I had beef in the freezer whose time had come and a few mini Gold potatoes hanging around so steak and potatoes seemed the obvious way to go, except that I was craving soy sauce (which happens if you lived in Asia for a long time.) I decided to rub the steak with mustard powder, brown sugar and soy to give it a little extra flavor and char as it cooked, which led to my making these potatoes to go with the steak.
6 small potatoes such as mini Gold, washed and halved
1/2 white onion, peeled and sliced into thin half moons
1 Tbsp fermented black beans (available in the International foods aisle of your local grocery store)
2 cloves garlic
1 thumb size piece of ginger
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp sake or white wine
1 tsp sugar
Place the garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sake and sugar in a blender and whiz together until the liquid is flecked with tiny bits of garlic and ginger. Stir in the black beans -- do not blend.
Put the halved potatoes and the onion slices in a very small pan and pour over soy mixture. Add enough water to just cover the potatoes.
Cover and cook until the potatoes are just done -- mine were very small and took twelve minutes; yours may take longer.
Drain and serve the potatoes along with the onions and whatever pieces of aromatics have stuck to the potatoes.