Mapo beans, anyone?

Mapo beans?

I don’t know if there’s a Japanese dish like this, but I love mixing and matching vegetables with the staple Mapo recipe. One of my favorite Chinese/Japanese dish is Mapo tofu. I also love variations of it such as Mapo Nasu and particularly this one, Mapo Beans.

Cooking Mapo is rather easy as long as you have the right ingredients. There are two crucial ingredients for Mapo and that is Chili Bean Paste (Tou Ban Jan) and Chili Garlic sauce (the chinese kind, not the sweet chili sauce in the market). These two ingredients are easily available in groceries and won’t cost an arm and a leg to get. For those who are scared that these rot easily, rest assured that they’re good to store for a year or so in your fridge and you’ll be addicted to mapo that you’ll be shocked that you’re out of Tou Ban Jan and Chili Garlic sauce.

Anyway, on to the recipe!
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