The whole dish takes four minutes in the wok and about ten minutes of knife work, and almost everything that goes wrong with it goes wrong before the heat. Slivers cut unevenly cook unevenly. Slivers that keep their surface starch glue together into a single lump. Rinse them under cold water until it runs clear, dry them well, and the rest is timing.
Sichuan · Side
Hot and Sour Potato Slivers That Stay Crunchy
Rinsing the starch off is what keeps the slivers separate. Vinegar goes in at the end, off the heat, so the sourness survives the wok.
- Prep15 min
- Cook5 min
- Serves3
- LevelEasy
Ingredients
| 3 | waxy potatoes , peeled |
| 2 | garlic cloves , sliced |
| 1 | long green chilli , sliced |
| 3 | dried red chillies |
| 1 tbsp | light soy sauce |
| 1 tbsp | oyster sauce |
| 1 tbsp | aged black vinegar |
| 1 | spring onion , white and green split |
| 3 tbsp | cooking oil |
| 1/2 tsp | salt |
Method
- Cut the potatoes into the thinnest even slices you can manage, stack them and cut again into slivers about 2 mm across.
- Soak the slivers in cold water, swish them around and change the water twice, until it stays clear instead of milky. Drain and dry them in a towel.
- Heat the wok until a drop of water skitters, add the oil, then the garlic and dried chillies. Ten seconds is enough; burnt garlic turns the whole dish bitter.
- Add the green chilli and the white parts of the spring onion and stir once.
- Tip in the potato slivers and keep them moving over full heat for a minute.
- Season with the soy, oyster sauce and salt, still stirring, for another minute to a minute and a half, until the slivers turn from opaque to translucent at the edges but still snap when bitten.
- Pull the wok off the heat, add the vinegar and the green spring onion, toss twice and serve straight away.
Notes
- Vinegar added early evaporates and leaves the dish flat. Off the heat at the end is the only place it belongs.
- Waxy potatoes hold their shape; floury ones break down and turn the plate cloudy. If you only have floury ones, cut them thicker and cut the cooking time.
Ratios and technique checked against 立君Ccc on Douguo (巨巨巨好吃｜酸辣土豆丝). The method here is written by Stellaok; the photograph is the source kitchen's, credited on the image above and linked back to the page it came from. No recipe text is reproduced.