Guizhou Egg-wrapped Potato (蛋包洋芋)
A Guiyang street snack with recognizably Guizhou flavors.
This is danbao yangyu or egg wrapped potato – it's a classic street snack in Guizhou, consisting of slightly smashed potatoes, napa cabbage, rice and rice noodle products and a whole lot of flavor.
Going to Guiyang, me and Steph would something jokingly refer to this dish as 'Guizhou omupotato' - there's always just something pseudo-pavlovian hearing the clang clang clang of the late night vendors whipping it up. That said, our all time favorite danbao yangyu vendor has to be a specific woman on Yuantongjie close to Guiyang 19th middle school: watching her and her husband work is just… a thing of street food artistry.
So. What we wanted to do here today is share our take on their danbao yangyu, but because our version here is basically just a complete recreation of that vendor's, we figured we'd also share an uncut video of them whipping it up too, because she is awesome at this and you can also doublecheck our work.
Guizhou Egg-wrapped Potato
This will make two servings.
Note: All quantities are assuming two servings, but this'll yield you some extra wet seasoning (about double what you need) - having a super small quantity can be a touch challenging to fry. Reserve the extra for the next time you want to whip up some egg wrapped potato.
Sweet potato noodles (红薯粉条), optional, 15g.
Rice noodles (干河粉), 15g. Use 30g if cutting out the sweet potato noodles.
Potato, 275g. About two small or one medium potato.
Cooked rice, 3 tbsp. Or about 2 tbsp uncooked.
Hot dog, optional, ~70g. You can also swap for Spam or just skip this.
Napa cabbage (白菜) OR cabbage (包菜), 50g.
Pickled daikon (酸萝卜/脆萝卜/腌萝卜/寿司萝卜) OR gherkin, 20g.
Yuxingcao (鱼腥草) -or- cilantro root -or- cilantro, 15g.
Scallion, 15g.
For the dry seasoning:
Chili powder/cayenne pepper (辣椒面), ½ tbsp.
Salt, ½ tsp.
MSG (味精), ½ tsp.
Sugar, ¼ tsp.
Five spice powder (五香粉), ¼ tsp.
For the wet seasoning:
Miso (preferably red) -or- tumaijiang (土麦酱) -or- your fermented paste of choice, 1 tbsp.
Salt, ½ tsp.
Sichuan peppercorn powder (花椒面), ½ tsp.
Water, ¼ cup.
Eggs, 3 (~1.5 for each serving).
Process:
To prep:
Soak the 15g rice noodles (30g if not using sweet potato noodles) in cold water and the 15g sweet potato noodles in hot water, 4-12 hours each. Optionally dice each one.
Peel 275g of potato, and nuke - covered - on medium high for 12 minutes until soft.
If making the rice from scratch (leftovers are the easiest): Rinse that 2 tbsp rice, then fill it up with water up to your first knuckle. Cover with a plate, and it's also a good idea to put the rice bowl inside of a larger bowl as for this rice quantity it has a tendency to spill. Nuke on medium for 15 minutes.
Chop 70g of hotdog. Julienne 50g of cabbage (also remove any hard cores, if using cabbage-cabbage). Mince 20g of your pickle of choice. Slice 15g each of yuxingcao/cilantro and scallions.
Mix the dry seasoning: ½ tbsp chili powder/cayenne pepper, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp MSG, ¼ tsp sugar, and ¼ tsp of five spice powder.
To make the wet seasoning, fry the one tablespoon of miso or your fermented paste of choice in with a touch of oil (~1 tsp) until fragrant, ~1 minute. Add in ½ tsp salt and ½ tsp Sichuan peppercorn, give it a quick mix, then add in ¼ cup water. Bring to a rapid boil, then reserve.
Crack three eggs, beat thorough until no stray strands of egg white remain.
To fry in a large skillet like the vendor in the video:
Heat a large 14 inch your skillet up over a high flame and then swirl in a couple tablespoons of oil. Add the hotdog and fry for 30 seconds, then add in the sweet potato noodles, the rice noodles, and the cooked rice. Chop and fry those all together until roughly combined, about a half minute, then go in with your cooked potatoes, combine, and toss in the napa cabbage. At this point then, thoroughly chop and incorporate everything all together – this step might take a bit longer, about a minute or two, and be sure to scrape all that tasty fond back into your potato mixture.
Sprinkle in the dry seasoning. Quick mix, then drizzle in two tablespoons of the liquid seasoning. Chop everything together again, then add the pickles and the yuxingcao/cilantro. Quick mix, then the scallion. Remove and reserve.
To fry in a wok:
You can also obviously fry in a wok as well.
The key to frying in a wok is to only add a smear of oil to let the fond still develop, while also being quick to scrape it into the stir fry.
Over a high flame, toss in your hotdogs, and after a quick fry go in with the julienned cabbage. After about a half a minute, add in the rice and noodles, and after another quick mix toss in the potato. At this point, break up the potatoes with your spatula, chopping it down ala the griddle scrapers in the video… making sure you scrape up any fond before it scorches. Then add in the dry seasoning, quick mix, two tablespoons of wet seasoning, quick mix, pickles, quick mix, and finally the cilantro and scallion. Fry that all together for about 15 seconds. Remove and reserve.
Wrapping in Egg:
Heat up a skillet and add a thin layer of oil to a pan. Over a medium-high flame, one the oil’s hot enough that it can bubble around a pair of chopsticks, add half of your beaten egg.
Swirl to get a thin layer, then shut off the heat and cover. Wait for about one minute, then, uncover, loosen up the omelet, and slide that over to a chopping board to roll.
Add half of your filling onto the omelet, flip it up over the top, and carefully roll that all up. Slice in half and serve.