A couple weeks ago I made the Korean Stir-Fried Shredded Potatoes (Gamjachae Bokkeum) recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook.

There was nothing out of the ordinary in the ingredients, but the technique is interesting: you cut gold potatoes in matchsticks and then rinse them in cold water. Apparently the large surface area of the matchstick-cut potatoes and the water do something with the starches that keeps the potatoes firm when stir-fried.

The technique certainly worked; the potatoes kept their shape during the stir-fry! The dish itself, though, was just fine. After much family discussion, we realized that there are a lot of delicious ways to cook potatoes, so many that this, while good, does not rank highly. We even, as a family, ranked all the different potato preparations we could think of. Turns out it’s really hard to beat french fries.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.