Last Saturday evening, a few of us get together to have an early Chinese New Year dinner over at my place. Although this was not the first time I prepared food for such as big group of friends other than my family, I am still very nervous and a bit stress up with planning the dishes as well as preparations.
Thanks to Jacob and sh*ting who initiate to help up with the Yusheng as well as preparing the ingredients for the dishes in order to put this dinner together. I hope everyone enjoys the meal and I apologize if the dishes are not up to expectations due to my clumsy hands and mind in the kitchen :)
These were some of the key ingredients that I bought from the wet market (巴杀) during that morning. Sometime I really prefer getting my ingredients from the wet market as compared to supermarkets as I can go around the stalls comparing the prices as well as sourcing for fresh and money value ingredients.
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| Dinner Menu. Yusheng was prepared by Jacob (cookeatsnaplove) and his wife, Chloe. Whereas the main and dessert are prepared by Me with help from sh*ting (lobsterpaints) |
Chinese New Year cannot go without Yusheng (鱼生) or also known as Lo Hei which consists of colour shredded vegetables (carrot, radish, lettuce) and a variety of sauces and condiments plus crackers, raw fish and etc. I am very thankful to Jacob from Cooksnapeatlove who helps to contribute his very own Homemade Yusheng to add new year atmosphere for our dinner.
{Behind the scene} Jacob even bought along his own kitchen set for cutting the salmon as well as big plate to assemble the Yusheng. Kodus to Jacob and his wife Chloe for the effort. Thanks for the hard work friends.
FISH MAW SOUP
Chinese New Year is always packed with yummy food and you can find different versions of Fish Maw Soup, Shark Fins Soup, Salted Duck Soup and etc at most of the household during new year. Above is our version of Fish Maw Soup which I prepared for the dinner gathering last week to feed about
10 persons.
(Serves: 10 | Preparation: 45 minutes | Cooking: 30 minutes)Ingredients:
150g Fish Maw (鱼鳔)
500g Crab Meat (蟹肉)
4 Clusters of Black Fungus (黑木耳), thinly sliced
250g Sea Cucumber (海参), sliced 1.5cm thick
6 sh*ttake Mushrooms (花姑), sliced
2 Cooked Chicken Breast, thinly shred
2 Litres Chicken Broth
1 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce (for colour)
1 Egg White (optional), beaten
Cornstarch SolutionTo Serve:
Coriander, Pepper and Black Vinegar, to serve
Method:-
1. Defrost the crab meat if it is frozen, rinse a few times and drained well. Place it a plate and steamed for about 5 minutes till cooked. Remove and flake it using a fork and set aside.2. Next bring a pot of water to boil together with the chicken breast and a few slices of ginger and spring onion over medium high heat. When water comes to boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered for 6 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
3.Off the heat, stand chicken in the pot for another 5 minutes, drain well and when chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it and set aside.
4. Bring water to boil in a big pot, blanch fish maw in boiling water for 2 minutes, rinse with water, squeezed dry and repeat the process again for another 1 - 2 times to get ride of the oil and fishy smell.See AlsoEasy Cheesy Snowman Garlic Pizza Breads RecipeHow to Make Traditional British Pancakes (authentic English recipe!)The Wartime Kitchen and Ration Book Cooking - Day Three: Eggs and Egg in a Nest: WW2 Mock Fried Egg RecipeHamburger Soup Recipe5. When done, squeezed dry and cut into 1.5cm thick, set aside.
6. To Cook The Fish Maw Soup:- Bring 2 litres of chicken broth (pre-cooked or instant chicken broth) to boil. Add in prepared fish maw and 2 slices of ginger, simmer over low heat for about
20 minutes or until fish maw is soften to your preferred texture.7. Next add in black fungus, sea cucumber, mushrooms and continue to simmer for another
5 minutes before adding in crab meat and shredded chicken to simmer for 3 minutes.8. Lastly stir in dark soy sauce for the colour (optional) and season the soup with salt and fish sauce if requires. Thicken the soup with cornstarch solution.
