Chinese Spicy Potato Shreds

I prepared this easy breezy vegetable dish for the 4th day of Blogging Marathon  .Owing to my craze for cookbooks, I got 3 cookbooks in Chinese for RMB 10.Though I cannot read the language,my friend Ju helped me out here and I wrote them all in English as she translated them.

This recipe is from one of those books. I do not know if they are available online. The book is called – Yingyang chao shishu roughly translated as Vegetable dishes, which has around 90 recipes to cook different vegetables. You can catch a glimpse of the book here.

The cuisine in the region where I stay is very mild. I have rarely seen a spicy dish. The dishes though mild have a spicy dipping sauce with vinegar and soya sauce.If you prefer the spicy version you can always go in for the spicy dipping sauce or satisfy yourself with the soyasauce / vinegar. This dish is from a province that serves spicy food, a place in the Miao and Tujia minority region.If you recollect, we have a restaurant called Awashanzhai here where we get spicy and delicious Chinese vegetarian food. A real boon for us!You can read more about the region,its delicacies and specialties and about the restaurant here and here.

I love to have this dish at the restaurant but it is served way too oily.This recipe that I made from the book uses minimal oil and tastes just as delicious.

I used :

Potato – 1 , large

Red chillies – 8
Salt to taste
Oil – 2 teaspoons
Spring onions greens [chopped] to garnish

1. Wash and peel the potatoes.
2. Cut them into very thin strips [matchsticks] and keep them submerged in water till ready to cook .Drain water just before use.
3. Break the red chillies into small pieces , shake out and discard the seeds.
4. Heat oil in a wok.When it starts smoking, put in the red chillies and turn down the heat.[ Be sure to open the kitchen windows and switch on the exhaust]
5. Immediately add the drained potato shreds and increase the heat.
6. Add salt and mix.
7. Cook , stirring continuously, for a couple of minutes or till the potato shreds are almost done. They should still have a light crunch.
8. Remove from heat and serve garnished with spring onion greens.

Note:

• The potato gets cooked really fast so keep an eye on the wok.
•  You can decrease the quantity of red chillies used to suit your taste.
• Sometimes I add a dash of lemon juice after removing it from heat and you get a really tangy and spicy potato shreds like the one served in the restaurant.

Check out blogging marathon page to see what my fellow marathoners are cooking this week.

If time permits, take a look at the post I have updated in my Travel Blog –The Wild Goose Pagoda in the ancient city of Xi’an, China….

2010 -Read the review of the Healthy Heart Cookbook and try out a tasty Bing – Chinese Spring Onion Parathas.

Bon Appetit…