Super Spicy Mapo Tofu

Before talking about my super spicy mapo tofu, I would like to talk little bit more about Jean-Georges Giner Fried Rice which I mentioned yesterday. I found the recipe on NY Times website with a video of Mark Bittman who is a friend of Jean-Georges showing us how to make ginger fried rice.

Click here for the recipe for ginger fried rice from NY Times website. 

Also, if you would like to see Mr. Mark Bittman making Jean-Georges ginger fried rice, click here.

If you like ginger and garlic, I think you would love this fried rice. (Be sure to use fresh egg)

Anyway, now about my super spicy mapo tofu. This came out really spicy because of my mistake.

When I made mapo tofu the other day (click here for that post) , I found out that many people use "Tian Mian Jiang"which is Chinese sweet bean paste. I wanted to buy this paste when I see it and the other day when I went to a Japanese super market, I thought I found it so I purchased it. 


This time, I used the recipe from the last time (Click here for my mapo tofu recipe) and instead of miso paste, oyster sauce, mirin and soy sauce, I used Tiam Mian Jiang (chinese sweet bean paste) or something I thought it was Tiam Mian Jiang. 


Just now, when I was looking at the jar of the paste I purchased, I realized that it was not Tiam Mian Jiang! It said "Kochi Jiang" which is korean spicy miso paste! I purchased something completely different and didn't even notice until just now. 


When I was cooking, I opend the jar of Kochi Jiang and thought "wow, this Tiam Mian Jiang looks so read and spicy. It is supposed to be sweet miso paste but it looks spicy...." but I did not realize that it was not Tiam Mian Jiang at this point. (I should have realized at this point, I know..) 


So I used this kochi Jiang which is spicy and Doubangjiang which is also a spicy paste that I used for the original recipe. I ended up using two different kind of spicy paste into my mapo tofu without knowing it. Of course it is super spicy. 


I felt so stupid that I had to laugh :-) 


This is when I added Doubangjiang and Kochijiang. It looks really read. (but I didn't realize how spicy it will be at this point)

Added some tofu and cooked more. (still red) 

I tasted at the end and noticed that it is really spicy so I added some sugar to ease the spiciness. 


I made mapo tofu bowl with half brown and half white rice. 

After adding some sugar, it was better and I was able to enjoy this dish. It was spicy but the taste was really good! 


I cannot believe that I had no doubt that I bought Tiem Mein Jaing and it took me a day to realize it :-) Next time when I buy any kind of Chinese or Korean paste, I will be more careful.