Earth Three Fresh : Potato, Eggplant and Green Pepper

Earth Three Fresh (地三鲜) is the name of the simple but hearty Northeastern dish composed of three earthy vegetables : potatoes, eggplants, and green peppers. 

Method

Heat up a good amount of oil in a pan on high and drop in chopped scallions. 

Cut two peeled potatoes into small (1/4" x 1") pieces and toss them in and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Cut 4 long green peppers in half lengthwise and then into slices about as long as the potatoes and toss them in. Cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Cut two Japanese eggplants into potato sized pieces and toss them in. Stir it up to coat the eggplants in oil. 

Add about a quarter cup of soy sauce to a more empty part of the pan and stir. If you want to use less soy sauce, add a little water. Cover with a lid and let it steam for 5 minutes on medium heat, shaking the pan occasionally. It's ready when the potatoes are done.

Notes

The northeastern region of China is known for hearty and simple dishes with bold flavors. It's perfect for a region with brutally cold winters. 

Earth Three Fresh typically consists of frying pieces of potatoes, then eggplant, then bell peppers, followed by stir frying them together with soy sauce added at the end. The potato is soft on the inside but slightly crispy outside. 

I try to avoid frying whenever possible because its not super healthy and I don't like using that much oil. A lot of the time, its not even necessary. Here, I sear and stir fry the vegetables, particularly the potatoes, then steam them in soy sauce. This requires a fair amount of oil, but no more than what a restaurant normally uses for stir fries and certainly less than deep-frying. The result is equally delicious and definitely tastes hearty.

Simple as this dish is, a lot can go wrong if not enough care is given. If the potatoes are sliced too big, they'll take a long time to cook. Sliced too small, they'll turn to mush during the steaming process. Err on the side of small (no bigger than half your thumb). The potatoes mustn't be under or overcooked. That is key.

Bell peppers are traditionally used and seen in a lot of recipes, but I prefer long green peppers because they exude less water and taste better (to me).  I removed the seeds because I didn't want this dish to be spicy and seedy. You also do that with bell peppers. They're also fine when slightly overcooked.

Use only Japanese eggplants. They're long and purple skinned. You can (and should) keep the skin on when cooking it. The skin keeps it from prematurely turning into mush while cooking and you get another nice texture. The flesh is light and soaks up a lot of flavors and oil over time so that's why it's added last.

As for soy sauce, any light soy sauce will do. I've been almost exclusively using Trader Joes soy sauce, which has vinegar according to the ingredients list. It tastes like it could be used for sushi dipping and (hate to say it) tastes better than the Pearl River Bridge that I've grown up with and used for many years. Of course, Pearl River Bridge works just well here, too.

Meal : Tomato Brussels, Turnip Greens Salad, Pork and Leek, Double Pepper Chicken

This weekend, we got some hakurei turnip greens at the local farmer's market and some leeks and hot pepper at the co-op grocery. The challenge was to make 4 dishes before the rice finished and clear out some leftovers.

Massaged Hakurei Turnip Greens Salad

Cut off the turnips, peeled them, and popped them into a small pot of a little boiling water. Covered it and set the heat to low. Put another small pot of oil on another burner. Washed the tender turnip greens and shook them dry. Placed them in a bowl and salted them to draw out water. Squeezed some water out, then cut them into little pieces and returned them to bowl. Added Zhenjiang vinegar. Then, slowly poured hot oil around the greens. They sizzled. Mixed them up. Done.

Brussels and Tomato

Already had a bowl of heirloom grape tomatoes cooked in oil (flavor already concentrated). Cut Brussels sprouts in half, then tossed them into hot pan of oil to sear and stir fry. A few minutes later, added the cooked tomatoes and stirred. Covered the lid and let it cook until Brussels were ready. 

Meanwhile, cut the chicken and pork into slices for the next dishes. Salted them and set aside for stir fries.

Pork And Leek

Washed a leek (white parts only), sliced it small, and set aside. Tossed the pork slices into hot pan of oil to sear it sear then stir fried. Took pork out about 2/3 way ready. Tossed leeks into pan and stir fried it in the pan drippings. When somewhat soft, returned the pork to the pan. Made a little space in the center to add soy sauces and rice wine to caramelize a little. Stirred everything together. Done.

