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Kung Hei Fat Choi!
"In Celebration of The Year of the Monkey"
Chinese New Year - Richly Steeped in Culinary Traditions and Ancient Customs
Having lived in Asia for 6 years my wife and I experienced, first-hand, the many wonderful asian culinary traditions although the one time of year that stands out most is the period of the Chinese New Year. This time of year is truly a special treat for anyone to experience. Food is a spiritual process for the Chinese culture and the type of food and preparation of recipes have tremendous historical and spiritual purpose. Featured below are just a few of these many traditional foods prepared in honor of the Chinese New Years! I encourage anyone who enjoys cooking to understand the purpose and meaning of Chinese culture and cooking.
Sincerely, Chef Ron
Let the Festivities Begin!!
The Little New Year
The festivities of New Year in parts of China start during the last week of the old year - a period known as the little NewYear. On the twenty-third or twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of the twelfth moon, families gather in front of the kitchen god, the household's guardian angel. During the rest of the year his statue, picture or tablet lives on the chimney breast, but on this night he is carried into the courtyard by the head of the family and set on fire. This practice sends him to heaven to report on the deeds of his family. Accompanied by the noise of loud firecrackers and with his lips smeared with honey or molasses or sticky sweets to ensure he can only report sweet things or perhaps, to seal them so that he cannot say anything at all, he is given a great send-off.
Once he has departed, a small feast is served, and feasts and festivities continue for the next seven days, until the grand feast on New Years Eve. One dish served during little New Year is the Chinese version of a fondue.
Chinese Hot Pot
Serves 6-8
This is a complete meal in itself. You can find authentic charcoal or spit-burning hot pot at most Oriental stores although I have provided a Cast Iron Hot Pot at a tremendous discount for your review on our Chinese NY Specials page.
1 lb lamb fillet (or pork, beef or all)
8 oz. chic. breast meat, (boned and skinned)
8 oz. peeled prawns
2 oz. Chinese dried mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 30-40 minutes
1 lb. Chinese leaves or spinach
2-3 cakes of bean curd (tofu)
9 oz. bean thread noodles
9 cups chicken or meat stock
For dip sauce:
1/2 c. light soy sauce
1/3 c. dark soy sauce
1/4 c. sugar
3-4 spring onions, finely chopped
3-4 slices ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
2 tsp. sesame oil
chili sauce (optional)
1. Trim the chicken and lamb and cut into wafer-thin slices. *This is best accomplished with the Furi Pro Slicer/Chopper featured at a very low price on our Chinese NY Special Sheet!
2. Squeeze dry the mushrooms and discard the stalks. Cut mushrooms into small pieces.
3. Soak the noodles for 5-10 minutes until soft.
4. Arrange all the prepared ingredients either on a large plate or on small individual dishes. Arrange the ingredients for the dip sauce on the table ready for mixing by the diners, according to their taste.
5. When you are ready to eat, bring the stock to a boil on the stove and pour into pre-heated hot pot. Each person should then pick up a piece of meat with chopsticks of dipping forks and dip into boiling liquid for no more than a few seconds, until the color of the meat changes - and then quickly dip it in the sauce.
6. When the meats have been eaten add the vegetables to the pot. Boil for a few minutes, season the liquid with the remaining dip sauce, and serve the soup to finish the meal.
*We were lucky enough to experience this type of family style meal many times while dining with our friends and colleagues in Hong Kong and it is a wonderfully way to eat, chat and have fun!
New Year's Eve - The grand Feast
*Open Markets of Kowloon & Hong Kong with the Salty Tea Bun Lady in Tai Po Village
New Year's Eve is probably the festival of the year: a time for settling debts in order to start the New Year with a clean slate, and, equally important, a time when all the family gathers together to relax and to enjoy themselves. The Kitchen God is ceremoniously welcomed back with red candles, incense, firecrackers and offerings of pork, chicken or duck, carp wine and fruits. The new effigy is placed in the shrine on the chimney breast and then the whole family sits down to a HUGE feast.
The feast starts with a couple deep-fried dishes followed by a soup and duck, which is considered special, a leg or hand of pork and, to complete the traditional 'three meats', carp is a must for New Year as it is the fish of good fortune. A bowl or two of vegetables are always served at any Chinese meal with rice, to fill the empty corners.
*I have featured the WOK and necessary cooking apparatus on our special page. The WOK can be used for essentially every type of cooking method imaginable with the exception of roasting or baking. I have witnessed one large WOK in the back of a Dai Pai Dong, (traditional home style Chinese diner), cook an entire menu of over 50 items for over 300 ppl. without ever stopping!
Butterfly Prawns
For best results, use uncooked king prawns in their shells. Sold headless, they are 3" long and you should get 18-20 prawns per lb.
1 lb headless king prawns in their shells
1 TBL. light soy sauce
1 tsp. ground Sichuan pepper
3 TBL. Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry
2 tsp. corn flour
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/3 cup bread crumbs
2 1/2 cups oil for deep frying
lettuce leaves to garnish
2-3 spring onions, shredded, to garnish
1. Shell the prawns but leave the tails on. Split them in half from the underbelly about three quarters of the way through, leaving the tails still firmly attached. Marinate in the soy sauce, pepper, wine and corn flour for 10-15 minutes.
2. Pick up the prawns by the tail, dip it in the egg then roll it in the bread crumbs before lowering it into med.-hot oil.(aprox. 360 degrees). Deep fry in batches until golden brown. Remove and drain.
