2-4oz ground beef (or pork, or mushrooms)

1lb soft or medium tofu, in 3/4 inch cubes

2-3 tbsp doubanjiang (fermented chile bean sauce, toban djan)

1 tbsp douchi (fermented black beans)

2 tsp ground red pepper (this is pretty spicy; less if you don't want it too spicy)

1 tbsp chopped ginger 

1 tbsp chopped garlic (optional)

1 tsp soy sauce

1/2-1 cup stock or water (can be the steeping water from the tofu)

2 tsp cornstarch + a little cold water

1 tsp ground Sichuan pepper

Steep tofu in hot water for 15 min, then drain. (optional)

Cook meat until browned, then add doubanjiang, douchi, red pepper, ginger, garlic, cook about 2 minutes. Add soy sauce, then tofu, and water/stock, cook about 3 minutes. Add green onions, then cornstarch slurry, then Sichuan pepper.

You could add a little sugar along with the soy sauce, or a little sesame oil at the end, but this seems rare.

Source: Every Grain of Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop, The Mala Project by Taylor Holliday https://blog.themalamarket.com/chengdu-challenge-10-mapo-doufu/, Let's Cook Japanese Food by Amy Kaneko (I know), Andrea Nguyen at NY Times cooking https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021459-mapo-tofu, and my friend Meagan