Hot and Numbing Stir-Fried New Potatoes Recipe (2024)

As someone living in HK, this is delightful! Just improvised a smashed potato version. First boil new potatoes in salted water with baking soda. Post smashing and letting them dry out, coat them in hot oil flavored w/ minced garlic, star anise, green & red sichuan peppercorn, dried chillies, saving the fried aromatics for later. Post crisping the smashed potatoes in hot oven, combine with fried aromatics, cumin powder, more salt and fresh spring onion. Use some of Kenji's roast potato hacks!

The spice mixture is addictive. It reminded us of chili crisp. The instructions to separate the spices into two bowls seem overly complicated. After reading them more than once and trying to follow what to mix with what, we decided to just throw everything on the potatoes. They came out excellent!

Hate for the first comment to be so deviant but i made it for lunch without the potatoes (sorry), and can confirm the spice mix goes well on a stir-fry of leftover veg + lamb.

Jeff, I am pretty sure HK refers to Hong Kong, not Hell's Kitchen

OK, for everyone who's confused by "water as salty as seawater": it means very salty, saltier than you think it should be. It's not a literal measurement, but more of an encouragement: go ahead and make the water even saltier. This is a useful shorthand, because people will use very different amounts of water (though I understand why some cooks would prefer exact amounts). Salty water enhances flavor, and doesn't make the final product too salty!

If you need a few laughs, goggle "salted water for boiling" and click on the Epicurious link.

For people complaining that they don't know how the salty the sea is: I think you're taking it too literally. Just salt the water fairly strong, so it tastes more or less like what you imagine salty seawater would/could taste like. A few palmfuls of salt, give or take, would be fine. It's hard to mess this one up unless you drastically over- or undersalt the water.

I make a version that is flavorful but not hot. Salt, pepper, and then a very generous shower of seeds: caraway and fennel are my favorites.

The potatoes are good with just salt and pepper, but some minced fresh rosemary and chopped garlic puts them at home on a traditional Thanksgiving table.It was in the article...

As an oceanographer, I don't regularly taste seawater, but I do measure its salinity. A very salty ocean, such as the Red Sea, contains about 40 grams of salt per kilogram of seawater. If you weigh the salt it doesn't matter whether you use kosher salt or table salt (or any other flake size). One possible conversion to volume: use 3 Tbsp. of Morton kosher salt per 1 liter of water.

Sounds great, but it seems a bit precious to grind the spices in two batches...

Two pounds of potatoes would have been too much for the poor wok, my wife and I used half that much.I followed the directions for the spice blend, and I ended up with a small bowl full of craziness.I used just a three finger pinch for the potatoes and that was enough for me, and I love ma la food. It was too much for my wife, and she spent the night coughing and sneezing.Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. It is a good recipe. But my goodness, I've never made a spice blend like that...

It's the whole star.

Curious what living in Hell's Kitchen has to do with the recipe being delightful -- I suspect it's equally delightful on upper East side, or even Cucamonga for that matter...

It varies a lot based on what type of salt you use and the exact quantity of water. Also, the point is that it doesn't actually matter that much. Pour however much water is needed to cover the potatoes, dump a few palmfuls of salt into the water, taste it, and adjust as needed (which will be probably be unnecessary after you've done this once or twice). Quick and effective, and no need to measure everything.

Sea water is about 35 parts per thousand - 35 grams per kilogram. A kilogram of water is a liter. Its salty! While you wouldn't measure your water and salt every time, it would be worth doing it once to get an idea of what you are aiming for.

Amazingly, the Epicurious link is still active in Sept 2023.Seriously, for not just a few but many, and clever, laughs, goggle “salted water for boiling" and click on the Epicurious link.A few of the bestest ones:Use tears to enhance the flavorIs there a vegan version?Do I add the salt to the water, or vice versa?Make a double batch and freeze any leftovers

Hasn't any reader or writer or the NYT ever heard of something called a microwave? Possibly could be used effectively rather than boiling water.

Wouldn't change a thing. So good I eat it cold straight out of the fridge. Had spice mix leftover (just added to the potatoes to taste). Made with cut pieces of regular potatoes (to maybe ping-pong sized wedges) and worked just fine. Just be careful to watch the potatoes or you'll have Sichuan mashed potatoes!

Wonderful flavor. Use the freshest Sz. Pepper you can find, or the numbing effect will be minimal. Chop scallions finer or they'll fall off. Use less oil to cook the potatoes, and probably less to dampen the spice mix, or they'll be so oily that the spice mix slides off. I'd say "mix all spices but 1t cumin and grind to consistency of sugar; then add last 1t cumin and grind a tiny bit more until the cumin is broken up." The powder-fine stuff seemed hard to get onto the potatoes.

40 minutes and 15 ingredients doesn’t exactly qualify as a simplified method for potatoes, as written in the Times article. Sounds more like a promotion for the wok book. Think I’ll stick with mashed.

RE: the question of salting water - Seawater is 3.5% sodium chloride by weight, or 3.5 gm/100 ml water. I tsp of table salt is 5.7 gm; 1 tsp Diamond Kosher salt is about 3 gm (because it's flaky, it takes up more space).

As an oceanographer, I don't regularly taste seawater, but I do measure its salinity. A very salty ocean, such as the Red Sea, contains about 40 grams of salt per kilogram of seawater. If you weigh the salt it doesn't matter whether you use kosher salt or table salt (or any other flake size). One possible conversion to volume: use 3 Tbsp. of Morton kosher salt per 1 liter of water.

These are amazing ! Had the incredible experience enjoying them in the Muslim Market street in Xían China . If you make it to Xían the food stall lined streets are a must experience!

Crazy me, I saw the recipe and looked over it briefly. I didn't look closely at the "form" of the spices such as the star anise. So, I adapted the recipe to use what I did have on hand. I used anise seed, out of cumin seeds, fennel, 6 small Thai peppers (I like it hot), and black peppercorns. I thought it needed just a bit more flavor, so I added about a rounded 1/2 tsp. of turmeric to my mortar. Like I said, had to use what was on hand. It was excellent.

YUM! We aren't really into frying things and I don't own a wok or anything similar to a wok; so I changed up the recipe. I diced up the potatoes; tossed them in olive oil; then sprinkled "quite a lot" of the spice mixture #1 on them; and then roasted the dish at 425 for 45 minutes. & finally cranked it up to 450 to crisp them for 10 minutes. Then I sprinkled the spice #2 on everything. It tasted great & I'll definitely make it again. Also want to try the spice mix on steak!

These were a huge hit at Thanksgiving, the spice profile was a perfect contrast to the heavier dishes.

While these were really good, this falls into the category of stif-fries that I will NEVER make again indoors. We used half of the cooking oil, but the house still reeks of peanut oil, after running a full-size fan exhausting out the kitchen door and opening the front door to draw the air through for an hour. It's not worth it! Is it just because we have one of those microwave fans over the stovetop? I don't know, but no more oily stir fries for me :-(

When making the Chinese version be sure to have your extractor fan on high prior to adding the spice mix to the cooked garlic. I did not and was hit by a wall of spice vapors. Some of the ground spice must vaporize..

From all that I've read and tasted, the red Sichuan peppercorns are more floral in taste profile. It's the green Sichuan peppercorns that provide that numbing effect most satisfactorily. Go with green.