Yunnan rice with potatoes (云南洋芋焖饭)

Last Updated on March 13, 2021 by Simon Fan

Visitors to Yunnan Province in southern China are inevitably intrigued by its food. Because of Yunnan’s unique climate and geographic location, many ingredients used in its cuisine, especially those wild vegetables, flowers, and spices, are hard to find elsewhere, making its cooking truly distinctive and local.

Luckily, some of Yunnan’s signature dishes earn kudos not because of exotic ingredients but great ideas and can be easily recreated in your kitchen no matter where you live. Crossing the bridge noodles (过桥米线) is one example. Today’s dish, rice with potatoes (洋芋焖饭), is another one.

Cooking rice with potatoes is quite popular in Yunnan. Although it started as a humble peasant dish, it’s now cooked and served in beautiful copper pots in fancy restaurants as well. The dish is often enriched with Xuanwei ham (宣威火腿), one of the most revered hams in China, together with exotic mushrooms foraged from the forest.

You certainly do not need to have access to a copper pot or Xuanwei ham to try this dish, because the real stars here are rice and potatoes. When fried potatoes are cooked with rice, their great chemistry together results in wonderful flavors and aromas. Ham or any cured meat makes the starches richer and more complex, while vegetables bring freshness and seasonal touch to the dish.

While a copper pot, thanks to its excellent thermal conductivity, does a great job in cooking the rice evenly and creating a thin layer of crust at the bottom of the pot, you can achieve similar results by using a clay pot, a Dutch oven, or any heavy-bottomed pot. The key to the success of this dish is to keep the heat really low during the last stage of cooking, so you don’t end up burning the rice at the bottom while undercooking the rest.

Yunnan rice with potatoes (云南洋芋焖饭)

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 oz (60 g) bacon, cut crosswise into ½-inch (1.3 cm) pieces
7 oz (200 g) starchy potatoes, peeled and cut into ½-inch (1.3 cm) cubes
¼ teaspoon salt
3½ oz (100 g) short- or medium-grain Asian white rice
⅞ cup (200 ml) water
1 oz (30 g) fresh or thawed frozen peas, plus more if you like

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a wok or skillet over medium heat. Fry the bacon until it starts to brown and render its fat, about 2 minutes. Transfer the bacon to a plate.
2. In the same wok with the bacon fat, fry the potatoes until lightly golden, about 4 minutes. Season the potatoes with the salt.
3. Add the rice and water to a clay pot or Dutch oven. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to maintain a very gentle simmer. Cover and cook, stirring with chopsticks from time to time to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom, until the rice has absorbed most of the water, about 5 minutes. Mix in the bacon and potatoes. Cover and cook over very low heat until the rice is fully cooked and a thin layer of crust starts to form at the bottom of the pot, about 15 minutes. Add the peas on top and cook, covered, for 2 minutes. Adjust the seasoning as needed and serve right away.