akhra

🏴🚩⚧️⚢♾️ΘΔ⚪

  • &🍯she/her 🐲xie/xer 🦡e/em/es

wenchcoat system:
🍯 Akhra (or Melli to disambiguate), ratel.
🐲 Rhiannon, drangolin.
🦡 Lenestre, American badger.

unless tagged or otherwise obvious, assume 🍯🐲🦡 in chorus; even when that's not quite accurate, we will always be in consensus. address collectively as Akhra (she/her), or as wenchcoat (she/her or plural).

💞@atonal440
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❤️‍🔥(not#onhere)
🧇@Reba-Rabbit


Discord (mention cohost, I get spam follows)
@akhra
Discord server ostensibly for the Twitch channel but with Cohost in hospice y'know what let's just link it here
discord.gg/AF57qnub3D

discovered potato stir fry while living in SF. became absolutely addicted. ordered it a couple times a week. burned out, got laid off, landed back in my home town, and decided to just figure out the recipe. in the process I have learned to julienne; acquired a mandoline to not spend two hours julienning; learned to make my own five-spice because the local stores are shit; acquired a mortar and pestle to make better five-spice.

this batch was near perfect. next time I'm going to try a splash of lemon juice because an entire cup of vinegar went in and I was still tempted to add more, and maybe a few whole sichuan peppercorns to nudge the five-spice balance. but fundamentally, this is the dish I've been chasing, nothing absent or mistaken. hell yeah.


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in reply to @akhra's post:

after putting together my first attempt ingredients I did search for a recipe, just to make sure I hadn't missed anything major. (I hadn't, it's super straightforward at that end, just takes practice to get the balance right!) the proper name of the dish is 酸辣土豆丝, suān là tǔdòu sī, "spicy and sour potato shreds" according to Google Translate.

the most basic recipe is just julienne potatoes, dried hot chili, fry oil and rice vinegar. pre-fry the chili to infuse the oil, stir-fry the potatoes until they lose the vegetable overtones (they'll still have some crunch, basically comes out al dente), then add vinegar and simmer a bit so it soaks in.

the way I first had it also had bell pepper, fresh jalapeño, and sichuan peppercorns; that's what I've been working on recreating. (I like the extra depth of five-spice, but as hinted above I've come around to sichuan being the star on that front! also, pre-fry these too)

the carrots in the photo are something I saw online, figured I'd try them; honestly they feel entirely optional, neither help nor harm the dish (but they're healthy and look nice so probably a win overall?) I've also experimented with serrano instead of jalapeño (more heat, good if you're in the mood) and shredded cabbage (quite tasty but a decidedly different dish, the cabbage dominates).

edit: oh, one other experiment this time around was blanching the potatoes (and carrots) after cutting, in the hopes of less fry time to evenly reach the target texture. I don't think it made any difference whatsoever 😆 and there doesn't seem to be much danger of over-frying (at least, I've never done it) so I probably won't do that again.

Awesome, I appreciate all the detail! My curiosity was piqued when you mentioned the vinegar, since that seemed like an atypical ingredient for a stir-fry (since it looked like you weren't using chinkiang vinegar).

I'm definitely going to give this a try, since we've got the means to whip it all up. Out of curiosity what kind of potato are you using here?

As far as pre-cooking potatoes, while blanching works, I've found that microwaving is the fastest way, at least when I'm working with diced potato. Not sure how it'd play out with julienned, but now's the time to try!

Once again, thanks for writing all this up! :eggbug-smile-hearts:

it looked like you weren't using chinkiang vinegar

can't find it at the stores here, they have "asian" sections but no asian staff to curate them. (horrible historical reasons for that too, sigh.) and come to think of it, maybe I've never tasted it in isolation? wonder if missing that is why I jumped to five-spice instead of just sichuan...

what kind of potato are you using here?

this one was russets, I usually use large yukons (for pretty much everything TBH) but my housemate wanted potatoes the other night so I gave him the ones I'd picked up, and they only had smaller yukons when I hit the store again. 🤷‍♀️ russets are a bit more grainy, but it doesn't make much of a difference in this context (and I'm fairly sure the version I fell in love with originally was russets just from the length of them, lol)

let me know how yours turns out!

updates!

  • lemon juice good!
  • more sichuan good!
  • brainstorm: BASIL! basil good!
  • okay turns out the blanching did serve a purpose. my previous attempts had been hand-cut, these last two I used a mandoline. turns out that leaves a lot more starchy juice on the potato slivers, which blanching had washed off so I didn't notice! this batch didn't get rinsed and thus has a notable slimy coating. didn't hurt the flavor but definitely better without lol

I never got around to thanking you for posting the updates! (thanks!)

One thing I do when using the microwave to cook my potatoes is rinse them off prior to cooking them, for the exact reason you mention. Makes a huge difference.

I haven't had a chance to try out the recipe, various things have come up. :eggbug-sob: I still intend to try it out!