Shogog is potato and khatsa is spicy, and between them they cover a great deal of Tibetan cooking. This is the dish that turns up at every picnic, potluck and gathering, in summer and in winter, and no two people make it the same way. It can be hot or cold, a main dish or a side, loose with gravy or dry, fierce or barely spiced at all. What holds it together is sepen, the Tibetan chilli sauce: chillies blended with garlic and salt into a rough paste, fried hard in oil until the raw edge burns off, then folded through boiled potatoes until every piece is coated red. Tibetans in India tend to make it very hot indeed, and say the heat lets you eat more, which in a culture with no interest in thinness is meant as a recommendation.
Zone: Tibetan Sphere
INGREDIENTS
- 800 g waxy potatoes
- 8 red chillies (fresh or dried, more or fewer to taste)
- 6 garlic cloves (peeled)
- 1 tsp salt (for the sepen)
- 120 ml water (for the sepen)
- 5 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion (sliced)
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 spring onions (sliced)
- a handful of coriander (chopped)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce (optional)
METHOD
- Scrub the potatoes and boil them whole in salted water for 30 to 40 minutes, until a knife goes through easily. Drain and leave until completely cool.
- Meanwhile make the sepen. If using dried chillies, soak them in hot water for 15 minutes first. Blend the chillies with the garlic, the teaspoon of salt and the water into a loose, rough paste.
- Peel the cooled potatoes if you like, then cut them into rough 3cm chunks.
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Add 4 to 5 heaped tablespoons of the sepen and fry for 3 minutes, stirring, until the raw smell goes and the oil turns red.
- Add the onion and cook for 4 minutes until softened.
- Add the potatoes and the salt and turn everything over gently until each piece is coated. Fry for 5 minutes so the edges catch.
- Stir in the soy sauce if using, scatter over the spring onions and coriander, and serve hot or at room temperature.
NOTES
UK adaptation: Make the sepen in quantity, since it keeps in the fridge for a fortnight and is the base of half the Tibetan table. Fresh red chillies give a brighter sauce and dried ones a deeper, smokier one; either is correct. Waxy potatoes hold their shape once chopped, where floury ones fall apart in the pan. Adjust the chilli count without apology, as the range in Tibetan kitchens runs from a few mild peppers to thirty hot ones. Everything else widely available.
US adaptation: Fresh red chillies or dried, to taste, from any supermarket. Yukon Gold or red potatoes rather than russets, which crumble. The sepen keeps two weeks refrigerated and is worth making in bulk. Everything else widely available.
Cook’s note: Boil the potatoes whole in their skins and let them cool completely before you chop them, because hot potatoes break up the moment they meet a spoon. Fry the sepen properly in the oil for a few minutes before the potatoes go in: raw chilli paste tastes flat and green, and that short fry is what turns it into a sauce.