3. To serve, arrange the prawns neatly on a bed of lettuce leaves and garnish with spring onions.
Chicken with Lemon Sauce
1 1/4 lb. Chicken Breast Meat
1 or 2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 c. + 2 tsp. corn flour
3 1/2 cups oil for deep frying
7 fl. oz. lemon sauce, (bottled from oriental store is suitable)
1. Trim the chicken breast, coat with egg and corn flour, then deep fry in hot oil, (aprox. 375 degrees), until golden. Remove and drain.
2. Cut each breast into bite sized pieces and arrange on a hot serving plate.
3. Heat 1 TBL. oil in in a saucepan and mix with lemon sauce, blend well and pour evenly over the chicken. Garnish with lemon slices and serve hot.
Steamed Whole Fish
The last main course of any feast must include a whole fish, because the Chinese word for fish, yu, is pronounced the same as the word for 'to spare' - and we like to think that there is always something on the table to spare, particularly on New Year's Eve for the start of the New Year.
1 scaled and gutted carp, sea bass, trout or grey mullet, weighing about 1 lb.
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sesame oil
2-3 spring onions, cut in half length ways
2 slices fresh ginger root, peeled and finely shredded
2 TBL. light soy sauce
2 TBL. Shao Hsing rice wine or dry sherry
1 1/2 TBL. oil
finely shredded spring onions for garnish
1. Clean the fish well and dry thoroughly. Score both sides of the fish as far as the bone with diagonal cuts at 1/2 intervals. Rub the inside and outside of fish with salt and sesame oil, then place it on top of the spring onions in heat proof platter, and place the ginger on top.
2. Put the platter in a hot steamer or inside a wok on a rack and steam vigorously for 15-18 minutes.
3. Remove the platter from the steamer and pour the soy sauce and wine evenly over the fish: meanwhile, heat the oil until hot, place the shredded spring onion on top of the fish, then pour the hot oil over the whole fish. Serve immediately.
New Years Day
The traditional Chinese calendar is based on cycles of the moon. The words 'month' and 'moon' are identical because, according to the Chinese lunar calendar, one month equals one moon. The number of days in a month to make one complete revolution around the earth. So some months have 29 days, others thirty days, but the new moon is always on the first of the month and the full moon the fifteenth day.
New Years day is celebrated by children everywhere as their birthday. I remember the excitement of our friends and colleagues children when they new it was time for the little red envelopes or lucky money that was given to them by all the elders.
This is also the day when the gods are honored with lighted red candles and incense, when food and inscriptions written on red paper are placed in their shrines and everyone wears new clothes. The day starts with the bang of firecrackers to mark the 'Opening the Door to Welcome the Auspicious New Year ceremony.
After wards, throughout the day, people call on each other offering the compliments of the season. They are given tea and the Eight-treasure Box, an octagonal box divided into eight sections containing sweat meats and nuts. Close relatives and special guests are also offered New Years Cakes or, in the north Jiao Zi, wheat flour dumplings.
Jiao Zi
(Peking Dumplings)
Jiao Zi are eaten for breakfast on New Years Day. Most households make enough to last four or five days, and leave uncooked Jiao Zi outside to freeze in the bitterly cold winter, using them from frozen as required.
Dough
4 cups plain white flour
3/4 pint water
flour for dusting
Filling
1 lb. Chinese leaves or white cabbage.
1 lb. pork or lamb, minced
3 spring onions, finely chopped
1 tsp. finely chopped fresh ginger root
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
2 TBL. light soy sauce
1 1/2 TBL. Shao Hsing rice wine
2 tsp. sesame oil
Dip Sauce
2-3 slices fresh ginger root, finely shredded
3 1/2 TBL. rice vine agar
2 TBL. light soy sauce
*Roul'pat & Nylon Rolling Pin
1. Sift flour into a bowl, slowly pour in the water and mix to firm dough. Knead until smooth and soft. Cover with a damp cloth and set aside for 25-30 min.
2. Blanch the cabbage leaves until soft: drain and chop finely. Mix in the remaining filling ingredients and blend well.
3. Lightly dust a work surface with flour or use your *Matfer Roul'Pat baking preparation mats as featured in on our specials page, knead dough and roll the dough into a long sausage of about 1" in diameter. Cut into 80-90 small pc. Flatten each piece with palm of your hand, then with a rolling pin, *I would highly recommend or Nylon Rolling Pin featured on our specials page. Roll out each into a pancake about 2 1/2" in diameter.
4. Place about 1 TBL. of filling in the center of each pancake and fold in into a half-moon shaped pouch, then pinch the edges firmly so that the dumpling is firmly sealed.
5. Bring 9 c. water to rolling boil and drop in about 20 dumplings, stirring to prevent them from sticking together. Cover and bring back to boil and then ad about 2/3 cup cold water: bring to the boil again, this time uncovered. Repeat twice more, remove dumplings with a wire strainer *Please see this product on our special Page. Serve hot with dip sauce. Store uncooked in the freezer.
*The ART of dumplings is truly that, AN ART, watching a skilled cook prepare dumplings is like poetry in motion. There are many, many styles and flavors for dumplings and dim sum and I like them ALL!
Thank you for visiting our Chinese New Years recipe page, I hope you enjoy cooking these wonderfully dishes with your friends and family and hopefully you can share some of the culinary cultural significance with them as well!
Sincerely, Chef Ron