Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to Hawaiian comfort food classics with an homage to a dish that sadly no longer exists, which is the Mapo Moco found at Papa'aina, on the Lahaina wharfs of Maui. Although sadly Papa'aina was lost to the Maui fires in 2023, its culinary legacy created by chef Lee Anne Wong still lives on in my camera roll, as I was fortunate enough to grab a bite in their space before the fires took it from us. For those unfamiliar, a "mapo moco" is the mashing together of two dishes that we have made on this channel already, one a classic Hawaiian dish, and the other a classic Sichuan dish. Mapo tofu is a spicy braised ground pork and tofu dish commonly found in Chinese Sichuan cuisine that most notably makes use of chili oil, doubanjiang, and Sichuan peppercorn to create its firey red, saucy qualities.

Similarly, the loco moco is also a classic Hawaiian dish that features a hamburger patty served on top of a bed of rice, then stacked with a runny egg on top, then covered in gravy (some folks in the comments of this channel have somewhat accurately described this dish as a Hawaiian Salisbury steak, which I don't disagree with). So! today, we are making a fusion of these two dishes, wherein the "mapo" or braised ground pork element of our mapo tofu will serve in lieu of our gravy covered hamburger patty for our loco moco, yielding a spicy, saucy, runny, delicious abomination that shouldn't work, but it absolutely does. Hope you try it.

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Serves 2-3

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 cloves garlic

  • 1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger

  • 3 green onions

  • 1 lb ground pork

  • eggs

  • peanut oil

  • sesame seed

  • 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorn

  • corn starch slurry (2 tbsp corn starch dissolved in water)

INGREDIENTS (marinade)

  • 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

  • 1 tbsp shaoxing wine

  • 1/2 tsp white pepper

  • 1/2 tsp corn starch

INGREDIENTS (sauce)

  • 4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)

  • 2 tbsp doubanjiang

  • 1 tbsp chili crisp oil

  • 1 tbsp brown sugar

PREP

  • CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside

  • MINCE the ginger, set aside

  • SEPARATE the whites and greens of the green onions, then slice the whites thinly, and the greens horizontally, set aside

  • COMBINE the ground pork with all marinade ingredients, then let marinate for 15 minutes

  • COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside

ON THE STOVE

  • HEAT a wok as hot as possible, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao

  • ADD the garlic, ginger, and the whites of the green onions and bloom for 15 seconds until fragrant

  • ADD the ground pork and saute for 2-3 minutes until pebbly

  • ADD the sauce mixture plus 1/2 cup of water and braise for 15 minutes

  • ADD the corn starch slurry and reduce until a thickened sauce forms, then remove from heat

  • CLEAN the wok, reheat over medium low heat, then add 1 tbsp Sichuan peppercorn and dry toast for 2 minutes until fragrant

  • REMOVE to a mortar and pestle then crush into a fine powder

  • PLATE the mapo over rice, set aside

  • HEAT the wok over high heat, then add 2 tbsp peanut oil and long yao

  • ADD the egg to the center of the wok and spoon the oil over top

  • PLATE the egg on top of the mapo, then finish with Sichuan pepper, sesame seed, green onions, and additional chili oil

 

tagged with mapo moco, mapo tofu, loco moco, hawaiian food, hawaiian fusion, papa'aina, hawaiian cooking, hawaiian recipe, sichuan food, sichuan cooking, chinese food, chinese cooking, chinese recipe