Get Cooking’s take on Mabo Dofu, a classic tofu and meat dish

This post was a guest post on a blog that I love, Just Bento, in October 2009. I’ve posted it here for continuity and posterity. I encourage you to check out the other posts on Just Bento (and Just Hungry) as Maki has some of the clearest Japanese recipes you will find on the web (and some non-Japanese as well), and is currently one of my favorite food bloggers.

I know this might be looking a bit too decadent to any lover of authentic Mabo Dofu, but, well, no Japanese dish stays very authentic in my hands for too long. Mabo Dofu, an originally Chinese dish popular in Japan, is beef and tofu simmered in a red miso-ginger-garlic-chili sauce. Over the years, it has become a staple in my household. Like everything else I make regularly, the recipe changes slightly each time depending on what ingredients and condiments we have around.

The more I make and eat mabo dofu, the more I love it. I used to use sauce packets that you can find in many Asian groceries, but then I realized how much more easy, cheap, and tasty it was to make the sauce myself. While the list of ingredients looks long, it’s a very simple dish to prepare. After you have it once, you may even start adding some of the main ingredients to your fridge and pantry staples. Before this dish entered my life, I had an aversion to tofu. Having tofu in a dish where it is not meant as a substitute for something else changed my perspective on the protein completely. This is my favorite use for tofu.

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Bittersweet’s Chocolate Chickpea Spread

Move over Nutella, I’ve found a chocolate spread that’s richer, thicker, cheaper and easier to get my hands on. I’m not sure I’ll ever look back.

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Lemon Pickles

This post has been a long time coming. I really wanted to make sure I liked these little guys before posting them. Last night, we finished the jar of lemon pickles we made around the time we had Iron Chef Lemons at work. That’s how many lemons there were – it took over three months for the two of us to eat the whole batch.

When faced with an abundance of lemons, I remembered my mother pickling pretty round lemon slices as a child. I didn’t enjoy the acidic taste then. But then, there are many things I didn’t enjoy as a child that I enjoy now. I decided that I had to make them myself before completely ruling them out.

Before calling my mother, as I tend to do in these situations, I decided to pull out my copy of Aromas of Aleppo: The Legendary Cuisine of Syrian Jews by Poopa Dweck. This book has saved me many a how-to phone call when it comes to family recipes. My mother heard of its existence a few years ago and went out and got one for every household in our family. The recipes are very close to the way my grandmother used to cook, and the pictures might as well be of my own family gatherings (right down to the dishes the author uses for olives!). I will say,  however, that since these recipes have been passed down so many generations without being written down, the instructions can often be confusing or include editing errors. I’ve learned to use this book as a guideline but not an exact set of instructions.

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Mabo Dofu, Featured on Just Bento

Just Bento published a guest post by yours truly this morning. The post features my take on Mabo Dofu, a Chinese turned Japanese dish that I fell in love with some years ago. The dish is simple, satisfying, while still tantalizing to the tongue and taste buds; it’s one of my favorites. It gave me an entirely new perspective on the use of tofu as an ingredient rather than a meat substitute. The sauce, which is vegan, can be used in many other dishes, so don’t be put off by the meat in the whole recipe.

I’ll be posting the recipe here for posterity but for now, go check it out at Just Bento!

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Apple Pies

For me, fall means apple picking. And apple picking means apple pies! The minute the weather turned crisp, we grabbed some friends and headed upstate to pick as many apples as we could carry. Empires and Jonagolds were ripe in abundance so we filled up mostly on those. Empires have a pure white flesh and are great for eating; they are sweet and tart, and aren’t too firm. Jonagolds are very large, firm, and as the name suggests, golden. They have a starchy flavor that becomes sweet when baked. I like to mix a good baking apple, like Jonagold, with a small amount of a sweeter, softer apple, like Empire, to give my pie fillings some variety of texture.

Apple picking has made me appreciate apple pies all the more. They were never my favorite pies. I get bored of that apple & cinnamon flavor easily. Once I started making them myself, I realized they didn’t have to be sweet, but could be slightly more savory. I usually add a pinch more nutmeg or cloves to my pies and keep the sugar to a minimum.

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