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 

Rice Noodle Rolls , traditional along with a new twist!

I have been trying to make the Rice Noodle Rolls for a while, watched many video on YouTube and tried the different methods demonstrated.

I have persevered as I have had success in making crepes, Nalysniki  although I have never been able to make the paper thin crepes my mom would make. 

To the amusement of the Vietnamese Lady that was giving me a pedicure and only after seeing a picture of the Rice Noodle Rolls that I had posted on Instragram, she recited her recipe which I wrote down.  She felt I was making the crepes too thick, more like the Chinese method of making these crepes. 

Rice Noodle Roll Batter

• 1 c Rice Flour
• 1 c Tapioca Flour
• 2 c warm water

Mix this together first, then add 

• 1 1/2 -2 c cold water
•     salt

Let the batter set for at least 10 minutes

Whisk before pouring as it does settle out

Heat the pan to medium heat, brush oil lightly with a paper towel*

Grease the top of the counter where you will flip the crepes when cooked  

Ladle a small amount into the heated pan to make a thin crepe
Swirl around to cover the whole pan

Cover with a lid to steam the crepe.

The crepes cooks quickly and should look translucent!

 




















Flip the crepe to the greased counter space or cutting board.

Work quickly to roll up the crepes with your filling.

Depending on the size of the roll, cut into 2 -3 pieces that are bite size.

I used two different skillets, one was a Teflon 9" and a Cast Iron 8".  The important thing is to have the pans at a correct heat and to lightly oil them with a paper towel.  If there is too much oil on your pan, the batter will not spread out well and if the pan is too cold the batter will stick. 

I used two different pans and found that the cast iron worked the best overall as it retained it's heat when taken of the heat to flip the crepes. 

If you are using a filling, like steamed shrimp or BBQ pork, the filling needs to be ready to go as the noodles stick together very quickly! 

Dipping sauce 

• 2 T soya sauce
• 2 T oyster sauce
• 1 T sugar
• 1/2 c water
• minced fresh ginger
• minced garlic

Since my grandkid was coming over after school for Piano practice, I saved some of the batter for my grandkid.  Since she doesn't  like shrimp, I decided to use canned apricots as a filling for this. The girls enjoyed this very much. The apricots had to be dried well before using in the noodle roll. 

The youngest who came later as her Mom had to work thought she was eating eggs!!

Rice Noodle Rolls. a study on techniques used

My granddaughters love dim sum and I am always looking for activities to do with them when I babysit. 

I can't believe that there are so many ways to make the rice noodle rolls; fry, steam and even microwave.  The steaming process also varied.  Videos of this being prepared on the Vietnam as street food, showed some vendors steam the noodle on cloth, others steamed the noodle on a baking sheet that fits into a steaming oven.  The batter used for the street vendorsis very thin and is cooked very quickly, then quickly rolled into a roll.

I am a cast iron cook and do crepes on these pans with success.  So I first used my cast iron, even a no stick pan and each crepe stuck!!  I was so tempted to add an egg to the batter!  The steaming method worked better, I used two casserole dishes, but found after each baking, they had to be cleaned. Hmmm! The results were delicious just not pretty to look at! 

The batter 
This is the first recipe I used and it does need to have more liquid added as is thick.  See below for the modified batter used.  I have added this recipe to the blog as rice flour can be found in the Asian aisle of a supermarket.  

• 1c Rice flour 
• 1c water
• 1 T oil
• salt 

Loosen the side of the noodle from the dish with a spatula and let cool. 

Tiger shrimp was steamed for the dish and coarsely chopped.

Let the noodle cool before handling as the noodle will rip when lifted to add the filling if you don't let it cool for a few minutes..

This weekend, my son invited us for dim sum with the girls and I took great interest in their Noodle Rolls

The noodle roll also had ripped and fallen apart with handling!

As you can notice the end is very thick and was also gummy!

Back to the drawing board to review the batter.  Most of the batter used more water in portion to the dry ingredients as much as 1/2 to 1c of water.  The flours varied in mix, some used just rice flour, some a combination of Tapioca and Rice flour, other also added Cornstarch or Potato starch to the Rice and Tapioca flours.  

This time my batter was 

•  1 1/3 c Rice flour
• 1/3c Tapioca flour
• 1/2c Cornstarch
• 2 c lukewarm water
• 2 c boiling water
• salt
• 1 Tablespoon Oil

This batter used lukewarm and hot water as in this Savoury Rolled Cakes


Method

• Whisk the mixture and before each pouring
• Spray the rectangle container* with oil or use a brush to cover lightly
• Pour a very thin layer in pan, this can either be steamed in your wok, or
• Microwave for 1 minute at a time and check if the crepe is done.  In my microwave on high power, it took 2 minutes.
• Brush the roll with oil 

*The containers that are used varied, some used an aluminum pie plate or baking dish, another a 8X8 steel pan, which just floated on the water in the WOK to steam. 

Another lined the container with saran wrap and lifted the saran warp to the work area.  Not sure how safe it is to cook on saran wrap. 

Some had muslin cotton sewed with a cord to tighten around a pot to steam the noodle.  

Many recipes use a non stick frying pan with a lid to steam the noodle with success. The cooking time was also much shorter here. 

Depending on the method used to cook the noodle, the cooking times vary, although I did find you can not wreck the noodle in cooking only in handling the noodle.  I was after a very thin noodle, but this also varied, some were about about a 1/4 thick, so again personal preference.  Some had filling scattered on the noodle while cooking, while others added their filling to the batter!  The world of Rice Noodle Rolls was most intriguing, given that I am not a dim sum fan!  

Let the noodle cool for about a minute, add your filling to one end and roll.  

This batter worked well although it did take a longer time to steam it, some of the recipes said it took as long as 10 to 12 minutes. then I remember that you can also microwave it.  The above is the picture of the microwaved noodle.  

This worked well and I will be doing this with the granddaughters as certainly safer than having a wok with boiling water!

Filling

• Ground pork
• Mushroom, chopped
• Ginger
• Onions chopped
• garlic, chili flakes opt

Sauté the onion and mushroom in olive oil.
Sauté the ground pork until cooked, break up the large pieces
Add Minced garlic and minced fresh ginger.

Dipping sauce can be your favourite sauce; Sriracha, Hoisin Sauce or Nuoc Cham 

Nuco Cham 

1 lime ( juice and rind)
1 T sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 small garlic clove, finely minced

1 or 2 Thai chilis, thinly sliced or 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce

1 shredded carrot

Now all  these noodles need is a garnish of julienned cucumber, lettuce, Julienned carrots and herbs!