Mao Pao Tofu

My entire family loved it -- fairly spicy & great flavor. Wonderful texture. I also made it with brown rice. I would add more tofu next time, that is if you like tofu! Wonderful!

Another great recipe from CL! WOW! This recipe has so much flavor, wonderful texture & a great kick! I followed the basic recipe, but added 1/2 a bell pepper and sliced water chestnuts. I also like my tofu crispy, so I stir-fried for about 8 minutes (instead of 3). Oh, I also ground my own pork (HIGHLY recommend). More veggie's would be great, too. I used brown rice, since I'm not into white. The sauce was just enough, but if you like things saucy, then double the recipe. The combo is YUMMY! This one is going to be on our rotation!

Pretty good. Actually quite spicy. I doubled the pork, added asparagus and red bell pepper strips (about 2 in. long) and doubled the sauce and seasoning. I also only used 1.5 cups of chicken broth. Everything came out pretty well. If you were to make it as is, it would be really quick, but no way would it all come together from scratch in 15 minutes. As it was, it took me about an hour, start-to-finish, including clean-up and putting the leftovers away.

I had to make this one without the tofu since my husband doesn't like tofu, so the flavor was good but it definitely needed something to vary the texture. Trying to decide what to add next time in place of the tofu - maybe more veggies like baby corn or water chestnuts? I also forgot to buy sherry so I used rice cooking wine instead and it came out fine. I also cut the amount of stock in half since I didn't have the bulk of the tofu in there, and increased the amount of ground pork to 1 lb.

This was pretty good, but is similar to other recipes I have made before-- I didn't find it new or something memorable. I used brown rice and ground turkey instead of the white rice and the ground pork. This would have been a three star meal, but since it is so quick and easy to make, it jumps up. I would make it again.

This was a pretty good recipe. I added some green peppers and did not have traditional chili paste with garlic. I substituted it for a Vietnamese chili paste I had on hand. I also agree it took more than 15 minutes when you account for prep and clean up time. Actual cooking time once everything was prepped was about 15 to 20 minutes or so. But from start to finish I agree with the previous reviewer that it was about an hour. I will make again.

It should be called "ma po" tofu. The "ma" is Mandarin for the numbing spice traditionally used in Szechwan cooking, and the "po" is for grandmother or old lady.  All the same, this is a great lower-calorie variation of one of my favorite dishes.