Red braised potatoes with garlic, chili bean paste and leek.
Back to my childhood, potatoes are my favorite food. We grew our own potatoes and usually harvest large amount of potatoes in smaller sizes. Then we keep them in a something like a basement just like how we keep sweet potatoes. They can last very long, so we ate potatoes frequently. I have tasted various Chinese potatoes dishes including mashed potatoes, potatoes slice crispy, braised potatoes, potato soup etc. And the red braised potato was my favorite.
Grown up, those little small potatoes are not always available. We get potatoes in huge size and usually they are used in stir-fry recipes like sweet and sour shredded potatoes.
To make this memory red braised potatoes, firstly get on bag of small potatoes and remove the dots and dirty part of the skin. You can also choose to peel the skin off after boiling.
Then bring some water in pot and cook the potatoes around 15 minutes until the chop stickers can be inserted easily. Move out and soaked in cold water to cool down. And then cut into small chunks. Or if the potatoes you are using are really small in size, just keep how it used to be.
Garlic and doubanjiang are used as the main flavor. If doubanjiang is unavailable, you can use other chili paste. And then two leeks are added to add some highlights to potatoes.
- bag of small potatoes , around 400g
- 4 garlic cloves , finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons doubanjiang , or you can adjust the amount depending how spicy you want it to be
- 2 teaspoon cooking oil , sunflower seed oil
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 3 fresh green leeks , cut into 1 inch sections
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Wash the potatoes and remove the dots on the skin with a knife or scoop if the potatoes are small in size or just cook it and peel the skins off.
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Add around 2 teaspoons salt in a pot along with water to cover the potatoes. Continue to cook around 15 minutes after boiling or until you can insert a chop sticker inside the potato easily.
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Transfer the potatoes out and soak in cold water to cool down. Cut into small chunks.
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Heat up 2 teaspoons sunflower seed oil in wok, add doubanjiang (or other chili paste) to stir-fry until the oil turns to red. Add finely chopped garlic in to stir fry until aroma.
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Return cooked potatoes along with the leek sections. Do a quick fry to toss the sauce evenly on potatoes.
Since the doubanjiang I am using contains salt, so I do not add extra salt. You can taste before transferring the dish out and add small amount of salt if necessary.
I love the flavor of dubanjang and chili with the potatoes, which will make a wonderful side dish to any Asian meal. Nice!
Holly,
That’s true. This was one of my favorite potato dish. However we are just having too many other new dishes so forget to cook it for quite a long time.
I found your blog because I was searching for a recipe for a spicy potato dish I had in Chengdu this summer. Can’t wait to try this. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for dropping me this note. Happy cooking ahead.
Thank you for this recipe! It was so easy to make, and everyone loved it!! It reminded me of extra tasty home fries, for the Americans out there. I will definitely make this often as it’s quick enough to do on a week night.