A potato salad but nothing as we know! Warm and spicy combo of new potatoes, crispy bacon and cucumbers, seasoned with Sichuan flavours of chillies and peppercorns.
Sichuan potatoes?
I know, it’s not a thing. A spicy Chinese salad – with potatoes? Has anyone ever seen a potato dish on a Chinese restaurant menu? Well, me neither.
And yet, it appears the Chinese are the number one producer of potatoes in the world and consume the most in total (except per head they are easily beaten by Belarus and other East Europeans).
So not such a terrible fallacy I think, and only a mild fusion is committed by adding mild new potatoes to a fiery bacon and cucumber salad by Ching He Huang.
New potatoes are the best
For us in Britain the golden standard of new potatoes are Jersey Royals. So lovely when they first turn up! Also, expensive, obviously.
I love them when they are picked very small, almost the size of hazelnuts which means they take hours to scrub, but the taste rewards the toil. Buttery, a little nutty, with a delicate skin, the first few samplings don’t need anything else to go with them bar a twist of salt and a touch of butter.
But they are surprisingly delicious in this fiery company. And the dish is easy to put together, as you can do the chopping and prepping of all the other ingredients while potatoes cook.
Potatoes
First, prep the potatoes. I believe this dish is best with baby new potatoes or Jersey Royal, if you’re so fortunate, but that’s not to say you couldn’t use boiled, leftover cold potatoes, preferably of a waxy variety like Charlotte.
New potatoes will need about fifteen to twenty minutes boiling in salty water so they are tender but not falling apart. You can scrub them beforehand or leave in their skins – the latter recommended if they are the precious new season ones.
How to prepare cucumber?
This is a universal cucumber advice, for when you want to use it in salads. The most common in the UK long, large cucumbers usually have nasty seeds so I like to halve them lengthwise, scrape out the seeds and then cut them into chunks or slices.
If you can be bothered, sprinkle the chunks with salt and leave in a colander set over a bowl for half an hour, to drain moisture. Pat them with kitchen towels by a handful afterwards and you’ll be amazed how much nicer they taste.
Bacon and aromatics
This recipe uses dried, mega-hot chillies so asses the amount judiciously. Some like it hot, others not so much. I do, but I still snip off the tops of those chillies and shake the seeds out.
The additional, fresh chilli can be milder, a jalapeño or a mild red serenade.
The other aromatic ingredient here is Sichuan peppercorns, wonderful, tongue-tingling, lemony spice. Not technically peppercorns, they are actually berries of the prickly ash tree. Make sure you pick them correctly when poured out of the packaging: it’s the red husks that are edible and the black seeds need to be discarded.
The fumes produced by Sichuan peppers and dried chillies hitting a hot wok or pan are lethal: you need to open windows, turn on extractors and stay clear of the wok. Luckily they will only need a couple of seconds in the wok to release their fragrance, and the star anise which joins them is benign.
Bacon in my view should be streaky, smoked and thick cut, but if you think otherwise, pick the type you like. Chopped into chunks, it will cook with the aromatics until it crisps around the edges or gets to whatever state you like it in.
The sauce made up of rice vinegar, Shaoxing wine and sesame oil should be drizzled around the sides of the pan or wok, so it caramelises before mixing with the bacon.
And that’s about it, save for stirring in the cucumber, cooked potatoes and seasoning the dish with lime juice and salt, if necessary. As in many Asian recipes, the cooking time is a fraction of the prepping – which doesn’t take long either.
More spicy salad recipes
Spicy stir fried asparagus, cooked in a wok with chillies, ginger and garlic, is a great starter or a side dish bursting with Asian flavours.
Wedge salad with spicy gochujang dressing means beguiling Korean red chilli flavours over plain old iceberg lettuce chunks. Traditionally a steakhouse side, a wedge salad is better and healthier made at home.
Sweetcorn and nduja salad made with fresh or frozen corn, served on a bed of lettuce and topped with homemade tortilla crisps – an easy and gorgeous lunch dish.
More potato salad recipes
A warm salad of Purple Majesty potatoes, zucchini and radishes. Purple Majesty aka Goth Potatoes taste delicious and contain tonnes of plant nutrients as well as antioxidants. This salad brings the best in Purple Majesty potatoes, tossed with zucchini, pancetta and radish.
Smoked mackerel and potato salad recipe: warm roast potatoes with smoked mackerel tossed together with no dressing required thanks to the potato seasoning. My favourite smoked fish and potato salad.
Warm salad of new potatoes with asparagus and crispy pancetta: if those three ingredients sound like a delightful combination, that's because they are. Best served warm, this is the perfect spring main course salad.