Mapo Tofu with Ground Pork [Attempt 2]

I recently discovered that Whole Foods carries Sichuan peppercorns. The last time I tried to make mapo tofu, this was the key ingredient that I was missing, so I decided it's time to revisit this dish. This time around, I searched for a recipe more authentic than the one in my big book o' Chinese food, which a friend told me was relatively legit. Something about the first recipe's use of chicken broth made me somewhat skeptical, though.

Sichuan pepper doesn't give heat like red chili pepper does. It's more of a cooling, tingling sensation on the tongue, and increased salivation. This kid agrees with me (watch his other videos, I really hope my future kids will be as adventurous and curious about weird foods at such an early age!).

About Sichuan Pepper
Doing a little research, I learned that Sichuan peppercorns are actually the outer husk of the dried berries of several kinds of Asian trees of the genus Zanthoxylum. In cooking, its flavor is often described as slightly citrusy, and it creates a buzzing numbness on the tongue. That numbness is due to the berry's bioactive component Hydroxy-alpha sanshool, which excites the sensory neurons that are responsible for our response to capsaicin (spicy heat, like in a chili pepper).

Did you know that Sichuan peppercorns were banned in the USA from 1968 to 2005? Not for health reasons, like with the ban on unpasteurized milk products, but because the peppercorns were capable of carrying the citrus canker bacteria that could have wrecked our citrus crops. Enforcement stopped in 2002, then the ban was lifted in 2005 when they were proven safe as long as the peppercorns were heated to 160˚F to kill the bacteria before import.

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Ingredients:
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil
- 1/4 lb ground pork
- ground red chili pepper to taste (I use a scant 1/4 tsp of Indian chili)
- 2 Tbsp chili bean paste (辣豆醬, Là dòu jiàng)
- 2 large cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp shao xing (rice wine)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 package of soft/silken tofu (14 oz), cut into about a 1-inch dice
- 3 Tbsp light soy sauce (maybe 2 Tbsp or less of dark soy sauce)
- 2 tsp corn starch dissolved in 1 Tbsp of water
- 2 scallions, finely sliced
- 1/2 tsp of ground Sichuan pepper

Procedure:
1. In a nonstick pan or wok, bring the oil to medium-high heat. Add the ground pork, breaking it up into small bits with a wooden spoon. Cook the meat until it loses its pinkness.

2. Still over medium-high heat, add the ground red chili pepper and the hot bean sauce to the pork, and stir well. Let it cook until the oil becomes red from the spices, then add the garlic and rice wine. Stir and cook for a minute. Add the 1/2 cup of water, bring to a boil, then let simmer for 3 minutes.

3. Add the diced tofu and the soy sauce, bring to a boil and let simmer for 5 minutes. Pour the cornstarch/water mixture into the pan and stir it into the sauce until it's thickened and coats the tofu.
* Be careful stirring the tofu, so that you don't break the cubes. Personally, I like to use a silicone spatula for this.

4. Once the sauce is thickened, top off the tofu and pork with the sliced scallions and ground Sichuan pepper. Carefully stir it all in, and serve with rice.

Yields about 2 or 3 servings