Recipe: Volcano Mashed Potatoes

As all of us are at home all of the time, either getting “cabin fever’ pacing up and down, the telly no longer charms, gardening is out of the question as you live in a flat and reading gets tedious, how about getting into the kitchen and whip up some delectables (we hope they will be!!) which are readily available and which most of my dear readers can purchase, even under the current MCO.

Preparing food and cooking is known to be a calming activity, engaging the mind as well as the body. And as cooking for the family is all that is asked for during this stressful period, I will be posting recipes here on a daily basis for you to experiment with during the days ahead.

I cajoled my dear friend Margarita Lee (Ipohite) who currently lives in Sydney and who used to contribute recipes in these pages in the early days of Ipoh Echo, to ferret in her voluminous log of recipes and share some with us. Here is one of her easy recipes:

Volcano Mashed Potatoes

by Margarita Lee 

Ingredients: 

• 3 Medium-sized potatoes 
• 200g Mince pork
• 1 tbsp Scallion 
• 1 tbsp Minced ginger
• 1/2 tbsp Chopped red chilli 
• 1 tbsp Spring onion 
• 50ml Water
• 1 tsp Corn flour 

Seasoning: 

• 1/2 tbsp Soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp Oyster sauce 
• 1 tbsp Spicy fermented soybean paste (Doubanjiang) 
• 1 tbsp Cooking wine 
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method: 

1. Slice potatoes and steam them for about 10-15 minutes. 
2. Mash potatoes and add salt.
3. Heat oil in wok, then sauté the pork, ginger, scallion and chopped chillies. 
4. Add in the seasoning, stir fry until aromatic.
5. Add in water, simmer on low heat for 5 minutes. 
6. Thicken with corn flour.  
7. Arrange and shape the mashed potatoes like a mountain in the centre of the dish.
8. Pour the prepared meat sauce on the mashed potatoes and garnish with spring onions.