Potato recipes to try
Who doesn’t love a warm, lightly salted, and crispy serving of French fries? How about a tub of seasoned potato wedges? Whether you consume them alone or as a key ingredient of your next culinary masterpiece, you can never go wrong with potatoes.
Not only are they versatile, they are more energy-packed than most vegetables. They’re fat-free, gluten-free, plant-based, affordable, cholesterol-free, and sodium-free, with only 110 calories per 148-g skin-on serving. They’re an excellent source of vitamin C (27 mg or 30 percent of the daily value) and potassium (620 mg or 15 percent of the daily value), too.
Recently, members of the media participated in a cooking showdown. The challenge: to use US potatoes alongside other ingredients to create a savory dish.
US potatoes are known for meeting the highest quality and safety standards from seed to harvest processes, and for passing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s certification process.
Fresh or table stock potatoes such as russets, fingerlings, yellows and reds are available from November to March in select stores in Metro Manila and Cebu.
In groceries
Frozen potatoes, such as straight-cut fries, wedges, hash browns, curly fries, and tater drums are available year-round in groceries nationwide.
Instant or dehydrated potatoes such as instant, mashed, flakes, and granules are available in groceries and are also offered by suppliers and baking supply stores. These are used by most restaurants to make mashed potatoes and bakeries to make potato bread. Like the frozen varieties, instant potatoes are made from real and fresh potatoes.
At the event, Kalel Chan, the corporate chef of the Raintree Restaurant Group who specializes in Asian and Western cuisine, conducted a cooking demo to inspire the participants. He created two dishes: Mapo Tofu Potato Cheese Fries and US Potato Ramen (recipes below).
The ramen noodles were handmade using potato granules and all-purpose flour; they had a distinct potato flavor that blended seamlessly with the dan dan sauce. The Mapo Tofu Potato Cheese Fries were zesty, flavorful, and filling.
The participants were given the following recipes to follow: California Potato Burrito Bowl, Cheesy Potato Kaldereta Bake, Potato and Eggplant Tower, Skillet U.S. Potato Wedges and Steak Rodeo, and Shrimp Skewer and U.S. Tater Drum Cocktail.
The winning dish was inspired by the last one on the list, but prepared differently. Both shrimp and tater drums were fried to perfection before being drizzled with tomato-paprika sauce made from scratch and melted cheese. The winning contestant–this writer–dubbed the dish Cheese-Paprika Shrimp and Tater Cocktail.
Mapo Tofu Potato Cheese Fries
- 20 g cooking oil
- 20 g garlic
- 20 g ginger
- 20 g onions
- 200 g ground pork
- 49 g shoyu
- 60 g sake
- 20 g mirin
- 20 g sugar
- 200 g water
- 2 g Sichuan ground pepper
- 60 g tobanjan bean paste
- 30 g sesame oil
- 200 g soft tofu
- 30 g grated cheddar cheese
- 50 g grated pepper jack cheese
- 20 g chopped spring onions
- 400 g US seasoned crisp fries
- 10 ml slurry
1. Heat oil and sauté garlic, ginger, onions and ground pork.
2. Brown the ground pork and add sake, mirin, shoyu, sugar, Sichuan pepper, tobanjan paste, sesame oil and water. Simmer for 2 minutes and thicken with slurry.
3. When the sauce becomes thick, add in the soft tofu. Pour the Mapo tofu on the side of the fried seasoned crisp fries and top it off with grated cheese. Garnish with chopped spring onions.
US Potato Ramen with Dan Dan Sauce
- Potato Noodles
- 200 g standard potato granules
- 250 g all-purpose flour
- 3 g salt
- 4 eggs
- 200 ml water
- 50 g all-purpose flour for dusting
1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a big stainless bowl with a wire whisk, except the 50 g flour for dusting.
2. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and mix the wet and dry mixture together.
3. When it gets stiff, knead the dough by hand.
4. When a ball of dough is formed, rest the dough in the chiller for 1 hour.
5. After one hour, cut the ball into 4 and form the pieces into balls.
6. Dust the table with flour and dust the 4 balls.
7. Knead the ball one by one with a rolling pin.
8. When it’s flattened to the desired thickness, fold the noodles and cut by hand.
9. Dust with flour so it won’t stick together. Boil water with salt and cook the noodles for 2 mins.
10. Strain and pour the dan dan sauce on top.
11. Add chicken stock if you want to make the dan dan sauce thinner.
Dan Dan Sauce
- 3 g Sichuan ground pepper
- 10 g sugar
- 20 g prepared chili oil (ryu oil)
- 5 g grated garlic
- 100 g tahini
- 15 g soy sauce
- 1 g 5 spice
- 1 c hot chicken stock
1. In a bowl, mix tahini, soy sauce, prepared chili oil, sugar, Sichuan pepper, grated garlic, 5 spice.
2. Add hot chicken stock to desired thickness and mix.
