Northeastern Cuisine · FFET10152
Di San Xian (Northeastern eggplant, potato and pepper stir-fry)
A Northeastern home dish of potato, eggplant and green pepper fried separately, then tossed back in the wok with garlic and sauce.
A round white porcelain plate holds golden potato slices, glossy purple-black eggplant and green pepper pieces in light brown sauce with garlic slices, with chopsticks resting beside the plate at lower right, angled up right.
The regional cooking of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, built on pickled cabbage and stews, generous and strongly flavoured.
Di san xian is a dish of potato, eggplant and green pepper fried or browned separately, then returned to the wok and tossed with garlic and a soy-based sauce. It belongs to Northeastern cuisine and is also common across the North China region. Its name means three things that grow from the ground. The available sources do not establish a date, creator or province of origin.
What
Di san xian is potato, eggplant and green pepper fried or browned separately, then returned to the wok with garlic and a soy-based sauce, often with a little starch so the sauce clings.3,4
When
The available sources establish no date, creator or written record for the dish; a September 26, 2024 column mentions an older name without a source, so it is not treated as a historical record.1,2,3,4
Where
Di san xian belongs to Northeastern cuisine and is also common across the North China region. The available sources do not identify its province or city of origin in the Northeast.1,3,4
How
Potato and eggplant are fried or browned separately in oil until golden, the pepper is cooked only briefly, and everything goes back into the wok with a soy-based sauce. Starch can be added as a slurry or mixed directly into the sauce.3,4
Why
The name means three things that grow from the ground: potato, eggplant and green pepper. The available sources do not explain why these three are paired.3,4
Impact and influence
Di san xian is common across the North China region, and 2 English-language recipe blogs include methods for it. No intangible heritage or time-honored-brand listing was found in the available sources.1,3,4
No tale about this food has been found.
Grandma Li
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the Northeastern home style as I make it at home, a simplified home version: all three vegetables are browned in one flat-bottomed wok instead of being deep-fried in a separate pot of oil. The amounts and timings below are my own choices at home, informed by two published recipes.
Ingredients
- Potatoes 250 g, cut into slices about 0.6 cm thick
- Eggplant 300 g, cut into bite-size wedges
- Green pepper 1 (about 150 g), cut into pieces
- Cornstarch, for dusting the eggplant 1 teaspoon
- Garlic 3 cloves, sliced
- Scallion 1, cut into sections
- Cooking oil 60 ml
- Light soy sauce, for the sauce 30 ml
- Cooking wine, for the sauce 15 ml
- Sugar, for the sauce 5 g
- Water, for the sauce 60 ml
- Cornstarch, for the sauce 1 teaspoon
Steps
- Toss the eggplant with 1 teaspoon cornstarch. Stir the soy sauce, wine, sugar, water and the other teaspoon of cornstarch together in a small bowl and set it by the stove.
- Heat the wok, add half of the oil, and brown the potato slices over medium heat until golden on both sides. I give them about 8 minutes and call them done when a chopstick goes through easily. Take them out.
- Add the rest of the oil, put in the eggplant and brown it until soft with slightly golden edges. I give it about 5 minutes and judge by color and softness. Take it out.
- Leave a little oil in the wok, fry the garlic and scallion until fragrant, then add the pepper and stir-fry for about 1 minute.
- Return the potato and eggplant to the wok, stir the sauce again and pour it in, then toss until it thickens and coats the vegetables, about 1 minute. Plate it at once.
Tips
- Eggplant soaks up oil, so I coat it with a thin layer of starch before browning, which keeps it from absorbing quite so much; this is my own way.
- I mix the sauce beforehand, because once the vegetables are back in the wok there is no time to measure things one by one.
Allergens: soy, wheat