I grew up seeing my sister eating and enjoying mun tofu, it is Chinese-Indonesian dish, my mom regularly cooked. I am a picky eater, hence the cooking that I’ve done, cause I can’t make someone or a chef to cook for me with hundreds of notes to customize my food. But, I was even pickier when I was young. I would’ve never eaten tofu without crispiness on the outside!
Things change, now I eat tofu in any shape or form. Fry, boil, grill, cube, round, patties. Although. my favorite will be fry tofu, but in the attempt of saving money and not buying new jeans, I must switch the cooking method to much more healthy option.
So yeah the inspiration came from the mun tofu my sister is now expertly cook in her kitchen, it is Chinese-Indonesian dish, which means, it is not originated from China, but from Chinese people who migrated to Indonesia, ages ago, like my grand parents. Probably the idea was from mapo tofu, I don’t know.
I’m also not sure if this is mapo tofu enough, cause I used malatang sauce, bottled one too! I ate mapo tofu and I ate malatang noodles, and they taste pretty similar. I just took the shortcut to make a hybrid between two dishes. Mapo and Mun Tofu.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp cooking oil
3 cloves of garlic -minced
1 tsp ginger -minced
8 oz (about 250 grams) ground meat, I used chicken
2 block (480 grams) of firm silken tofu -cubed
1/4 cup of bottled malatang sauce
1/2 cup of water or broth
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp green onion -chopped, more for garnish
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
Instructions:
- In a large skillet/wok over medium high heat, heat the oil. Then add garlic and sauté for about a minute. Add ginger and cook for 30 more seconds.
- Add ground meat to the skillet, breaking up the meat with a spatula and cook until browned for about 4-5 minutes.
- Add the malatang sauce and green onion, give it a good stir to combine, then add the cubed tofu into the skillet, spreading them evenly on top of the ground meat.
- Add water/broth and soy sauce, stir everything together and cook to simmer.
- Once simmered, turn the heat to low and cover the skillet, let it cook for 5-10 minutes until the liquid is reduced. Adjust the seasoning if needed.
- Garnish with green onion and toasted sesame oil. Served with steamed rice or by itself. Enjoy!