9. Remove from heat, stir in egg white and serve with pepper and black vinegar.
Teochew Style White-spotted Rabbitfish (recipe) is one of my favourite Chinese New Year dish. And usually during CNY "White-spotted Rabbitfish(白肚鱼/拜年鱼)" will be available at all wet markets as well as the seafood sections at major supermarkets. And these fish taste especially good during this season and some even comes with roes that are particularly relished too.
Growing up in a Teochew family, we simply love steamed fish especial White/Sliver Pomfret (白鲳), Threadfin (午鱼) or White Spotted Rabbitfish (白肚鱼). For my version the fish is usually steamed with tomatoes, salted plums / salted vegetables, cut chilli, ginger and spring onions. Sometime shiitake mushrooms and tofu are also added for flavour too. You can refer a similar post on how to prepare this Teochew Style Steamed Golden Pomfret at the provided link here.
SIMMER CHICKEN WINGS WITH LEMONGRASS
Chicken Wing With Lemongrass is quite similar to Sesame Chicken (麻油鸡) which is cooked using sesame oil and lot of ginger during confinement. But the different between the them is the chicken for this lemongrass dish is infused with lemongrass fragrant leaving it an aromatic dish even just to have it alone with steamed white rice.
(Serves: 8 -10 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 20 minutes)Ingredients:
20 Chicken Mid-Joints
4 Lemongrass, sectioned and bruise
8 Whole Shallots
10 Slices Ginger
10 Chestnuts(optional), skin removed
300ml Of Water
Some Cornstarch SolutionMarinade:
2 Tablespoons Oyster Sauce
3 Tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon of Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Pepper
1 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
2 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
4 Tablespoons Cooking Wine
1.5 Teaspoon CornflourMethod:-
2 hours or overnight in the fridge. (stir once or twice during marinating the process)
1. Marinate chicken mid-joints with marinade for at least2. Saute lemongrass with 2 tablespoons of cooking oil together with shallots and ginger till fragrant and shallot is golden in colour.
3. Add in chicken, chestnut and continue to stir-fry over medium high heat till the meat changes colour. Add in the left over marinade liquid and water, bring to boil.
4. Cover and simmer over low heat until chicken is cooked and gravy is nearly absorbed or you can thicken it with some cornstarch solution.
5. Remove from heat and serve.
STEAMED GINSENG PRAWNS
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| Photo Credit: Moonberry |
In the previous gathering I did another version of prawn dish which was known as Steamed Drunken Prawns (recipe) whereby I soaked the prawns in rice wine for about 10 minutes before steaming to infuse it with a light and sweet wine taste. But for the above dish, instead of wine I decided to go for something more herbal which I used
Dang Gui(Angelica) and
Ginsengto prepare this "养身菜 (healthy herbal dish)".
(Serves: 8 - 10 | Preparation: 30 minutes | Cooking: 7 minutes)Ingredients:
500g Medium Fresh Prawn, about 20 pieces
4 - 6 slices Dang Gui(当归)
3 Dried Ginseng Roots (小人渗)
Some Red Date, sliced
1 Tablespoon Wolfberries
2 Tablespoon Cooking/Rice Wine
150ml Water
Some Ginger Slices, optionalMethod:-
20 minutes. Set aside.
1. Place Dang Gui, Ginseng, Red Date, Cooking Wine and Water in a deep plate. Steamed it over medium heat for about2. Arrange prawns on plate(s), spoon prepared herbal soup over it, scatter some wolfberries and top with some ginger if using.
3. Steamed over medium high heat for about
6 - 7 minutes or until prawns are cooked.4. Remove and serve immediately. Alternatively you can also add a splash cooking wine to enhance the taste before serving.
Tip:
~ If you cannot find whole ginseng shown above, you could also replace it with ginseng slices or roots.
TOFU WITH CENTURY EGG AND PORK FLOSS
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| Photo Credit: Sgfoodonfoot |
Tofu (豆腐)is a very flexible ingredient which you could add into soup, using it for steaming, stir-fry and etc. I love tofu especially those silken type of steamed tofu which is topped with minced meat. Here, for this Steamed Tofu With Century Egg And Pork Floss, I have combined a few of my favourite ingredients such as tofu, century egg and pork floss which give it an unique flavour. And for other tofu dishes which you are keen to read more, you could refer to the link here.
