Ma Po Tofu (veggie version)
Dunno if you've tried Sichuan food, it's the spiciest, most mouth tingly food ever. The peppercorns actually make your mouth go numb so you can eat more chillis. It's the perfect soul food after a crappy day at work, and it takes less than 10 minutes to make, especially if you use a jar of garlic/ginger paste.
This is the veggie version, instead of mushrooms, you can fry up diced pork if that's your thing.

Ingredients:
2 large mushrooms, cut to tiny cubes
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp Chinese red vinegar
Groundnut oil
700 g regular (not silky) tofu, drained and cut into 2cm cubes
3 tbs chili paste
1 tbs soy bean paste
10 dried red chilies
1 tablespoon fermented black beans
2 tsp peeled and minced garlic
2 tsp peeled and minced ginger
200ml water
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons light soy sauce
3 tbs cornstarch/ potato starch mixed into 100ml water
1 bunch spring onions, green tops only, finely sliced
1 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorns (toast and grind them yourself)

How to:
Add mushrooms and 3/4 tsp salt to a small bowl and mix well with your hands, pressing the salt into the mushrooms well. Add soy sauce and red vinegar and mix to combine. Let marinade for 5 minutes, then squeeze out all liquid by pressing mushrooms firmly between paper towels or cheese cloth. This bit is fun.

Heat a wok over high heat, add 2 tablespoons oil and when hot, add the mushrooms. Separate the pieces so they don’t clump. Once they are golden brown remove using a slotted spoon and transfer to a kitchen paper lined plate. Clean the wok and heat over high again.

Add 2 tablespoons oil to the wok and once heated, add the chili paste, soy bean paste, chilies, black beans, garlic and ginger and stir-fry for about a minute.

Add the water, sugar, and soy sauce and stir well to mix.

Slide the tofu and simmer for 3 minutes.

Mix the cornstarch well and then pour evenly into the wok. Stir gently and simmer for about 3 minutes until the sauce has thickened.

Add mushrooms back to wok.

Sprinkle the spring onions over top just before removing from heat.
Top with ground Sichuan pepper and serve immediately over medium grain white rice (tastes better of you soak the rice for an hour before cooking)

If this sounds like your sort of thing, Fuchsia Dunlop's Sichuan Cookery cookbook is amazing, highly recommended.
( gadjie, Fri 29 Jun 2012, 12:45, 6 replies)

looks like
a lot of work for something that tastes like spicy cardboard.
(username failed moderation, Fri 29 Jun 2012, 13:00, closed)

no need for salt either
the soy sauce will make it salty enough
(magic the cat will someone please think of the kittens, Fri 29 Jun 2012, 13:24, closed)

You need the salt
The salt is to draw out the water in the mushrooms.
( gadjie, Fri 29 Jun 2012, 13:47, closed)

What is "soy bean paste"
Do you mean miso?

Also, would aubergine work instead of mushrooms?
(IHateSprouts is baking a huge pie shaped like an enormous pie, Fri 29 Jun 2012, 15:59, closed)

Soy bean paste
No, you need to go to a Chinese supermarket for it, but it's quite common and inexpensive. It's basically chillies and beans mashed up in oil. I use a tub called Hong You Dou Ban, it's about £1.50 for enough for 8 meals, but it really is the base of this dish.
Fuschia Dunlop talks about it here

The mushrooms are just for flavouring and texture, the "meat" in this dish is the tofu (which is smooth and silky, I imagine the previous poster was helpfully referring to Quorn), so you can just leave them out. If you've a glut of aubergines and want Sichuan food, I recommend fish fragrant aubergines, which surprisingly contain no fish or fish flavourings.

Sichaun food is the most amazing Chinese food, yet hardly anyone knows of it, it is such an amazing new taste and so simple to make, once you've got the ingredients. And god, those peppercorns are unlike anything you've eaten before, they make your tongue and lips go numb!
( gadjie, Fri 29 Jun 2012, 16:35, closed)

Mmmmm... Sichuan...
My favourite brand of tyres for track days and my favourite genus of flowers.

I bought her book because of my love of motor sport while flower arranging, and I wasn't disappointed. I have looked at all the pictures, and read (most of) the recipes. I still haven't cooked anything from it but I am a fan of Sichuan cuisine so it won't be long!
(IdlePeAcEsign if trouble were my mistress, i'd send her to them, Mon 2 Jul 2012, 22:34, closed)