3 Phonemonal Recipes For Chinese New Year
Happy Chinese New Year! The Chinese New Year celebrates the welcoming of a New Year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. This year, it is celebrated on the 1st February and what better way to celebrate than to cook up a feast!
Chinese Dumplings
Prep:
20 mins
Cooking Time:
1 hr
Ingredients
½ cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon finely chopped Chinese chives
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
1 teaspoon chile-garlic sauce
1 pound ground pork
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons finely chopped Chinese chives
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 ½ tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
50 dumpling wrappers
1 cup vegetable oil for frying
1 quart water, or more as needed
Method
Step 1
Combine 1/2 cup soy sauce, rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon chives, sesame seeds, and chile sauce in a small bowl and set aside.
Step 2
Mix pork, garlic, egg, 2 tablespoons chives, soy sauce, sesame oil, and ginger in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Place a dumpling wrapper on a lightly floured work surface and spoon about 1 tablespoon of the filling in the middle. Wet the edge with a little water and crimp together forming small pleats to seal the dumpling. Repeat with remaining dumpling wrappers and filling.
Step 3
Heat 1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place 8 to 10 dumplings in the pan and cook until browned, about 2 minutes per side. Pour in 1 cup of water, cover and cook until the dumplings are tender and the pork is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Repeat for remaining dumplings. Serve with soy sauce mixture for dipping.
Sweet Rice Cake (Nian Gao)
Prep:
30 minutes
Makes two 8-inch round cakes.
Cooking Time:
1 hr
Ingredients
2 teaspoons vegetable oil (plus more for brushing baking pans)
3½ to 4 cups of water (depending on humidity levels where you are)
4 slices ginger
2 cups dark brown sugar or brown rock sugar
½ teaspoon allspice powder
1½ pounds glutinous rice flour (one and a half bags, as they generally come in 1-pound bags)
½ pound rice flour (about half a bag)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon dark molasses
zest of 1 large orange
6 dried dates (for decoration, optional)
Method
Step 1
Prepare two 8-inch round baking pans by brushing the insides with vegetable oil.
Add 2 cups of water and the ginger to a medium-sized pot, bring it a boil, then let it simmer for 10 minutes over low to medium heat with the lid covered. Turn off the heat, and stir in the brown sugar and allspice until the sugar is dissolved completely. Remove the ginger slices. Now add 1 1/2 cups of cold water to cool down the mixture so its warm, not hot.
Step 2
In a large mixing bowl, mix the two kinds of flours together and then slowly add in the sugar water mixture. Stir thoroughly until the batter is smooth (without any lumps). Now stir in the vanilla extract, molasses, orange zest, and 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil until thoroughly combined. The resulting batter should have a consistency similar to condensed milk. If the batter is too thick, add a bit more water a couple tablespoons at a time until the desired consistency is reached.
Step 3
Pour the batter evenly into two foil pans. Gently tap the pans against your countertop to get rid of air bubbles. Top each pan with three decorative dates in the center, if using. Put both pans in a double-decker bamboo steamer and steam for about 1 hour on high heat (the water should be boiling, but should NOT be bubbling high enough to touch the foil pans). You might need to add water into the steamer midway to avoid having the water dry up and burn your bamboo steamers.
Step 4
After 1 hour, poke a toothpick into the rice cake. It’s done if the toothpick comes out clean–just like a regular cake!
Tang Yuan, Chinese Rice Balls
Prep:
30 minutes
Cooking Time:
5 mins
Ingredients
For the filling:
80 g black sesame seeds or peanuts
2.5 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
40 g softened lard , or 30g butter
For the wrapper:
130 g glutinous rice flour
3 tablespoon boiling water
4 tablespoon room temperature water, or beetroot juice
Method
Step 1
Prepare the filling. Toast black sesame seeds (or peanuts) in a frying pan over low heat In a food processor, grind cooled black sesame seeds (or peanuts) and sugar until they turn into a paste texture. Add lard (or butter). Mix to combine then keep refrigerated until the mixture is firm enough to handle. Divide into 20 portions. Shape each piece into a ball. Put them back in the fridge while preparing the dough.
Step 2
Make the dough. In a mixing bowl, pour hot water into glutinous rice flour while stirring with a spatula. Add room temperature water (or beetroot juice) little by little. Knead with your hand until a smooth, soft dough forms. Divide and roll into 20 balls.
Step 3
Assemble Tang Yuan. Flatten a piece of dough into a round wrapper with your fingers. Place a ball of filling in the middle. Gently push the wrapper upwards to seal completely.
Step 4
Cook Tang Yuan. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Gently slide in some Tang Yuan. Push them around with the back of a cooking spoon to prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pot. When all the balls start to float on the surface, cook for a further minute. Serve warm.
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