Di San Xian

Ingredients

• Eggplant
• Potatoes
• Hot chili peppers
• Scallion
• Ginger
• Garlic
• Bean paste (Pixian bean paste)
• Light soy sauce
• Sugar
• Cornstarch

Steps

1. ### Prepare ingredients
2. Wash the potatoes, eggplant, and hot chili peppers.
3. Peel the potatoes.
4. Cut the eggplant and potatoes into irregular small pieces, each weighing about 15g.
5. Tear the hot chili peppers by hand following the grain/cells. Tear them into pieces that are about 25% larger than the potato and eggplant pieces.
6. Remove as much surface moisture from the hot chili peppers as possible to avoid water splattering during frying later. Consider using kitchen paper towels or air-drying for half an hour.
7. Cut the scallion into 0.5cm pieces, total 5g. Chop the garlic into minced garlic totaling 15g, divide into two portions of 7.5g each. Mince the ginger into small bits for 5g.
8. Take an empty bowl, add 10ml light soy sauce, 10g sugar, and 8g cornstarch. Add 80ml water and mix thoroughly. Set aside as the sauce bowl.
9. ### Initial Frying
10. Heat the wok, add 150ml oil.
11. Add the potatoes. Fry for about 3-4 minutes until they show a golden color and a chopstick can easily pierce through them.
12. Remove the potatoes and leave the oil in the wok.
13. Add the eggplant. Fry for about 2-3 minutes until they are about 70% cooked. They should be soft, the edges slightly charred, and they should have released excess oil.
14. Remove the eggplant and leave the oil in the wok. (You might find there is no residual oil left).
15. If there is no free-flowing oil left in the pot, consider adding 15ml oil.
16. Add the hot chili pepper pieces. Fry for about 15 seconds. Once the edges show slight char marks, immediately remove them. Pour the oil out of the wok.
17. ### Final Frying
18. Reheat the pot and add 15ml fresh oil.
19. Add the 5g scallion, 5g ginger, and the 7.5g garlic. Stir-fry over medium-high heat until fragrant.
20. Add 15ml bean paste. Reduce heat to low and stir-fry until red oil and the savory aroma of the paste are released.
21. Pour the sauce bowl in. Immediately switch to high heat and stir rapidly to prevent scorching! About 10 seconds later, the sauce will start to bubble and thicken.
22. Immediately put in all the previously prepared potatoes, eggplant, and hot chili peppers.
23. Stir-fry for 20 seconds to allow the thick sauce to evenly coat the ingredients.
24. Turn off the heat, add the remaining 7.5g garlic, and stir evenly. Serve in a dish.