Three delectable Chinese dishes to celebrate the Lunar New Year

These dishes will warm and cheer you up this winter season

 

Since moving from China to North America, I never really get to experience the Lunar New Year the same way as I did in my hometown. It isn’t an official holiday in Canada, so I don’t have the day off to celebrate it with my family. However, I learned to make three traditional Lunar New Year dishes when I was in undergraduate studies, which truly ease my homesickness during this time of the year.

Dumplings are always delicious regardless of the ways you cook them, and braised fish is one of my favourite dishes because its smell reminds me of home. Hot pot is simple and interactive, and lets you choose whatever ingredients you’d like to eat. Share these dishes with your friends and loved ones when it is safe to do so!

Dumplings (Jiao Zi)

Dumplings, or Jiao Zi in Chinese, is a classic lucky dish widely seen at dinner tables on Lunar New Year’s Eve, especially in Northern China. Families usually wrap the dumplings together in the afternoon of the Eve using ground meat and finely chopped vegetables as the filling. Here is a recipe from my grandpa. Feel free to choose a meat option that you enjoy!

Ingredients:

• Ready-made dumpling skins
• 500 g of ground meat (pork, chicken, or beef, your choice)
• 1 raw egg
• 5 shiitake mushrooms
• 120 g of corn
• 120 g of carrot
• A stem of celery (add or reduce as you like)
• 50 g of chopped green onion
• 15 g of chopped ginger
• 3 tbsp of light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
• 3 tbsp of oyster sauce
• 3 tbsp of cooking wine
• 2 tbsp of sesame oil
• 2 g of salt
• 2 g of five-spice powder
• Pinch of sugar

Steps:

1. Mix all the sauces and spices together.
2. Marinate the ground meat with the mixed sauce in a big bowl for at least 20 minutes.
3. Finely chop carrot, shiitake mushroom, corn, and celery into small pieces, and then add them to the bowl.
4. Add a raw egg into the bowl and mix everything together.
5. Let’s start making the dumplings! To assemble, add approximately 1 tbsp of filling to the center of a dumpling skin. Using your fingers, lightly coat half of the inside skin with water. Fold the skin over the filling and seal the edges with pleats. It might take a bit of time to get familiar with the wrapping process, but you will get there eventually. Repeat with remaining dumpling skins and filling.
6. Boil a large pot of water and add 1 tsp of salt. Add the dumplings to the boiling water, and stir to make sure the dumplings don’t stick to the pot. When the dumplings float, add a cup of cold water to the pot and wait for the water to boil again.
7. Take the dumplings out of the water and add whatever garnish you like.
8. Voilà! Eat them with light soy sauce or black vinegar.

Braised Fish (Hong Shao Yu)

I grew up in a seaside city in China. Fish is a must-have dish at my family table on Lunar New Year’s Eve. In Chinese, fish is pronounced “Yu”, which is a symbol of abundance and prosperity. Although there are many different ways to cook a whole fish, my recipe opts for a savory flavour and doesn’t take too long to make.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole fish of any kind (around 400 grams)
• 1 green onion
• 3 slices of ginger
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 3 dry chilis
• 8 Chinese peppers (optional)
• 4 tbsp of cooking wine
• 4 tbsp of light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
• 30 g of vegetable oil
• 2 g of sugar
• 2 g of salt
• 1 tbsp of starch

Steps:

1. Clean the fish with water, and then absorb the excess water with paper towel.
2. Make 2 thin cuts on the back of the fish, which will help the meat absorb the broth.
3. Heat a pan and then add the vegetable oil. Wait for the oil to heat up and then add in the slices of ginger and the fish. Use medium heat to cook the fish until golden on both sides.
4. Add garlic and dry chili and keep frying. Switch to low heat.
5. Add cooking wine, light and dark soy sauce, salt, and sugar, then add boiling water to cover the fish. When everything in the pan is boiling, add green onion.
6. Switch to medium heat, cover the pot with a lid, and braise for 5 minutes. Switch to low heat, braise for another 10 minutes.
7. Take the fish, garlic, chili, and ginger out of the pan and place on a plate.
8. Add starch to the broth, and boil with high heat until the broth is reduced and becomes slightly thick.
9. Pour the broth onto the fish. Done!

Effortless Hot Pot For Sharing (Huo Guo)

Chinese hot pot is an interactive dish for sharing. Every Lunar New Year’s Eve, my family members chat and sit around a table that has a simmering pot at the centre surrounded by a wide variety of raw food such as meat and vegetables. The feeling of continuous steam on my face and the delicious smell from the boiling pot lingers in my mind.

You will need a tabletop stove/burner and a round stainless steel pot that has enough depth to hold a good amount of broth and food. You can get all the ingredients listed here from an Asian market or any other big supermarket. There is also a wide range of soup base flavours from different brands you can choose from—Satay, tomato, numbing spicy, etc. Mix and match your choices!

Ingredients:

• Meat/protein in thin slices (e.g. lamb, pork, beef, tofu, bean curd)
• Seafood (e.g. shrimp, mussel, clam, fish in slices, scallop)
• Meatballs and/or fishballs
• Leafy vegetables (e.g. lettuce, bok choy, watercress, napa cabbage)
• Root vegetables (e.g. potato, sweet potato, lotus root, daikon, pumpkin)
• Mushrooms (e.g. black fungus, oyster mushroom, enoki mushroom)
• Noodles or vermicelli
• Hot pot seasoned soup base
• Water or ready-made broth

Dipping sauce:
Alternate the ratio to your preference

• 3 tsp of light soy sauce
• 1 tsp of black vinegar
• 1 tsp of oyster sauce
• Chopped chili
• Chopped green onion
• Chopped garlic
• White sesame
• Chopped cilantro
• Pinch of sugar
• Chili oil

Steps:

1. Have all the raw food cleaned and prepped for boiling.
2. Place the stainless steel pot on the tabletop stove/burner. Make the hot pot broth in the pot by mixing the seasoned soup base and water or ready-made meat/vegetable broth.
3. When the broth is boiled, add raw food as you go.
4. Take out the cooked raw food and eat with dipping sauce. Enjoy!

 

A version of this article appeared in print in The Ontarion issue 192.2 on Jan. 27, 2022.

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