Add the leek slices (if using) and nudge them into the sauce. Add the stock or water, the white pepper and salt to taste and mix gently, again using the back of your scoop so you don't damage the tofu.īring to a boil, then simmer for a few minutes to allow the tofu to absorb the flavours of the seasonings. Push the tofu tenderly with the back of your ladle or wok scoop to mix it into the sauce without breaking up the cubes. Remove the tofu from the hot water with a perforated spoon, shaking off excess water, and lay it gently in the wok. Take care not to overheat the seasonings you want a thick, fragrant sauce and the secret of this is to let them sizzle gently, allowing the oil to coax out their flavours and aromas. Then do the same with the ginger and garlic. Next add the black beans and ground chillies (if using) and stir-fry for a few seconds more until you can smell them too. Reduce the heat to medium, add the chilli bean paste and stir-fry until the oil is a rich red colour and smells delicious. Pour in the cooking oil and swirl it around.
Slice the baby leeks or spring onion greens at a steep angle into thin "horse ears". This dish is best made with the tenderest tofu that will hold its shape when cut into cubes.Ĥ baby leeks or spring onions, green parts onlyġ tbsp fermented black beans, rinsed and drainedĢ tsp potato flour mixed with 2 tbsp cold waterĬut the tofu into 2cm cubes and leave to steep in very hot, lightly salted water while you prepare the other ingredients (do not allow the water to boil or the tofu will become porous and less tender). You can also use the green sprouts that emerge from onions or garlic bulbs if you forget about them for a while (as I often do). In Sichuan, they use garlic leaves (suan miao) rather than baby leeks, but as they are hard to find, tender young leeks make a good substitute, as do spring onion greens. Vegetarians find it addictive: one friend of mine has been cooking it every week since I first taught her the recipe some 10 years ago. This vegetarian version is equally sumptuous. The dish is traditionally made with minced beef, although many cooks now use pork. Mrs Chen's face was marked with smallpox scars, so she was given the affectionate nickname ma po, "pock-marked old woman". The dish is thought to date back to the late nineteenth century. It is named after the wife of a Qing dynasty restaurateur who delighted passing labourers with her hearty braised tofu, cooked up at her restaurant by the Bridge of 10,000 Blessings in the north of the city. Brownstein shows how the voices resistant to change may win the political battle for a time, but they cannot hold back the future.Mapo doufu is one of the best-loved dishes of the Sichuanese capital, Chengdu. Today, we are again witnessing a generational cultural divide. Ronald Brownstein reveals how 1974 represented a confrontation between a massive younger generation intent on change, and a political order rooted in the status quo. Rock Me on the Water traces the confluence of movies, music, television, and politics in Los Angeles month by month through that transformative, magical year. The early 1970s in Los Angeles was the time and the place where conservatives definitively lost the battle to control popular culture. At a time when Richard Nixon won two presidential elections with a message of backlash against the social changes unleashed by the sixties, popular culture was ahead of politics in predicting what America would become. Working in film, recording, and television studios around Sunset Boulevard, living in Brentwood and Beverly Hills or amid the flickering lights of the Hollywood Hills, a cluster of transformative talents produced an explosion in popular culture which reflected the demographic, social, and cultural realities of a changing America. Los Angeles that year, in fact, dominated popular culture more than it ever had before, or would again. Los Angeles in 1974 exerted more influence over popular culture than any other city in America. In this exceptional cultural history, Atlantic Senior Editor Ronald Brownstein-"one of America's best political journalists ( The Economist )-tells the kaleidoscopic story of one monumental year that marked the city of Los Angeles' creative peak, a glittering moment when popular culture was ahead of politics in predicting what America would become.
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