A few years ago, I noticed a steady increase in the opening of canteen style eateries that sold what looked like home-styled cooking from China. It wasn’t “restaurant-styled” food and the dishes that were on display were not familiar to me. As more and more of these eateries opened up, I decided it was time to give the food a try.
The food for sale in these eateries are pretty much similar. This isn’t a bad thing as I take it to mean that the dishes they offer must be pretty good for their patrons to want to eat the same kind of food over and over again.
A supermarket I patronise had a small corner set aside in it to house a food stall that sold this said cuisine. I had passed it on numerous occasions. The food that was in the display case looked plain. It didn’t scream “eat me” but it did look fresh. And, I didn’t doubt for a minute that unfamiliar as I was with the food on display, that same food would bring happy eating to those who grew up enjoying it. I imagine it would be their kind of comfort food.
Thankfully, the food stall only does takeaways. Why? I had decided that the most effective way for me to decide if I might like this style of cooking was to try every dish they had to offer – they had 8. In the comfort of my home, there would be no one to judge me as I ate through all 8 dishes.
Fortunately, one can order single portion sizes for any item. Then, I realised that the stall also sold spring onion pancakes, fried and steamed breads, steamed buns – plain or filled with vegetables or meat, they sold cold noodles, … I stuck with the 8 dishes and yes, the fried onion pancake and a plain steam bun went home with me too.
How did I find the food? What an eye opening experience. Although it was a style of Chinese cooking that I had never tried before, I liked it. There was a lot more vinegar usage than what I was used to. The food was not heavily spiced or seasoned and there was a freshness to it. Most of the dishes were cooked briefly so there was plenty of texture to the food.
I returned several times for more takeaways. Then the pandemic happened. I have had to teach myself by surfing the internet on how to prepare some of their dishes. It hasn’t been easy as the recipes I had come across and tried, varied considerably. But variations are to be expected as there would be as many recipes for any comfort food as there are the number of families.
The recipe below is what I developed after many experimentations. I finally got the potatoes to taste exactly like the one sold by the food stall. Unfortunately for the stall and me, it became yet another victim of the current pandemic – they are no longer in business.
Chinese Vinegary Potatoes
| Prep: | ~15 minutes |
| Cook: | ~8 minutes |
| Inactive: | If you have the time, soak sliced potatoes to remove some of the starch (up to overnight) |
| Level: | Easy |
| Makes: | ~4 cups |
| Oven Temperature: | – |
| Can recipe be doubled? | Yes |
| Make ahead?- | Keeps well refrigerated up to 2 days. |
Ingredients1 cup=250ml=8.45 US fl oz ~3 Tablespoons neutral tasting oil Others |
Method
Soak matchstick-sliced potatoes (optional)
1. I soak the sliced potatoes to remove some of the starch. If you don’t have the time, you can skip it.
2. Potatoes may be soaked up to a day (refrigerate).
Wash and dry matchstick sliced potatoes
1. Whether or not you had soaked the potatoes, they need to be rinsed.
2. Drain and dry them as well as you can.
Flavour the oil
1. Use a nonstick pan if possible as it does reduce sticking when frying potatoes.
2. In a cold pan (same pan that you would be using to fry potatoes), add oil and the sichuan peppercorns.
3. Heat it up on medium-high heat, when it starts to smell fragrant, leave it in for a while longer. The colour will change to a slightly darker shade. Do not let them burn. Depending on the temperature of the oil, this process takes ~4 – 5 minutes.
4. Be ready to remove peppercorns with a slotted spoon and discard them.
Let’s fry
1. This process takes 3 minutes and perhaps less. Have all ingredients within easy reach.
2. Increase heat to high.
3. When oil is hot, add potatoes, stir briefly to coat it with oil (~30 seconds).
4. Stir in all of Seasoning 1.
5. Keep stirring for ~1 and 1/2 minutes to ensure even cooking. If it starts to stick to the pan, stir in ~1 – 2 Tablespoons water or enough just so that potatoes don’t stick to pan.
6. After the 1 and 1/2 minutes of stirring, taste potatoes. It should not taste raw but it should have an “al dente” bite to it.
7. When potatoes are cooked to “al dente”, turn off the heat. Stir in vinegar to taste. Taste and adjust seasoning(s).
8. Stop potatoes from cooking further by transferring them out immediately.
To serve
1. These taste nice hot, at room temperature or cold.
2. They can be eaten as part of a rice based meal but they can also be served as a cold accompaniment with a bowl of hot ramen for instance or with a mug of beer! And, you can as I have done, put them in a sandwich.
Tips
Serve these with beer
The norm would be to serve this potato dish as part of a rice based meal. Another option is to gather your drinking buddies, bring out your chopsticks, set out individual servings of these Vinegar Potatoes and perhaps serve up some salty peanuts alongside.
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