Potato and beef stir-fried

This is one of the very popular dishes that frequently appeared on dining tables of Vietnamese people. Some mothers prefer frying the potatoes before stir-frying them with beef, some just go straight with the raw potatoes. 

In my family, my mom went for the second method. By cooking this way, the potatoes should be braised so that there is enough steam for the potatoes to be cooked through. By frying the potatoes first, there is no need to braised the potatoes. Two cooking methods offer different texture and flavor to the dish. 

This time I cooked in the fist method by firstly frying the potatoes. The fried potatoes will change from hard and cripy outside to chewy texture after being stir-fried. The starch in the potatoes also has no way to get out of the chunks themselves. In contrast, cooking this dish without frying the potatoes first makes the dish more creamy and less oily. 

So, you may choose either way to cook this dish. For me, I like both. 

Ingredients: (serves 2)

- 150g beef, thinly slices

- 1 garlic clove, minced

- 1/2 tbs fish sauce

- 1/8 tsp pepper

- 1 tsp oyster sauce

- 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

- vegetable oil

- meat cooking granules

- fresh cilantro, chopped

Cooking:

- Combine the beef with half the garlic, fish sauce, pepper and oyster sauce in a bowl, toss well. 

- Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the potatoes and fry until golden on all sides. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen papers to remove the excess oil. 

- Add the remaining garlic to the frying pan, cook for 30 seconds, then add the beef and stir-fry over high heat for about 2 minutes. Remove the beef from the pan and return any juice from the beef. 

- Return the fried potatoes to the pan, add some cooking granules and toss well. When the potatoes start to soften, mix in the beef. Cook together for another 2 – 3 minutes. Just before removing from the heat, toss in the chopped cilantro.