Hong Kong Calling

I came back from Hong Kong a few weeks ago with suitcases full of wonderful food experiences, lovely spices, teas, and of course a craving for Chinese Cooking. 
My most prized treasure were some chili fermented black beans that unleashed a whirlwind of powerful aromas whenever I opened the pack: just like a kid with a new toy I had to try them!
We're lucky enough to have some great Chinese food shops in Dublin, so on the first occasion I headed to Oriental Emporium with my newly acquired knowledge of Chinese Products and decided to cook a classic Sichuan Cuisine dish, Mapo Tofu. This is a very spicy recipe, but the depth of the bean sauce and beans, the sweetness of the pork, the smoothness of silky tofu, together, make for an oh so savoury dish!


Once you've laid your hands on all the right ingredients, the recipe is actually quite simple, and here is how to goes:

-3 tbsp of Tobanjiang Bean Paste
-Fermented Black Beans
-250g Finely chopped Pork
-A tbsp of Flour
-1 chopped Onion
-A clove of Garlic
-2 tsp of Sichuan pepper 
-A dash of Shaoxing wine rice
-4 tbsp of Soy Sauce
-Hot water
-200 g of Silk Tofu diced in 2cm cubes
-2 chopped Scallions

Start by chopping all your ingredients as this will be a very quick recipe. Add some salt and pepper on your pork and flour it as this will help to thicken the sauce.
Heat up a frying pan, or a wok if you have one with some cooking oil. Once the pan is really hot, add in the onions, garlic, pork, Tobanjiang paste, Sichuan pepper and fermented black beans. Let them cook for a minute, add the Shaoxing wine rice that will quickly evaporate as well as the soy sauce, and cover with hot water.
Let the sauce reduce for about 5 minutes, and add the Tofu cubes. The tofu actually doesn't need to be cooked, so you just add it at the end to warm it up for another 2 minutes.
You can now serve the tofu, and sprinkle the dish with some scallions to make it pretty and fresh! A fresh salad or stir fried vegetables will complete the dish very well, here I used some garlic stir fried Chinese Chives.