Chinese Beef and Potatoes
"Your Grandma taught me this dish, and I make it better than Dad now." —Mom
Always the humble one in the family, Mom claims she makes Dad's mom's dish better than Dad (which, to be fair, she sometimes does). But because the apple doesn't fall far from the tree (or as some would say, the apple is still on the tree), I think my recipe is a tad better than mom's. I took her directions and tweaked them a little to enhance the crispiness of the potatoes, which made all the difference.
In researching this recipe I realized that I was recreating an OG Phan dish—I couldn't find a version of what I was cooking up on the internet. This got me thinking, so I put on my tinfoil cap and starting theorizing. Beef and potatoes form the crux of French cuisine. Grandma grew up in French Indochina. We all know about the influence of the French over Vietnamese cuisine and vice versa. I think it's plausible to assume that Grandma learned about the perfect pairing of beef and potatoes from the French soldiers, but added her own take—and because she was Chinese in French Indochina, the flavors of the dish resemble classic Cantonese over Vietnamese.
I'm not saying any of this is actual truth, but I think there's plausibility there. And maybe it isn't even Grandma's dish at all, or even a Phan family dish, but something she learned from a neighbor. I don't know, but I do know that she brought this dish with her to the States and she taught it to Mom, who then taught it to me. We all tweaked it some along the way. I've never tried Grandma's rendition, so I can't say if mine's better than her's, but I think it's still pretty damn good.
Prep: 30 mins. | Cook: 15 mins.
INGREDIENTS (FOR 2)
| 2 Idaho potatoes |
| 1/2 lb steak* |
| 2 healthy pinches of salt |
| 1 tbsp soy sauce |
| 1 tbsp oyster sauce |
| 2 stalk scallion |
| + oil for pan |
*You can use flank, London broil, sirloin, or eye of round steak.
PREPARE
1. Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, toss in some salt.
2. Peel potatoes. Thinly cut them width-wise, as if you were cutting the potatoes to make chips. Side note, another reason why my theory makes sense, is that this method of cutting the potato appears often in French dishes.
3. Toss in the potatoes for about 5 minutes. You want them to be pretty firm—a VP addition to the recipe because I noticed that Mom and Dad would sometimes have the dish completed and the potatoes didn't taste completely cooked through.
2. Slice the beef thinly, so that it's about 1/4 inch thick. Toss some salt on it.
COOK
1. Coat your (preferably cast iron) pan with oil and crank up the heat to high until the oil shimmers.
2. Toss in your potatoes so that no potato is on top of another. Repeat this process if your potatoes don't all fit comfortably in the pan.
3. Toss in a small pinch of salt and let the potatoes crisp up (about 8 minutes), and then flip them, salt the other side, and let them brown and crisp up again. Once both sides have some browning, turn the heat to low and let the potatoes continue to cook, flipping as necessary so that they get really crisps. This can take about 15–20 minutes.
4. Once the potatoes are done, remove them from the heat and set them aside.
5. Grease up the pan again and toss in the steak. Quickly add the soy and oyster sauce and stir. Toss in the scallion. The steak should cook fairly quickly, so this whole process should take about 5 minutes.
6. Turn off the stove and add the potatoes to the beef mixture until well combined. If you're using a cast iron pan, even with the stove off, it should still sizzle and cook as you're mixing everything together. Adding the potatoes after turning off the stove is another VP addition, in order to maximize crispiness and minimize sogginess.
EAT
We serve this dish up with a side of rice and some vegetables, but there are other variations if you're not feeling the rice. Turn it into a brunch dish by nixing the rice and adding an egg. If you like kimchee, add that as a finisher to give it a kick. Have fun with this cross-cultural dish and enjoy!