Rinsed but didn't wash the pan. Wiped it dry with paper towel and returned it to the heat with oil for next dish.

Double pepper chicken

Grabbed the Salted Chopped Jalapeños from earlier. Minced garlic, sliced some ginger, chopped lots of scallions. Sliced the Devils Tongue pepper very thin. Tossed everything into the hot pan and stir fried until fragrant. Added chicken slices and stir fried. Everything is in a sparse monolayer. No boiling allowed. Toward end, added dark soy sauce. All is done.

Also, took out those turnips. They were nice and soft but still firm at this point. Sweet, too.

Thoughts

The salad was crisp, refreshing, and flavorful. My father in law uses young turnip greens from his garden, so this approximates it. We've tried using old turnip greens from the supermarket but it was wasn't crisp or refreshing, but actually very bitter - better for being boiled off with bacon. I might try this with radish greens in the future though.

The tomato Brussels was basically Brussels in a homemade tomato sauce. There was no need to add any salt because the tomatoes already had it. Brussels don't taste great when overlooked or even recooked. They also inherently have a slight sulfury taste. But the tomatoes give you a little bit of leeway in cooking time, complement the strong taste with some sour, and reduce the funk of the Brussels. Probably because of the acid content.

The meat stir fries were simple and made   the usual ways. 

Devils Tongue pepper turned out to not be as spicy as I thought it would be. Maybe it was the piece I picked. The flavor also reminded me of something more Southwestern. Next time, I'll probably use long hot green pepper again. Also, I'll use a larger scoop of the chopped Jalapeños.

Biang Biang Noodles

Biang Biang noodles (油泼扯面) are hand stretched flat noodles dressed in a savory and spicy sauce. It's a very distinctive country dish from Shaanxi, certainly a famous food from Xi'an.

Method

Make a simple and soft noodle dough with wheat flour and water. Roll out some one inch wide strips that are less than a foot long. Coat them with oil. Stretch them by hand, waving them up and down so that the middle bangs the surface. When thin and long enough, drop into a pot of boiling water. It should be ready in a minute or so after the water reboils.

Remove the noodles onto a plate and top with seasonings such as finely minced raw garlic, scallions, chili flakes, and cilantro. Mix in some soy sauce and black vinegar. Pour over some very hot oil and mix again.

Notes

A wide and thin hand pulled noodle works best as the vehicle for carrying these bold flavors. The noodles are shiny and smooth to the tongue from oil. The dressing can vary immensely, but the ingredients I suggested are very standard. You can also add a few spoonfuls of Sichuan red oil for a good kick.

Pouring hot oil over a plate of mostly raw items mixed with a little soy sauce- vinegar will result in a nice sizzle and create some nice new flavors quickly while keeping everything fresh. There's no possibility of over cooking and it's quite hassle-free. My father in-law also uses this technique for making some awesome massaged turnip green salads.

The noodle dough strips are coated with oil to help them say moist and nonstick while stretching. Without the oil, you would have to dust them with flour with every bang to prevent sticking, which would effect the chewiness of the thin noodles. If you like this, by all means go for it.

Finally, "Biang" refers to the sound the noodle dough makes when you hit it against a table. When written, it has a lot of character strokes and isn't available in Chinese character input programs. The character almost seems to weird and complex to be true. Most likely it was invented by the noodle store selling them. For this reason, I call it by its other name in Chinese, 油泼扯面, meaning oil-splashed ripped noodles.

Dry Cooked Green Beans with Sichuan Pepper

Dry Cooked Green Beans with Sichuan Pepper is a dish from my wife's family. It involves a lot of Sichuan peppercorns, soy sauce and green beans. It's a very simple and country vegetable dish, best eaten with chopsticks to pick out the intensely flavorful beans from the whole Sichuan peppercorns.

Method

Heat up a fair amount of oil in a pan and throw in a handful of whole Sichuan peppercorns. Let them heat up to release flavor. Add green beans and stir. Add several splashes of soy sauce and stir. Lower the heat to low-medium and cover with a lid. Let it cook for 8 minutes. Give it a final stir before serving.

