Taiwan, the island country where I am from, is perhaps best known around travelers for its culinary delights. Growing up, mapo tofu (a ragu of tofu and pork simmered in fermented bean paste) was one of my favorite home-cooked dishes for its simplicity, and as a kid eager to get off the dinner table and get back to my life, I loved a ragu over rice dish that I can slurp up easily.

Most of us will agree that food is an easy entry point to share and grow community. I grew up with access to traditional farmers markets and fresh meats and seafoods. Moving to the United States was a shock to me not just of the difference in culture, but to my taste buds. Meats, in particular, tasted plain, or more precisely, they tasted like corn. I began to talk to local farmers and cooks about where and how they grow and source their food, and tasting the very difference from industrial vs. sustainable forms of food production. Getting to know my local farmers brought me out onto not just the farms themselves, but the ecosystems and biodiversity on and around them. That was the hook –  it was my love for food and cooking that piqued my curiosity into how our food is produced, and led me to commit my legal career to uplifting the voices of the hands that feed us and the animals, insects, air, earth, and water that provide for us. I was fortunate enough to have gone to law school in the Bay Area, where Center for Food Safety had an office. An internship from law school led to a fellowship, and more than a decade later, my love and curiosity of food has helped me forge a new community of like-minded attorneys, advocates, farmers, beekeepers, and consumers, all dedicated to building a better food future. 

As a mother to a toddler, I try my best to expose her to my (and her) Taiwanese heritage, from Mandarin storybooks and songs to of course, cooking and talking to her about food. I hope to nurture her connection to the bounty that surrounds us, as well as her pride in her Taiwanese roots. And as a busy working mom, I have a newfound appreciation for the versatility of this dish: Like many dishes in Taiwan, while meat is part of the traditional recipe, it is not the essential ingredient. The star of the dish is the tofu – my version uses just half a pound of ground pork (which you can substitute with another ground meat or plant-based meat alternative of your choice if desired). It comes together very quickly. You can even prepare the seasoning mix beforehand and store it in the fridge. A few minutes of cooking and you have a big batch of delicious, savory sauce, high in protein content, to serve over rice. [Finally, while a mapo tofu purist will frown upon hearing this, you can sneak in chopped up vegetables like peas and carrots if you want.]

And it is a dish you can easily make with your child. My daughter helps cut up the tofu with her wooden toddler knife and the green onions with her toddler scissors. Who cares if they are not uniform in size or pretty? It is going into a sauce and the proud look on her face and time spent with her in the garden and in the kitchen are what matters.

Recipe for Taiwanese-Style Mapo Tofu

Taiwanese-style mapo tofu differs from its Chinese/Sichuan counterpart in that it is usually less spicy, and in my version I add miso, which adds another layer of umami/savory goodness. And while the dish is traditionally made with soft/silken tofu, I prefer medium firm tofu in mine - either is fine. I would not recommend using extra firm tofu in this dish.

Ingredients:

For the seasoning mix:

• 3 tbsp of doubanjiang, preferably a Taiwanese brand (fermented broad/soy bean paste)*
• 1 tbsp of miso paste**
• 1 tbsp of soy sauce/tamari
• 1 tsp of sesame oil 
• 1.5 tsp of cornstarch
• 5 tbsp of water 

Other ingredients:

• 1 clove of garlic, smashed and minced
• 1 tbsp of ginger, skin-removed julienned and minced
• 1-2 stalks of green onions/scallion
• 14 oz/1 box of medium firm tofu (or soft/silken tofu)
• 1 tbsp of neutral oil (I use avocado oil)
• ½ lb of ground pork (preferably organic and pasture-raised), or ground chicken/turkey or meat alternative of your choice

Instructions:

1. Drain a 14 oz box of tofu to get rid of excess water for 10 min, then cut into ¾ inch cubes. 
2. Make seasoning mix by measuring and mixing all seasoning mix ingredients into a jar.
3. Finely chop one clove of garlic and 2-3 slices of ginger. Thin slice green onions.
4. Heat a wok or large frying pan on medium heat, when the pan is pot, add 1 tbsp of neutral oil. Once the oil is shimmering, add your garlic and ginger to the wok
5. Working quickly to make sure that the garlic and ginger do not burn, add your ½ lb of ground pork and break up the pork into small chunks with a spatula until no longer pink (but not browned).
6. Add the seasoning mix and stir thoroughly.
7. Once the sauce comes to a boil, add your tofu pieces and gently stir it to mix it in the sauce (without breaking up your tofu pieces), then turn your heat down to low to bring it down to a simmer and let it cook for another 5 min.
8. Just before taking the pan off heat, scatter your green onions as garnish.

Serve with rice. Enjoy! You can keep any leftovers in the fridge for up to 3 days. Tofu changes its texture when frozen, so freezing is not recommended.

Notes:

* Doubanjiang is a fermented bean paste made from broad beans and soybeans that can be found in the Asian/International aisle of most supermarkets and your local Asian grocer or online Asian grocers. I prefer the Taiwanese brands in this dish, in part because the Taiwanese brands come in either spicy or non-spicy varieties and so can easily be adapted for cooking for kids. If you can't find doubanjiang (or the non-spicy ones), I have also substituted with Korean gojuchang or hoisin sauce in a pinch. 

** You can use either white or red miso here. If you prefer a sweeter taste, go with the white, or with the red for a darker version, If you can, use miso made from organic non-GMO soybeans.