves this insanely jiggly mapo tofu cooked in a traditional donabe.

It's from Mei Xin restaurant in Yokohama, and I so wish I could travel there to have it right now, but flight tickets are a little expensive right now 😭.

So I did the next best thing — I recreated it at home! 👨🏻🍳 And now I'm sharing it with you so we can all revel in the jiggle~ 🫨😍

Honestly this took a few tries. In the video they brought the donabe to the table, poured the soy milk in then covered it to let it set. I'm not sure what magic they cooked up in there, but I wasn't able to recreate that jiggly egg custard this way. So I went with a more classically steamed style of Japanese chawanmushi instead, giving me that guaranteed jiggle. 💫

I then cooked up a salaciously saucy mapo tofu, poured it on top, and oh my lord I think it's the best thing I've made this year. 🤯

Here's what you'll need to make this:

egg custard base*

3 eggs

45ml (3 tbsp) milk

240ml (1 cup) dashi stock

1g (a pinch of) salt

mapo tofu*

80g (⅓ cup) neutral oil

3 dried Thai red chillies

3g (1 tbsp) sichuan peppercorns

6 cloves garlic, minced

1-inch piece of ginger, minced

150g (~5 oz.) ground beef

15g (1 tbsp) doubanjiang

180ml (¾ cup) dashi stock

5g (2 tbsp) cornstarch + 60ml (¼ cup) water

4g (1 tsp) sugar

2g (½ tsp) salt

30g (2 tbsp) your favourite chili oil (I used @mamayuchillioil 🙌🏻)

garnishes*

3g (1 tsp) toasted white sesame seeds

3g (1 tsp) fried garlic (optional)1 stalk spring onion, sliced