The Philippines might be a nation of rice eaters but that does not mean that Filipinos do not love their potatoes. From the basic French fry, to more exotic cuts such as curly fries, basket weaves, and tater drums, there are various frozen potato products that are available in the market, with the United States as the biggest supplier.
For chef Kalel Chan, corporate chef of the Raintree Group which operates dining concepts such as Chotto Matte, Friends and Family, Jones All Day, and Farmer’s Table Tagaytay, the ubiquity of the humble potato combined with its mild taste make it a versatile ingredient, making use of fresh, frozen, and dehydrated products to create items such as mochi, gnocchi, and even potato rice.
Potatoes USA — an organization representing America’s potato growers and importers— and chef Kalel have a long history of working together, with chef Kalel being one of the first chefs tapped by the organization when it started doing its promotions over a decade ago. The partnership was renewed recently with chef Kalel holding a cooking demo to show the versatility of US potato products.
Chef Kalel prepared 2 dishes, both inspired by Chinese Sichuan cuisine which has grown in popularity in recent years. The first is potato noodles with a spicy and aromatic Dan Dan sauce. This was followed by Mapo Tofu fries, a variation of the crowd favorite Overload Fries.
Dan Dan Noodles
Ingredients for the potato noodles:
200g standard potato granules
250g all-purpose flour
3g salt
4 eggs (depends on size)
200ml water
50g all-purpose flour (for dusting)
Ingredients for the dan dan sauce:
3g Sichuan ground pepper
10g sugar
20g prepared chili oil (rayu oil)
5g grated garlic
100g tahini
1g five-spice
1 cup hot chicken stock
Procedure
Mix the dried ingredients together in a big stainless bowl with a wire whisk, except the 50g flour for dusting.
Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and mix the wet and dry mixture together. When it gets stiff, knead the dough by hand.
Form a ball of dough and let it rest in the chiller for at least one hour.
Cut the dough into 4 and form each like a ball. Dust the table and the balls with flour, and knead them one by one with a rolling pin. Once flattened with the desired thickness, fold the dough and cut it by hand into noodles.
Boil water with salt and cook the noodles for 2 minutes.
While the noodles are boiling, make the dan dan sauce. In a bowl, mix tahini, soy sauce, chili oil, sugar, Sichuan pepper, grated garlic, and five-spice. Add hot chicken stock if you want to make the dan dan sauce thinner.
Once the noodles are done, strain and pour the dan dan sauce on top.
Mapo Tofu Potato Cheese Fries
Ingredients:
20g cooking oil
20g garlic
20g ginger
20g onions
200g ground pork
40g shoyu
60g sake
20g mirin
20g sugar
200g water
2g Sichuan ground pepper
60g tobanjan bean paste
30g sesame oil
200g soft tofu
50g grated cheddar cheese
50g grated pepper jack cheese
20g chopped spring onions
400g US seasoned crisp fries
10 ml slurry
Procedure
Heat the oil and saute garlic, ginger, onions, and ground pork.
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.
When the sauce becomes thick, add the soft tofu.
Fry the US seasoned crisp fries. Pour the mapo tofu on top or on the side of the fries and add the grated cheeses as topping. Broil or torch to melt the cheese then garnish with chopped spring onions.
