Chinese New Year, Year of the Pig, 2019

Menu for 2019 Year of the Pig

It is always fun to visit the Asian Market especially before Chinese New Years.  I can now get most of the ingredients at our local supermarket.  However, I was looking for specific items, ginger preserved in syrup, pickled plums and anise extract, which I did not find.  In returning to my local supermarket, I did find fresh plums which I will use for the duck.  I also find fresh Shiitake at the Asian Market which I wanted to use for the Stuffed Shiitake Mushrooms instead of dried shiitake.  I will be added the recipes and pictures next week. 

Our Mascot will be this Vintage Piggy Bank that my mom bought for my son, who will attending. I have also extended an invitation to his in laws who are Korean.. Talk about adding extra pressure on me. 

I had such fun planning Chinese New Years for Year of the Dog and Year of the Roaster,  that I decided to plan a menu for this Lunar New Year.  Here is my planning menu

Appetizers

Shrimp Toast, Baked 

Pearl Meat balls

Shrimp Cakes

BBQ Pork Buns

Stuffed Shiitake Mushrooms

Asian Drums of Heaven

Crispy Duck with Plum Sauce

Chinese ‘Char Siu’ BBQ Pork 

Veggie

Long Life Noddles

Dessert

Tiger Tiger Ice Cream

Ginger Pear with Lycées 

Menu for Year of the Dog, 2018*

*All the recipes are in the same in the same blog

Cantonese Duck Recipe 2*

Long Life Noodles for Chinese New Year

CHINESE BBQ PORK (CHA SIU)

Sushi rice with Asian flavoured Coleslaw

Stir Fried Bok Choy 

Asian Pork Ribs 

Dessert

Strawberry Mochi (Ichigo Daifuku) 

Check out my other blogs on Asian food
Peking two ways

Rice Noodle Rolls , traditional along with a new twist!

Menu for Year of the Roaster, 2017

Chinese Menu for Lunar New Year 2017; the Year of the Rooster!

Cantonese Roast Duck Recipe1*

Sweet Pea Shots with Napa Salad

Chinese BBQ Pork using an Authentic old recipe

Long Life Noodles for Chinese New Year

Almond Milk Pudding

*The two Cantonese duck recipes are very different  One marinades the duck, the other plunges the duck into boiling hot water 

Almond Milk Pudding

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Almond Milk was thickened with 2 -3 T cornstarch
Beep the mixture in the microwave a minute at a time until thick
Whisk after each minute 
Add honey to taste
Add 1 tsp vanilla
Let set. 
Decorate with fruit cocktail and whipped cream!

Sweet Pea Shots with Napa Salad

Sesame Dressing 

• 3T oil
• 3T rice vinegar 
• 1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp light soya sauce
•  2T toasted sesame seeds 
• S&P 

• 6 c Napa cabbage, shredded
• 2 stacks celery, finely sliced
• 1/4 red onion, finely sliced
• 2 carrots, finely julienned
• 3 gr onions, finely julienned
• 1/4 c almonds, lightly toasted
• 1 T sesame seeds, toasted

To this salad I added 1 red bell pepper, julienned and added fresh pea shots

Cantonese Roast Duck

Although the recipe called for a chicken, since I have two ducks in my deep freeze, I decided that a duck would be more festive!

Fill the cavity of the duck with

• large slice of ginger smashed
• 4-6 garlic cloves
• 1/2 white onion. 

Rub the skin of the duck with

• 2T Rice Vinegar
• 4 T sake

Sprinkle generously salt and fresh pepper over the duck

Insert pieces of garlic between skin and meat randomly over the duck.  This is a step one can skip as it really did not flavor the meat as it does with lamb, even though the high test organic garlic was used! 

Roast the Duck on an open rack at 500degrees for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature  to 325 degrees and roast until the meat is cooked.  Pierce the skin during the roasting to ensure the fat runs off. 

