Mabo Dofu (Japanese Mapo Tofu)

Japanese Mapo Tofu (マーボー豆腐 – Mabo Dofu)

Mabo Dofu is a Japanese adaptation of Chinese Mapo Tofu. In the same way that American Chinese food has been adapted to use locally available ingredients to appeal to American tastes, there is a whole genre of Japanese-style Chinese cuisine called wafu-chuka (和風中華 – literally Japanese-style Chinese). 

Compared to the Sichuan original, Japanese Mapo Tofu has a milder flavor, sweeter taste, and is much less spicy. I prefer the fiery original version of the dish these days, but there’s something very comforting about the Japanese adaptation that I crave from time to time. It’s also an excellent alternative for families with kids or for people who don’t have a high tolerance for heat.

Why This Recipe Works?

• The use of ingredients such as miso and mirin gives the Japanese version of this dish a milder flavor, while adding the rayu (chili oil) allows you to adjust the level of heat at the table. 
• Browning the aromatics with miso creates a very flavorful base for the dish. 
• Mixing all of the sauce ingredients with the starch cuts out a few steps, making this dish’s preparation even easier. 

Ingredients for Japanese Mapo Tofu

• Aromatics – The aromatics that form the basis for the Japanese version of Mapo Tofu are garlic, ginger, and some kind of onion. I’ve used ordinary yellow onions because they are easier to find outside of Japan than the Tokyo Negi (thick stemmed scallion) traditionally used in this dish. Mincing the onions and grating the ginger and garlic get them to brown faster and distribute their flavors more evenly. 
• Ground Meat – Ground pork is the traditional meat to use for Mapo Tofu in Japan, but you can use ground chicken or beef if you like. Also, if you plan on making this plant-based go check out my Vegan Mapo Tofu for a blend of mushrooms that will work as a substitute.  
• Stock – I used chicken stock, but any flavorful stock, including pork, vegetable, or mushroom stock, will work here. 
• Mirin – A key characteristic of Japanese cuisine is to use sweetness to balance the salt in a dish, and Mabo Dofu is no different. Instead of using sugar, I like to use mirin for this, which not only adds sweetness, it also adds umami. Just make sure you are using real mirin. It should only include rice, water, koji, and alcohol in the ingredients and will NOT contain any corn syrup, sugar, MSG, or salt. If you can’t find real mirin, you can substitute 1 tablespoon of sake plus 2 teaspoons of sugar. 
• Oyster Sauce – Oyster sauce not only seasons the dish but also adds a ton of umami. If you need to substitute, you can use 2 teaspoons of soy sauce and 1 teaspoon of sugar instead. 
• Toasted Sesame Oil – Toasted sesame oil has a nutty flavor and is frequently used as a seasoning in Japanese-style Chinese dishes. 
• Potato Starch – The starch thickens the sauce. Traditionally a slurry of water and starch are added at the end to thicken the sauce, but the tofu doesn’t take long to warm up, so I find it’s easier to mix the starch with the sauce ingredients before adding them to the pan. You can substitute other types of starch, but I generally prefer potato starch because it thickens without getting gluey, and the viscosity of the sauce doesn’t change much even after it has cooled (cornstarch will get hard).
• Tofu – I like using silken tofu for this dish. It’s produced using a different process from regular tofu, giving it a smooth custardy texture that jiggles like Jello. It’s also sometimes labeled “soft” tofu, but the problem is that I’ve seen brands selling softer regular tofu as “soft tofu,” which is more like the medium-firm tofu sold by other brands. If you want to make sure you get the right one, look for the green package by House Foods.   
• Garnishes – I like to garnish my Mabo Dofu with a sprinkle of chopped scallions and a splash of rayu (chili oil), but these are both optional, and you can adjust the amount to taste. 

How to Make Japanese Mapo Tofu

To avoid a mad rush to get everything into the pan at the end, I usually like to mix all of the sauce ingredients for Mabo Dofu before I start cooking. To do this, just whisk the chicken stock, mirin, oyster sauce, toasted sesame oil, and potato starch together and set them aside. 

Then you want to create a base of flavor by preheating a frying pan and browning the onions, garlic, ginger, and miso together in vegetable oil. The Maillard reaction occurs as the ingredients brown, creating a ton of new flavor compounds which give the sauce depth. 

Next, you want to add the ground meat and break it up into small pieces using a spatula. This helps disperse the meat into the sauce so that it coats each block of tofu more evenly. 

When the pork is cooked through, you’ll want to give the sauce another stir to recombine any settled starch and then add it to the pan, along with the tofu. 

To finish off the Japanese Mapo Tofu, heat the tofu through. When the tofu is hot and the sauce is nice and thick, it’s ready to serve. 

Garnish with scallions and chili oil to taste.

Other Japanese Chinese Recipes

• Ebichiri (shrimp chili)
• Yakimeshi (fried rice)
• Gyoza (postickers)
• Harumaki (spring rolls)

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