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Jim Dixon wrote about food for WW for more than 20 years, but these days most of his time is spent at his olive oil-focused specialty food business Wellspent Market. Jim’s always loved to eat, and he encourages his customers to cook by sending them recipes every week through his newsletter. We’re happy to have him back creating some special dishes just for WW readers.
All of the recipes in my friend Lola Milholland’s new book, Group Living and Other Recipes: A Memoir (Spiegel & Grau, 319 pages, $28) include the name of whoever made it in the kitchen of the Holman House, the home she shares with an evolving cast of fellow travelers searching for an alternative version of home and family. But Group Living and Other Recipes isn’t really a cookbook, even though it includes gems like Franny’s Chicken Adobo and Theresa’s Garlicky Panfried Pasta. Milholland writes about the nearly two decades she’s shared her childhood home in an ongoing experiment in communal living, and since she loves food, a big part of it is cooking and eating together.
This recipe comes from her boyfriend Corey Lunn, whom she describes as not feeling too confident in the kitchen when he first moved in. But, encouraged by his new roomies, he took the Holman’s denizens’ obsession with rice, greens, mushrooms, and pork and came up with this version of mapo tofu. Tasty enough to become part of the regular dinner rotation, Lunn’s usual bullshit, parenthetically titled Spicy Ground Pork, Tofu, Mushrooms, and Greens, doesn’t include the mouth-numbing Sichuan peppercorns in the OG dish, but it doesn’t require a search for obscure ingredients, either.
And as Milholland notes, it’s very adaptable. I switched a couple of things for flavor-adjacent ingredients, and I tweaked the cooking process to satisfy my preparation prejudices (my own usual bullshit). If you want to try Corey’s version, buy the book.
Adapted from Group Living and Other Recipes © 2024 by Lola Milholland. Published with permission of Spiegel & Grau.
Recipe
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 pound ground pork
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2-inch knob fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup soy sauce or tamari
1 tablespoon miso
1 tablespoon gochujang*
3-4 cups arugula leaves*
1 package firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil (optional but recommended)
5 green onions, sliced
*About half of a 10-ounce package, you could use spinach instead. Gochujang is Korean-style fermented chile paste, but Sriracha, chile flakes, or your favorite source of capsaicin heat is fine.
Cook the mushrooms in a hot, dry skillet or Dutch oven until most of their water has boiled off, about 10 minutes. Push them to the side and add the olive oil, garlic and ginger, cook for 30 seconds, then add the pork, breaking it up with a spatula as it cooks.
When the pork has lost its pink color, add the soy sauce, miso, gochujang, arugula, and tofu. Sift gently so the tofu doesn’t break up too much. Cook for another minute or two. Remove from the heat, drizzle with the sesame oil, top with the green onions, and serve over hot rice.