Maifan : Steamed Potato Shreds

Maifan (麦饭) is a well known dish from Shaanxi, but pretty much unknown elsewhere. Potato shreds dusted in flour are steamed and served with scallion oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and other condiments. It is simple and honest comfort food from China's northern countryside.

Method

Grate a few potatoes into a large bowl. Rinse the shreds with water to remove some starch. Dry them as much as possible using a strainer and paper towel. Use another plate or bowl for the dried shreds.

With dry hands, add flour to the shreds. Coat the shreds thoroughly with the flour using your hands. Place the shreds in the basket compartment of a metal steamer pot and shake off excess flour. Fill the steamer pot with a couple cups of water and set it on low heat. The water should bubble before we place the steamer basket on. When it does, put the basket compartment in and let it cook for about 15 minutes. 

When ready, the shreds should be soft but firm. The shreds will stick to each other, but they can be separated into smaller clusters by fork . 

Everyone should scoop however much they want into their bowl and mix it with scallion oil, soy sauce, black vinegar and chopped cilantro to taste. Other condiments like minced garlic chives can also be used.

Notes

A recipe for this is hard to find, even online. I learned this from my father-in-law and his mother from Wuqi, located within the northern part of Shaanxi province. It is a mostly rural area where many people live in houses carved from mountains called yaodong (窑洞). However, it has been rapidly developing since petroleum was found in the area relatively recently.

In the preparation of Maifan, it is very important to get the potatoes mostly dry before flouring them. This ensures that each potato shred will be covered with flour, preventing them from clumping into inseparable globs that won't cook evenly and have a strange texture. Also, make sure the boiling water from the steamer never bubbles so high that it touches the potato. This is why we use a just a couple cups of water on low heat. The low heat also prevents the water from boiling away within the 15 minutes.

Note that a few potatoes make a lot of Maifan. This was a food eaten during tougher times in China when food items were scarcer, so every bit of food was stretched as far as it could go.