Cooking in limbo

 

My social media and inbox are full of statements ending in exclamation marks: we’re open! We can’t wait to see you! Welcome back! I am firmly ignoring all of them. I am (still) going nowhere. Being (hopefully, possibly) just weeks away from a first shot of vaccine, I am currently feeling more risk-averse, not less. I want to catch Covid even less now than ever. I have made it this far, I have no desire to fall at the final hurdle.

This resolve, however, does not help alleviate the boredom of continued lockdown. I feel like I’m stuck in limbo. There are a limited number of things I can do about this, the main ones being: try to find something online to watch, and cook something different.

The latter in this case, turned out to be Mapo Dofu, a Sichuan tofu and pork mince dish, from a recipe in New Kitchen Basics (a book for which I am eternally grateful). It definitely comes under the ‘not pretty but delicious’ heading, because why should Melinda have a monopoly on that? Its name translates as ‘old pock-marked woman’s face’ so you can’t say you weren’t warned.

Begin by chopping firm tofu into bite sized pieces, then pour boiling water over the top and leave for five minutes, before draining and setting to one side.

Tofu draining

Heat two tablespoons of oil in a saucepan (in my case, a new very dinky mini pan, bought for just this kind of thing) until sizzling - the recipe suggests putting a thin slice of ginger in the oil, so you know the oil is ready when the ginger is fizzing. At which point, hoik out the ginger, remove the pan from the heat, and stir in ground Sichuan pepper, chilli flakes and sesame seeds. Set to one side. 

Oddly pleasing dinky pan - normal small pan on left for scale.

Chop a bunch of spring onions and a couple of garlic cloves, and grate some ginger. Fry half the spring onion with the garlic and ginger, then add the pork and fry until cooked through an caramelised. Mix cornflour and water, and add that to the pan, along with some soy sauce and honey.

Stages of frying: yes, I actually remembered to take process photos!

 Bring the pan to the boil, add the drained tofu and the remaining spring onion. Turn down and allow all the bits to get to know each other for ten minutes or so, then stir through the pepper/chilli/sesame seed oil, and some actual sesame oil, and serve with rice (cooked by husband).

More frying

Finished product: not pretty, but delicious.

This was spicy but not overpoweringly so, although I didn’t use very hot chilli flakes, and it was delicious. And – possibly most importantly – it was different.

Roll on that vaccine though…