three genders in a wenchcoat

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this was gonna be a different dish but I bought crushed pineapple instead of chunk and I'm not gonna fuck with that texture amid firmer veggies, which means I also didn't have a can of pineapple juice so the sauce is half improv lol. worked out tho!

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in the first year after the type2 diagnosis 🦡 was wary of medication side effects (low blood sugar can be worse than high in the short term) and instead of actually researching those it went on a deep dive into recent UC Davis research which pinpoints saturated fats, especially from animal sources, as the primary catalyst of insulin resistance. the resulting diet¹ was not strictly vegan but most of it landed there by default².

this was one of the staples of that era, we'd have it several times a week. delicious, dead simple prep, couldn't even be ruined by ADHD!

start the oven pre-heating to 350. scrub a potato or three. our fave is large yukons (tender skin, creamy texture), these are reds (a little sweeter and denser), and of course russets work fine (a bit more fibrous, thicker but still entirely edible skin).

make a paste of salt, ground black pepper, powdered red pepper (paprika is fine, or spicier if you prefer), and a bit of vinegar (malt vinegar is great, or just substitute a favorite hot sauce, but you'll still want the powdered pepper to bind it into paste). lay out a piece of foil for each potato, coat them in the paste and lay them on the foil, rinse your hands (avoids coating the outer foil too, which would crust up in the oven) and wrap them. best technique I've found is place the potato diagonally (ends pointing at the foil's corners), fold the corners down flat one at a time, then squeeze to bunch them up a bit.

set a timer for 2 hours (assuming medium potatoes, large ones could take 3, when in doubt go longer because even twice as long won't really hurt them) and put them directly on the oven rack, with the bunched side of the foil wrap facing up (so nothing drips).

when they're done, pull them out with a pot holder (or just a dish towel lol) and unwrap them onto a plate. the bunched-up foil which is not in direct contact with the potato should immediately be cool enough to handle, I usually just pinch an edge there and shake to unroll it.

this is where you need to be the most careful about heat: cut them in half with your sharpest knife, then cut a grid into the exposed starch (try not to cut the skin). aim for roughly 1cm squares; the goal is to make grooves for oil. when that's done, surprise, lightly drizzle on some oil! peanut, avocado or olive all work well and keep the saturated fats fairly low. now that they've been open for a minute they'll have cooled considerably, so I like to flex them a little to really get the oil into those grooves. you don't want a pool on top when you're done (but an overpour on one can often just be poured onto another). usually when I'm done with this step I'll blot any excess off the plate/bottoms with a paper towel to avoid oily fingers later.

and now: the dressings. this is where shit gets tasty. in this exact order (trust me or don't lol):

1. mild to medium habanero sauce. you're after the flavor more than the spice! there are lots of options; look for labels that say nothing about how badass you are, or how much it's gonna hurt to shit. spread it evenly with your fingers. rub it in good.
2. your choice of steak sauce (brown sauce if you're Commonwealth). my favorite is probably London Pub, A1 works fine, you could go BBQ if you want. the pictured batch features a peach-and-onion hot sauce that I've been using as steak sauce.
3. dried dill. just a fucking avalanche of dill. it's not too much until you're worried about your mouth drying out from being completely coated in dill.
4. sauerkraut. preferably look for the stuff that requires refrigeration before it's opened. again, just absolutely pile it on. I went light on this batch so you could see the other toppings under it in the photo.

no utensils required, just pick 'em up and go to town!

1. it actually worked very well, brought our A1c nearly below the diagnostic line. but by that point 🦡 had found medications it wasn't afraid of, and we wanted access to burgers and cheese again. ironically it turns out we mostly lost our taste for them, but it's good to not worry about it when the odd craving hits. and hey, now we are below the line!

2. an early version of this used nonfat yogurt in place of sour cream, but for a while we wound up serving that as a side under broccoli instead, and lately are just eating less overall so the meal is all the way vegan after all

🐲 details below

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.

updates!

• lemon juice good!
• more sichuan good!
• brainstorm: BASIL! basil good!
• so, the batch above was the first time I used the mandoline. I also tried blanching the potatoes to see if it would help reach the target texture quicker and more evenly. didn't seem to make a difference, so this time I skipped that. turns out! cutting with the mandoline leaves a lot more starchy juice on the potato slivers than hand-cutting, which had been washed off by blanching. didn't affect the flavor but this batch has a distinct coating which... isn't too bad, but yeah still better without 😅