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Children's Performance Celebrating Chinese New Year, Beijing, China
Keren Su
Buy This at Allposters.com
La Belle Cuisine
Chinese New Year Feast from
Food & Wine
"Welcome the New Year with a Chinese feast. You'll find wonton wrappers
for
the dumplings in the refrigerated produce section and freezer sections
of super- markets and Asian groceries. Noodles are a symbol of longevity
(don't cut them!) and a whole fish represents prosperity.
The flavorful poaching broth for the chicken breasts (with soy, ginger,
star anise
and cinnamon) can be refrigerated and reused several times. Serve juicy
citrus
fruit, such as tangerines, for dessert."
Starters:
Hot and Spicy Cucumbers
Scallop Dumplings with Garlic Chives
Entrées:
Soy Sauce Chicken(recipe below)
Steamed Whole Fish with
Scallions and Ginger (recipe below)
Side Dishes:
Stir-Fried Chinese Greens
Vegetable Fried Rice
Longevity Noodles
Soy Sauce Chicken
Recipe by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo
From 'Affairs of the Heart'
This recipe originally appeared in
Food & Wine February, 1997.
Food & Wine - One Year Subscription
Serves 6
This is a festive chicken dish, one that was always made for the birthday
of my Ah Paw (grandmother). Here I substitute chicken breasts for the
more traditional whole chicken. The flavorful poaching liquid can be
refrigerated and reused several times.
4 cups
chicken stock
Three 3-inch-long cinnamon sticks
3 tablespoons brown sugar
4 star anise pods
One 2-inch piece ginger, smashed
1/4 cup mushroom soy sauce
1/4 cup Shao-Hsing wine or dry sherry
2 whole chicken breasts on the bone
with the skin (2 1/2 pounds)
In a large nonreactive saucepan, combine the chicken stock, cinnamon
sticks,
brown sugar, star anise and ginger and bring to a boil over high
heat. Add the
mushroom soy and return to a boil. Reduce the heat to
moderate and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the wine and bring to a boil.
Add the chicken breasts, skin side down, and
return to a boil. Reduce
the heat to low, cover and cook for 12 minutes. Turn
the chicken,
cover and cook for 12 minutes longer. Remove from the heat and
let the chicken stand, covered, for 1 hour.
Remove the chicken from the liquid. Remove and discard the skin
and bones.
Slice the breasts crosswise 1 1/2 inches thick and serve.
Wine suggestion:A fruity but dry Gewűrztraminer, such as the 1995
Bouchaine from California or the 1995 Henry Estate from Oregon,
would play off the aromatic elements in the poaching liquid.
Steamed Whole Fish with
Scallions and Ginger
Recipe by Naomi Duguid and Jeffrey Alford,
from 'A Peak Experience in China'
This recipe originally appeared in
Food & Wine May, 1998
Food & Wine - One Year Subscription
Serves 4
"In this classic southern Chinese dish, a whole fish is flavored lightly
with salt, ginger, scallions, wine and sesame oil, then placed on a plate
and steamed for less than 20 minutes. Any leftovers are very tasty cold."
One 2-pound red snapper, black sea bass or
salmon trout,cleaned and scaled
Sea salt
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine,
dry white wine or dry sherry
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
8 scallions - halved crosswise,
finely julienned and then
cut into 1-inch lengths
1 tablespoon peanut oil or
vegetable oil
Wash the fish in cold water and wipe dry. Make 3 parallel diagonal
2-inch-long slashes on each side of the fish, slicing through to the bone.
Rub the fish all over with 1 teaspoon of sea salt and lay it on a heat-
proof plate large
enough to hold it.
In a mortar, pound the ginger to a paste with a pinch of sea salt. Take
one-third of the ginger paste and stuff a little into each of the slashes in
the fish.
In a small bowl, mix the remainder of the ginger paste with the
soy
sauce, wine and 1/2 teaspoon of the sesame oil. Spoon the sauce into
the cavity and on top of the fish and let marinate for 10 to 20 minutes.
Tuck one-fourth of the scallion shreds into the cavity of the fish. Spoon
any marinade from the plate over the fish and top with the remaining scallions.
To set up your steaming arrangement, pour about 3 cups of water into a
large wok and bring to a boil over high heat. Set the plate with the fish in
a metal or bamboo steamer and cover tightly with a lid or with foil. When
the water is boiling vigorously, put on oven mitts and carefully place the steamer in the
wok; the water should not touch the plate. Steam the fish
until it is opaque throughout and flakes easily when pulled with a fork,
15 to 18 minutes. Carefully remove the steamer from the wok.
When the fish is almost done, heat the peanut oil and the remaining 1/2
teaspoon of sesame oil in a small skillet until very hot. Remove the plate
with the fish from the steamer. Pour the hot oil over the fish to glaze it
(steaming often leaves a very matte finish) and serve the fish immediately
from the plate. Guests can lift pieces of fish off the plate with chopsticks
as they eat or they can be served formal portions. Be sure to serve a little sauce with the fish.
Wine suggestion: Ginger and soy sauce accent the snapper's mild flavor,
but this dish still calls for a lighter white, such as a fragrant but dry Riesling
from Alsace. Look for the 1994 Trimbach or the 1996 Lucien Albrecht.
Chinese New Year Feast, page 1
Chinese New Year Feast, page 3
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Chinese-Style Shrimp, Celery and Ginger
Pancakes with Soy-Ginger Dipping Sauce
Beggar's Chicken (Roast Chicken with
Mushroom and Pork Stuffing)
Cornish Hens, Soy-Braised, with Coconut
Pineapple Sweet Rice
Kung Pao Chicken
Crispy Sweet-and-Sour Fish
Hot and Sour Salmon with Greens
Poached Halibut with Hot-and-Sour Sauce
Szechuan Grilled Pompano
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