There were two dipping sauces for the duck, but really only one needs to be made

Ginger Soya Dipping Sauce 

• 1T dark soya sauce
• 1T light soya sauce
• 1 T minced fresh ginger
• 2 tsp sesame seed oil
• 1 tsp sugar

The recipe started with 

Hoisin Lemon Ginger Dipping Sauce 

which I thought was the marinade for the bird as.   But it was the dipping sauce for the duck and I have named it as such. This dipping sauce is delicious  with the sweetness of the Hoisin sauce and I would make it again. 

Whisk the following ingredients and let sit to develop flavors

• 3/4 c Hoisin sauce* 
• 3 T rice vinegar
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice*
• 1 tsp fresh minced ginger
• pepper
• 2 T sesame seed oil

*I used fresh lemon juice and the rind of lemon

I also would not use as much Hoisin sauce 

Long Life Noodles for Chinese New Year

The Long Life Noodles that were prepared for Chinese New Year were certainly a hit and disappear quickly. This dish is served hot with the BBQ Pork. The name of this dish referred to Long Noodles = Long Life. 

BBQ Pork

The BBQ Pork recipe was a recipe given to me by a classmate who's Mom use to make for Sunday Dinners. It is easily done using Salt, Pepper and Hoisin Sauce. Hoisin is available in the Asian section in a Supermarket.  

Ingredients for the dressing of this salad

• 3T dark Soya Sauce
• 2T light Soya Sauce
• 2T Oyster Sauce
• 1/2 sugar

•  1 lb noodles
• Fresh ginger, minced
• Garlic clove, minced
• 1 Onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 lb BBQ Pork, thin julienned 
• 3 cups Bean Sprouts*
• Green onions, cut into 1 inch lengths 

Cook noodles in salty water. Drain.

In a skillet, saute minced ginger and minced garlic clove in oil.
Saute thinly sliced onion until soften then add thin julienned BBQ Pork. 
Add Bean sprout*, green onions and noodles. Add dressing, stir and heat thoroughly. 
Serve hot.

*In place of Bean Sprouts, as there is a danger of food borne illness, I left them out. 
I thought that Shiitake Mushroom would have been a great addition to this dish.  I had bought Fresh Snow Pea Shots for the recipe but used then in the salad instead!

Chinese BBQ Pork using an Authentic old recipe

I needed BBQ Pork for the LongLife Noodle recipe I was making for the Chinese New Year meal.  I decide to dig out an old recipe that was given to me as I needed to drive across the city to the Chinese Market to buy BBQ pork and traffic is always busy on a Friday afternoon. 

Slices of BBQ Pork

I was able to find a pork shoulder at Superstore and to my surprise when I opened the package the skin had been included, something I would have been most annoyed but not for this recipe.  Some of the recent recipes I have looked at are using any cut of pork, some as lean as the tenderloin. But the BBQ pork you can buy at the Asian Market is very fatty!

Making this BBQ pork recipe brought back memories of being included in the Sunday Family dinners with my classmate's family.  I remember family style eating with plates of Mahoney colored chicken wings, slices of BBQ Pork and shrimp.  Sadly, I do not remember much else.  My classmate Sheila would always say to her Mom laughingly to bring the soya sauce as I loved my Chinese food in a sauce.  Which was annoying as I really had tasted few Chinese dishes at that time! 

On one of the occasions, I did see what was called a Sea Cucumber boiling in a pot of water.  It looked like a cucumber, greenish grey with what looked like spikes all over it.   I was intrigued with this and wondered what dish it was for.  Not sure about this delicacy after reading the above link. 

The BBQ Pork at my friend's home was sliced thinly and served on Noodles. The pork slices were edged in a deep red color.

My classmate had neatly written our her Mom's recipe for me.  I have never made this recipe until now!

BBQ Pork Recipe

This recipe salts the pork and lets it rest for 2 hours, something I did not do.  The recent recipes for BBQ pork do not use the red food coloring, therefore you do not get that red edging around the meat.  

The pork was salted and peppered first

Hoisin sauce was brushed on to all sides of the meat. It was repeated a few times while cooking.

This piece of meat was slowly braised at 250 degrees, covered for 5 hours.  It was uncovered and brushed with Pomegranate molasses and placed under the broiler for a few minutes.   I was thrilled with the appearance of this and the tasters passed the test.

The pork was cute into small pieces for the noodle dish.

Long Life Noodles