Bring a large amount of water to a boil and then add a pinch of salt. 2.Cut tofu into square cubes (around 2cms). Add teaspoon of salt and teaspoon of ground white pepper with minced beef. It will absorb the taste with the help of time. I prefer to use soft tofu, (not extra soft/silken) which is labeled as 찌게용 (for jjigae) if you buy Korean tofu packages, but the firm one, 부침용 (for pan frying) is okay too if you’d like a firmer texture. During the braising process, use slowest fire to cook the tofu. Pork is the classic meat for this dish, but you can use beef if you’d like, or omit the meat to make a vegetarian dish. To give the sauce more heat, you can add some dried hot peppers to the oil, use more gochugaru, or throw in some fresh hot chili peppers instead of the bell peppers I used in this recipe. You can still use chili oil, if available. By adding the gochugaru at this stage, you’ll create the effect of using chili oil. Start with stir-frying the aromatic vegetables and some gochugaru in hot oil. This certainly is not the dish you get from your local Sichuan restaurant, but it has all the elements of the dish – soft tofu infused with intense savory and spicy flavors! To recreate this dish at home, Koreans often use a combination of Korean fermented soybean paste ( doenjang, 된장), red chili pepper flakes ( gochugaru, 고추가루), and red chili pepper paste ( gochujang, 고추장). However, these ingredients are not staples in Korean kitchens. The authentic Chinese mapo tofu typically calls for doubanjiang (dubanjang, 두반장, in Korean), which is a spicy, salty fermented bean paste and Sichuan peppercorns (aka Chinese coriander). Mapo tofu is also a popular menu item at Chinese restaurants in Korea. It originated from the Sichuan province that’s known to have cuisine with bold flavors - pungency and spiciness. Mapo tofu is a popular Chinese dish in which small tofu cubes are braised in a spicy chili bean paste-based sauce. Enjoy soft tofu infused with intense savory and spicy Korean flavors. You can make this Korean-style mapo tofu recipe with a few basic ingredients in less than 30 minutes.