Mapo Tofu w/pork & red chard

Though I just said we don’t cook red meat very often, the next few posts will detour from the norm. I had some ground pork in the freezer that I had bought a while back to make dumplings but never got around to it. Rather than buying more ground turkey, I figured I would just use what we already had at home.

Although this dish looks like something I have made before, the use of red chard and brown rice represent two new things for me. I have never cooked red chard before but picked it up at Stanley’s because it looked so fresh and vibrant. Turns out it is very much like spinach and my mom used to make soups with it. I will definitely be using this vegetable more often going forward!

Also, I have never cooked brown rice on my own before so that was somewhat of an experiment. I usually get the frozen packets of microwaveable brown rice from Trader Joe’s and only make white rice in the rice cooker. However, in an effort to completely transition to whole grains, I picked up some Nishiki short-grain brown rice from the Asian grocery. The package directions indicate a 1:3 ratio (my normal white rice: water is 1:1.5), which sounded excessive. Nevertheless, after a quick call to my dad, I decided to follow the directions. While the rice came out cooked, it was a little mushy. Next time I’ll scale back to 2.25 and see how it goes in the rice cooker (my rice cooker doesn’t have a brown rice setting).

A full bunch of red chard cooks down to almost nothing

All this is just 1 bunch of chopped red chard, 1/4 lb. ground pork, 1 package diced medium tofu and a few spoonfuls of mapo tofu sauce. I cooked 1 cup of brown rice and it was a perfectly proportioned for about 5-6 servings.