(Serves: 4 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 5 minutes)Ingredients:
1 Box of Silken Tofu, for steaming
2 Shiitake Mushrooms, diced
100g Minced Meat,
1 Teaspoon Minced Garlic
1 Stalk Of Spring Onion, cut into sections
1 Red Chilli, sliced
1 - 2 Century Egg (皮蛋), cut into wedges
2 Tablespoons Chicken/Pork Floss
Some Cornstarch SolutionSeasoning Sauce:
1/2 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cooking Wine
1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1/4 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
150ml Water
Method:-
1. Season minced meat with 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, cooking wine, light soy sauce and some pepper and cornflour. Set aside for 5 minutes.2. Steamed the tofu on med-heat for
3 minutes or microwave on medium heat for 2 minutes. Remove and top with prepared century egg. Set aside.3. Heat up 2 tablespoons of oil in the wok, saute garlic, red chilli and spring onion till fragrant.
4. Add in marinated minced meat and give it a quick stir before adding in the mushrooms and stir-fry till aromatic.
5. Pour in seasoning sauce and bring it to boil. Simmer for a while and thick with cornstarch solution.
6. Spoon minced meat mixture around the side of the tofu, top with chicken/pork floss and garnish with some spring onion or coriander. Serve immediately.
CLAYPOT RICE WITH CHINESE SAUSAGE
( 腊味煲饭)
Usually during Chinese New Year you would find all sort of preserved meat such as ham, duck, liver, sausages and etc available in supermarkets or Chinatown area. And for this pre year near dinner, I decided to make a claypot rice using some of the assorted preserved meat plus arrowhead.
The preserved meat and sausages enhanced the flavour and aroma of the rice whereas arrowhead add-on another texture when cooked together with the rice. I have another two similar versions of claypot rice, one using Happy Call Pan (recipe) and the other using Claypot (recipe) which you might be interested to take a look too.
(Serves: 8 | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 20 minutes)Ingredients:
4 Cups of Uncooked Rice (using rice cooker cup), pre-soaked for 1 hour
8 Arrowhead (Cigu - 慈姑), outer skin removed and cut into quarters
2 (80g) Small Chinese Preserved Sausage (腊肠)
2 (120g) Duck Liver Preserved Sausage (鸭肝腊肠)
120g Wax Meat (蜡肉)
2 - 3 Stalks Of Bok Choy, trimmed and blanched
1.5 Tablespoon of Cooking Oil
3 Tablespoon Soy Sauce Mixture
Some Dark Soy SauceMethod:-
1.Wash and rinse the rice, pre-soaked it for at least one hour.2. Blanch the preserved meat and sausages in boiling water for 10 seconds, drained. Remove the outer skin of the sausages, sliced both the wax meat and sausages. Set aside.
3. Bring rice (if using claypot the amount of water used is:
2 part water 1 part rice) and arrowhead to boil over high heat. (do not over or else it might overflow)4.When the water almost dry up, lower the heat and arrange the prepared meat and sausages on the rice. Drizzle oil around the side of the claypot and let the mixture continue to simmer for another
8 - 10 minutes.5. Turn off the heat and let the rice continue to cook (dry up) from the heat of the claypot for another
10 - 15 minutes.6. Arrange the blanched vegetables at the side and drizzle some of the prepared soy sauce mixture over and serve.
Tip:
~ Rinse the arrowhead after cutting to remove the starch before adding it into the rice to cook.~ To Blanched The Vegetables: Bring a pot of water to boil together with 1 teaspoon of oil and pinch of salt. Blanch the vegetables for
10 seconds, removed and rinse with cold water. Set aside.~ To Make The Soy Sauce Mixture:- 200ml Warm Water, 20ml Light Soy Sauce, 15ml Fish Sauce, 1 Teaspoon Sugar and 1 Teaspoon Chicken Stocks. Mix everything together until sugar dissolve and set aside.
UPCOMING RECIPES
Apart from the Yusheng and Main Dishes that we had. I also prepared a dessert like Osmanthus And Chestnut Koi Jelly (recipe) plus a door gift with CNY flavour in it known as Longan And Cranberry Yogurt Cake (recipe).