Notes

There should be enough liquid from the sizzling oil, bean moisture and soy sauce to allow for the beans to cook without the addition of water. They will soft and moist but not mushy. Adding soy sauce to sizzling oil with caramelize it and create a different (and better) flavor than that out of the bottle. Also, because no water was added, every flavor becomes more intense. Keep that in mind when adding the soy sauce.

This dish feels like a much simpler form of the well-known Sichuan dish, Dry Fried Green Beans (干煸四季豆), which involves quickly shallow frying the beans and uses more ingredients like minced preserved vegetable and/or pork. Nevertheless, the flavor is quite intense.

This cooking method can be used for cooking other green legumes in the pod like broad beans, string beans, and yard long beans. However, the time will probably need to be adjusted depending on the variety of bean used.

Crab Rangoons

Crab Rangoons are a popular Chinese American dish of deep-fried dumplings filled with cream cheese and imitation crab meat. They have no crab and have nothing to do with the city once known as Rangoon (Yangon) in Thailand. They o great with sweet and sour sauce.

Method

Make a filling of cream cheese and minced imitation crab meat in a 2 to 1 ratio. Add a little salt and if desired, minced scallion.

Make a soft dough from wheat flour and water and and roll it thin. Cut out wonton sized squares. For each square, spoon some filling into the center and fold the wrapper over it in the shape of a triangle (or fancier if desired). 

Drop the dumplings into a deep fryer and remove when golden and crispy. Place them on a plate with paper towels to soak some oil.

To make sweet and sour sauce, heat up water, ketchup, sugar, and white vinegar in a small pot. When it's to your taste, stir in a small mixture of cornstarch in cold water to thicken it.

Notes

When eaten fresh, the fried dumplings have a crispy shell and hot gooey center. The sweet and sour sauce is great for balancing the greasiness. It also works well for making sweet and sour dishes later. Keep the crab rangoons in a monolayer when taken out the fryer to prevent them from getting soggy too soon. 

Crab Rangoons are a very Chinese American food. You'll see them as appetizers just about everywhere you see Chinese American food places, from big chains like Panda Express to small proprietorships like your neighborhood "Beijing Star Garden Imperial Palace" joint. 

Salted Chopped Jalapeños

Salted Chopped Chilis or Duo Jiao (剁椒) are a common cooking ingredient and condiment in Hunanese cuisine basically consisting of long red Hunanese chili pepper and salt allowed to ferment for a few days in a tight container. Here, I tried it with jalapeños.

Method

Chop up fresh chili peppers into small pieces and place into a storage container. Mix in a few spoonfuls of salt then cover with a few more spoonfuls of salt. Seal it tight and let it sit in a dark cool place for a few days before using. Refrigerate thereafter.

Notes

There are many different recipes for making Salted Chopped Chilis and many Hunanese households will have their own modifications like adding minced garlic and other spices. However, salt and chopped chili pepper are at the heart. The salt will extract a lot of water from the fresh peppers and they will be sitting in liquid, but they will remain very spicy hot.

Updates on how this turns out and how to use it in the future...

Sichuan Wontons

Sichuan wontons or chao shou (抄手) are pork dumplings wrapped very thinly and dressed with cilantro, soy sauce, black vinegar, sesame oil and Sichuan red oil. It's a wonderful blend of flavors and each bite is hot yet refreshing.

Method

Make pork dumplings as in the Dumplings article. Here, the filling uses pork, ginger, scallion, napa cabbage, soy sauce and Sichuan pepper.

Create a dough for the wrapper and roll it very thin with a pasta machine. Cut out squares with a knife and wrap the wontons. Boil them the usual way.

Create a basic red oil by heating up a cup or two of oil an pouring it over a lot chili flakes in a strainer. It will sizzle and the red oil should be fairly red.

When the dumplings are ready, place some into your bowl, then add chopped cilantro, soy sauce, black vinegar, and a little sesame oil. Spoon over some of the red hot oil and enjoy.

Notes

These wontons are a bit different from the more common Cantonese variety, which have a filling of pork and shrimp and served with noodles in a savory soup. There is no spiciness. Sichuan wontons, as one might expect, are served with red oil and very hot (and even painful in an addictive way).

These use of vinegar adds sourness, so this dish is also called Hot and Sour wontons (酸辣抄手). It doesn't counteract the spiciness of the chili, but it definitely makes every mouthful even more appetizing.