My boyfriend and I try to reduce the amount of meat we eat at home, so I have been playing around with vegetarian recipes (or I guess pescatarian to be precise). I find that Indian and Chinese (especially Sichuan) are the most satisfying types of cuisines when it comes to meatless cooking. This is a meatless version of mapo tofu.

Ingredients (serves 4):

Minced garlic (2 tbspn)
Minced ginger (one tspn)
Tobanjan/Doubanjiang/chili bean paste (3 tbspn or to taste)
Eryngii/king trumpet mushrooms (2 cups small dice)
Shiitake (1 cup small dice)
Dashi or water (1 cup, maybe more)
Soy sauce (to taste)
White and black pepper (to taste)
Crushed Sichuan peppercorns (1 tbspn)
Cubed silken tofu (1 pack)
Katakuriko/potato starch (make a slurry)
Minced scallion or Chinese chive
Sesame oil

1. Saute the garlic and ginger in some oil until fragrant.
2. Add the tobanjan (it will splatter) and coat the garlic and ginger (be careful not to burn).
3. Add the mushrooms and stir well until wilted.
4. Pour the stock over it and bring it to a boil. Season with soy sauce and pepper. Add the sichuan peppercorns.
5. After you season it to taste, add the tofu and cook through.
6. Add some potato starch slurry a little bit at a time and stir the tofu carefully so you don’t break them apart so much.
7.When you have reached the right consistency (not too thick but not soupy), add the scallion and finish with a bit of sesame oil.