Hello everyone!
Today I’m here to share another one of my Dongbei favorites, Di San Xian. In my last Dongbei post, I told you all about my favorite Dongbei foods, as well as included a Guo Bao Rou recipe, found here, but I failed to further expand on Di San Xian, hence today’s post.
Di San Xian is one of my favorite Dongbei dishes, and it’s the perfect complement to that sticky, sweet, savory Guo Bao Rou. Di San Xian, which translates as Three Fresh Vegetables, is made up of just that. It is a wonderful combination of eggplant, potatoes, and green peppers, stir fried in a dark and savory sauce. The dish starts with eggplant, cooked to the perfect softness, which balances perfectly with sturdy, just cooked enough potatoes. The green peppers are then added to freshen up the dish, as well as give it the necessary addition of color.
This dish not only works as a complement to Guo Bao Rou, but can also stand on its own. The simplicity, focus on ingredients, and magic of its creation has made Di San Xian wildly popular not only in the Dongbei region of China, but all across the country. And now I hope its glory can continue its spread across the world, not only in Chinese restaurants, but in your home! Try out this recipe, and let me know what you think! I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
A special thanks to Food.com for the recipe!
Yields: 4 servings
Ingredients:
- 3 medium potatoes
- 2 green peppers
- 2 medium eggplants
- 1/3 onion
- 3 large garlic cloves
- 5 slices ginger (optional)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tbspn soy sauce
- 1 tbspn chicken bouillon
- 1 tbspn sugar
- 1 tbspn cornstarch
- black pepper
Instructions:
1. Wash all vegetables thoroughly.
2. Peel and dice the potatoes to 1/2 inch in length, core and roughly dice the green peppers, and cut off ends of the eggplant. Cut the eggplant lengthwise, and dice roughly.
3. Chop up the onion and garlic, and heat up the oil in the wok to high.
4. Once the oil is very hot, add the potatoes, stirring constantly until golden.
5. More oil may be added at any time throughout the cooking process.
6. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon. Then, in the same oil, fry the peppers and eggplant together, stirring constantly until the eggplant starts to turn brown.
7. Remove vegetables from the oil, and then fry the onion in garlic in a small bit of the oil.
8. Once the onion turns transparent, add 1/2 cup of water.
9. Add the soy sauce, bouillon, and sugar.
10. Add the corn starch diluted in a bit of cold water, and stir.
11. Add all the vegetables back into the wok and simmer, stirring every now and then, allowing the sauce to thicken.
12. Add black pepper to taste.
13. Serve hot over rice.
**Additional note: For another variation of the Di San Xian recipe, as well as recipes for many other authentic Chinese dishes, I highly recommend Sunflower Food Galore. It’s a wonderful site full of great recipes for so many of my favorite Chinese dishes!
My Adventurous Appetite 