De San Xian
地三鲜
English: Three Fresh Vegetables
Chinese: 地三鲜
Pinyin: de san xian
Literal: Three Fresh Vegetables
We often associate comfort food with home and childhood—familiar dishes that lift our spirits when we’re feeling low or when the weather outside is unforgiving. For me, it’s simple scrambled eggs on buttered rye bread. But a close second is De San Xian (地三鲜), or "Three Fresh Vegetables."
When I first moved to Beijing, there was a 24-hour restaurant across the street from my apartment that served up De San Xian. On nights when I got home late, the city air heavy with smog and the wind bringing temperatures down to -20°C, this dish was my only comfort.
Northeast Chinese cuisine is full of these satisfying dishes. Winters in the region are long, bitterly cold, and bleak, so people rely on the cooks to bring some joy to the table: hearty stews, braised root vegetables and rich gravies do exactly that. While some food critics dismiss Dongbei cuisine as simple peasant fare, there's a lot to love here.
De Sān Xiān requires no exotic ingredients—just potato, eggplant, and pepper, staples found in every Chinese kitchen. And yet, it’s rarely seen on menus, unless you happen pop into the local gaifan restaurant. Gaifan is basic rice bowl with your choice of topping - from egg and tomato, to kung pao chicken, to red-braised pork to De San Xian. These restaurants, scattered across the cheaper parts of cities, cater to workers looking for a quick, filling meal.
I love these places, and I love a simple gaifan. Foodies might not admit it, but sometimes, all we really want for dinner is soft chunks of potato, gooey eggplant, and a sticky sauce over fluffy white rice.
Serves 2
Ingredients
1 large potato (about 180g)
1 green pepper
1 Chinese eggplant (about 300g)
1 tablespoon corn starch
½ cup of oil (for frying)
3 garlic cloves - finely chopped
2-inch pice of ginger - finely chopped
For the sauce
2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
½ tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 ½ tablespoons of sesame oil
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch
60ml water
pinch of salt
Method
Note: I recommend serving this with rice, so you might want to start off by getting some rice cooking.
Prepare the ingredients. Peel the potato and then dice into 2cm cubes. Cut the eggplant into slightly bigger chunks (about 3cm), and then cut the green pepper into squares (about 3cm) then set aside.
Make the sauce: add the soy sauces, sesame oil and sugar to a bowl and mix until the sugar has dissolved. In a separate bowl, mix the corn starch and water. Once the corn starch has dissolved, add to the sauce and mix again. Set aside.
Heat a wok on a medium heat with the ½ cup of oil. When hot, add the potatoes and shallow fry for about 10 minutes. If they brown too quickly, turn down the heat. Once you can slide a knife easily into the pieces, they’re cooked. Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
Add the green pepper to the oil and fry for about 3 minutes, or until the skin are wrinkled, then remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
Whilst the green pepper is frying, add the eggplant chunks to a bowl. Add a tablespoon of corn starch and mix so all the pieces are covered. This will help the eggplant to absorb less oil.
Add the eggplant to the oil and fry for about 5 minutes, or until the starch is brown and crispy, then remove.
Pour off most of the oil from the wok, leaving about 2 tablespoons. Add the ginger and garlic to the oil and fry for about 30 seconds. Add the vegetables back into the wok and give it a couple of shakes, and then pour in the sauce.
Let the sauce heat up and bubble for 30 seconds or so, at which point it will start to thicken. Shake the pan to cover the vegetables in the sauce.
If serving with rice, spoon the rice into the base of a bowl and then spoon over the De San Xian.
