China is a country where everything strikes the imagination: history, culture, art, nature and even cuisine. Chinese cuisine is one of the most unusual in the world. The Chinese traditionally eat with wooden chopsticks, which requires great skill from the uninitiated. Besides that, the ingredients for preparation of many Chinese dishes are rather specific: snake meat, shark fins, various small animals and insects. Chinese cuisine is distinguished by a large amount of seafood, vegetables and fruit. Chinese people do not like fried dishes, that is why they use small amounts of oil for frying. Chinese dishes contain plenty of nutrients. Among the traditional dishes there are predominantly salty, spicy dishes, dishes with spicy spices, and a wide choice of sauces of every kind. Today we are going to tell you about a traditional dish chisanchi. It has an unusual and unique flavour. It comes from Dongbei in Northeast China. The original name for chisanchi is disanxien, which means three earthy freshness. In Dongbei, the vegetables for this dish are sliced randomly and the sauce is prepared separately. Let’s have a closer look at the chisanchi recipe.
Ingredients
The recipe for chisanchi at home is simple to prepare. The classic version uses different vegetables and spices for two servings:
- Bulgarian pepper: 1 piece of medium size;
- Aubergine: 1 aubergine;
- Potatoes: 3 medium-sized pieces;
- Sesame oil: 100 ml for frying;
- Garlic: 2 cloves;
- Sugar: 1 tsp;
- Greens: to taste.
To prepare sweet and sour sauce you will need:
- Soy sauce: 100 ml;
- Potato starch: half tablespoon;
- Sugar: 2 tsp;
- Apple cider vinegar: 2 tsp.
Cooking steps
A chisanchi recipe from Chinese cooking involves the following cooking steps:
- First, the aubergine has to be prepared. It is washed and cut into random pieces. Then the slices are put in a separate bowl and salted. Leave for half an hour. The salt will remove the bitterness. Then the vegetable is thoroughly washed in a colander with plenty of water. Allow the water to drain;
- Peel and wash potatoes. Cut potatoes into chunks;
- Peppers are washed, stalked and seeded. Slice randomly;
- Pour sesame oil into a pan. This will add a special flavor and unique taste to the vegetables;
- All the vegetables will be fried separately. The potatoes are fried first. Put the potatoes in the frying pan with the oil and cover. Allow to fry for a minute, then stir-fry and fry until the potatoes are half cooked. Remove the potatoes and place on a plate;
- Pour in the sesame oil and fry the bell peppers. Roast for 2 to 3 minutes until slightly crispy. Take the peppers out and put them on a plate;
- Add a little more sesame oil and place the aubergines in the frying pan. Cook the eggplants for 5-7 minutes until they are half cooked. At the end, add sugar and other vegetables: bell peppers and potatoes;
- All the vegetables are roasted on a low heat for five minutes;
- Proceed to make the sweet and sour sauce. Mix the water, starch, apple cider vinegar and soy sauce. Add the sugar and mix well;
- Pour the dressing over the vegetables. It is important to stir the vegetables continuously while pouring the dressing in, so that everything comes together evenly and there are no lumps;
- As soon as the dressing has thickened, chopped garlic is added. Next fry the vegetables for no more than 10 minutes, otherwise everything will stick together and turn into mush. When ready, the potatoes should be soft and the pepper crispy;
- After cooking, it is important to transfer the vegetables to a separate plate at once, otherwise the dish will overheat.
Chisanchi can be used both as a main dish and as a side dish. Chinese people pay special attention to the fact that pieces of vegetables should be large, because it is in this form they retain the richness of taste and better absorb the dressing. To make the dish look brighter, you can use different coloured bell peppers: red, yellow and green.
