Fried stuffed 3 treasures 煎讓三寶 (zeen yeung sam bo in Cantonese) is a Hong Kong street food classic. The 3 treasures are namely eggplant, green pepper and tofu. These were the most popular of the stuffed items menu. They are usually deep fried and drizzled with a sweet soy sauce. You could also choose to add hot sauce to it…yummmm! The stuffing usually consists of dace fish meat, preserved mandarin peel, cilantro, green onions and some seasonings.
Stricter sanitation and licensing rules have caused a decrease to the number of street vendors in Hong Kong. However, you can still find these classic street foods in various parts of Hong Kong. And of course, they’re much more expensive now than in the 1950’s.
Stuffed 3 treasures can also be found at dim sum restaurants with slight variations. The sauce at dimsum restaurants are thicker and sometimes have fermented black beans in the sauce.
I made my Fried stuffed 3 treasures 煎讓三寶 recipe very easy and it will give you great results! It will take you less than 30 minutes to complete this dish. My family and I don’t like the preserved mandarin peel taste and so I don’t use dace fish paste. Instead, I use shrimp paste. The shrimp paste gives it a bit more of an al dente texture, which I prefer so it worked great for me. But you can use any type of paste that suits your taste buds.
I also highly recommend getting the Sweet Soy Sauce from Lee Kum Kee. It makes a lot of dishes very easy. It’s perfect for clay pot rice and I especially like using it for this dish!
Fried stuffed 3 treasures 煎讓三寶 goes well with rice or congee. If you’re feeling playful, why not put it into some wax paper bags with skewers. You’ll feel like you’re on the streets of Hong Kong, if you’re not there already! To complete the Hong Kong experience, make yourself a Hong Kong Lemon Tea 港式檸檬茶 or Hong Kong Milk Tea 港式奶茶 too!
Fried Stuffed 3 Treasures 煎讓三寶
Ingredients
- 1 Japanese eggplant
- 1 Green pepper
- 1 Orange pepper (or any pepper you like)
- 1 pkg Tofu puffs
- 300 g Shrimp paste
- 1 stalk Green onions chopped
- 3 tbsp Oil
- 2 tbsp Sweet soy sauce
- 12 Fermented black beans (optional)
- 1 tbsp Corn starch
Instructions
- Wash and clean eggplant. Do not remove skin. Cut at a slant into 1 cm thick pieces
- Cut the peppers in half and remove seeds and membranes.
- Cut peppers into 5 cm pieces. For long, narrow peppers, you can just cut them in half
- Use kitchen shears to cut a small hole in one of the sides of the tofu and remove the square piece
- Soak 12 fermented black beans in water for 5 minutes and drain
- Wash and chop green onions
- Use your fingers to dab the cornstarch onto the surface where you will spread the shrimp paste
This will prevent your filling from falling off - Use a spoon or knife to spread a layer of shrimp paste onto the eggplant, peppers and tofu. For the tofu, you’ll want to stuff the shrimp paste inside
The layer of shrimp paste should be approx. 3 mm thick - Heat your wok or fry pan to medium-high heat
- Add 3 tbsp oil
- Place the stuffed vegetables with shrimp paste side down and fry for 3 minutes or until you see some browning. Do not overcrowd your pan/wok. Fry in 2 batches if you need to
- Flip them to the other side. Fry for 2-3 minutes or until you see some browning
- Flip them over again and check that they are done
They should be done unless you cut your eggplant thicker or your shrimp paste is thicker than 3 mm - Lower the heat to medium and remove the treasures and place on a serving plate. Leave the oil in the pan/wok
- Add the fermented black beans and green onions to the pan/wok and stir-fry for 10 seconds
- Add 2 tbsp of sweet soy sauce and turn off heat. Mix well and drizzle over the 3 treasures
- Serve
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