In the food world, there is much debate over the perfect crispy roast potatoes, the silkiest, airiest mash, the creamiest gratin. I get it: A good mash can make our knees weak and crispy potatoes never fail to bring satisfaction. For much of my formative years, however, the years when I gleefully lived under the culinary sovereignty of my mother’s cooking, my idea of the perfect potatoes was very different. I lived for stir-fried potatoes.
In Chinese cuisine potatoes occupy a very different role on the plate. They are generally cooked as a savory vegetable dish to be eaten with rice. My mother’s potatoes were stir-fried with chiles and green peppers, and sometimes she would pour beaten eggs over the top to make an omelet. There were other dishes too: potatoes sliced into bite-size chunks and tossed with vegetables and pork, smothered in brown gravy.
In many ways understanding the joy of stir-fried potatoes asks us to rethink everything we previously considered necessary when cooking and eating these beloved tubers. Stir-fried potatoes won’t be crispy nor completely tender, but they will be ready in mere minutes and delicious in their own right.
For this recipe, as with all stir-fry dishes, preparation is key. It’s imperative to slice the potatoes as uniformly as possible in order to ensure even cooking. I write this, but, admittedly, I am notorious for my haphazard slicing skills. Lucky for me I don’t mind an undercooked vegetable (I tell myself it adds texture). Yet even with my undisciplined knife skills, I resist a mandoline or a food processor and julienne by hand. It’s not the quickest or most consistent method, but it’s how my mother prepared her potatoes and I cannot resist the allure of tradition and ritual.
For the most satisfying eating experience, I aim for the longest strips possible from large potatoes. Russets are perfect here, but waxier potatoes will work. Peel the potatoes—for stir-frying, the peel gets in the way of the velvety texture—and then slice lengthwise into uniform slices. Now stack the slices up into a manageable pile and slice again to make long, thin strips. (Of course, you can opt for a mandoline or the julienne attachment on your food processor if you’re not a glutton for punishment like me.) Submerge them into a big bowl of water for a few minutes to wash away the excess starch that threatens to make your potatoes gummy. This soaking step also means you can prep your potatoes a few hours in advance without fear of them oxidizing and then finish the dish off right before you’re ready to eat. (For extra insurance, add a squeeze of lemon juice or a splash of vinegar to the soaking water, then keep the cut potatoes in the fridge for up to 24 hours.)
For the cooking, you want a pan big enough to toss the potatoes around. In stir-frying, movement of the ingredients is key to achieving even cooking over such high heat. A wok is perfect, but for those without one, a large, heavy cast-iron pan works just as well.
The cornerstone of stir-frying is aggressive heat, so start off by heating your cooking vessel for a few minutes—wait until you see wisps of smoke lift off the surface. You’ll want to have all of the ingredients ready to go before you start cooking, an essential when a recipe comes together this quickly. After your aromatics, your potatoes will only take 4–5 minutes of tossing until they are just tender. Al dente is a good description here–just soft enough that the potato will still offer slight resistance when you take a bite. Finish with a dash of black vinegar (though white vinegar or rice vinegar would be acceptable here) for a potato dish that’s reminiscent of salt and vinegar chips but somehow tastes perfect with a bowl of rice.
There are no lashings of fat, no long cook time, no golden brown edges, and no crispy exteriors. To me it’s the perfect potato dish.
