Mabo Don

“Mabo” is a Japanese dish with tofu and ground pork in a spicy ginger sauce.
  

“Don” means "rice bowl" in Japanese. So anything served with rice in a bowl is called a don.

This is a wonderful, savory dish that is actually very easy to cook.  Don’t let the number of ingredients intimidate you.  Prepare and portion out everything before cooking.  All the work is in the prep.  Everything else just falls together.

Prep time 20 – 30 mins

Cook time 15 – 20 mins

Ingredients:

• ·         1 package firm tofu (approx 350g)                                                           
• ·         ½ pound ground pork
• ·         5 green onions
• ·         1 tbs cooking oil
• ·         2 cloves of garlic, finely minced or crushed
• ·         1 small piece of ginger, minced (or 1 tsp crushed ginger)
• ·         1tsp sugar
• ·         3 tbs soy sauce (substitute oyster or black bean sauce proportionately)
• ·         1 cup chicken broth
• ·         3 tbs rice wine
• ·         1 tbs sesame oil
• ·         1 tsp corn starch – dissolved in 2 tbs water
• ·         2 tsp crushed red pepper
• ·         1 tsp sriracha

Cooking Instructions:

1. Thoroughly drain tofu and dice in to ½ inch pieces
2. Finely slice green onions
3. Heat cooking oil in wok or skillet on high
4. Add garlic and ginger.  Stir until fragrant (if using crushed ginger, wait and add with next step)
5. Add ground pork and stir fry until brown.  While pork is cooking, add soy sauce, sugar, and half of the sliced green onions.
6. Once the pork is cooked and broken in to very small pieces, add tofu, broth, rice wine, peppers, and sriracha (if using oyster or black bean sauce, add during this step)
7. Stir and simmer until sauce is mostly absorbed.  Then add sesame oil and corn starch to thicken the sauce.

Serving:

Serve over rice in a bowl and garnish with the remaining green onions.

Variants:

Some recipes include peas, mushrooms, green beans, or bell peppers.