Chinese New Year 2011

Ever since I finished college, I’ve been very interested in learning and keeping my mother’s traditions.  For several years when I lived in New Mexico, I also read books and the internet and gathered the information – including my mother’s own handwritten notes.  There are differences between what my mother does and what is considered “traditional”; however, after so many generations of the family living here, it’s not surprising.

~This year is different from previous years.  My mother is now living here in town.  So, aside from getting everything ready in my own home, I have also had to get everything ready for her.  This is a great honor for me; but, as you can imagine, it has meant a great deal of extra work – on top of my actual paid work and the general care of my family.  (The 15 days after Feb 3rd are filled with Superbowl Sunday, 2 birthdays and Valentine’s Day.)

~Feb 3rd was the first day of Chinese New Year.  I made Dan go, red bean soup, and fat go (or faat go, fatt go, fatt gou or fatt gao – all spellings on the web for prosperity cake).  The dan go is my mother’s recipe for steamed egg cake. (I prefer my mother’s cake. I have made this with a rice flour mix substitute to mimic neen go’s rice cake idea (also spelled neen gow).)  The red bean soup is a cobbled together from The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen. Finally, the fat go used half the pancake recipe from The Breakfast book plus the rest from the prosperity cake recipe of Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan’s website. (Notice that the cakes blossom up – into what look like flower petals.  I added more baking powder, even though we’re at altitude, to insure the flower – otherwise it wouldn’t be the same.)

origami fortune cookies

~I visited mom after breakfast and brought her a piece of dango and some of the sesame and peanut candies from my red box (as shown above).  This was my mom’s box.  She gave it to me after the first Chinese New Year in my own place after college.  I fill it with the Chinese candies from the store that I like and the Valentine’s day candies because they are often red, gold, and silver.

~We took mom out for a traditional Chinese dinner.  It was good – 3 cold dishes (vegetable stuffed tofu, cold chicken, and a scallop/shrimp ceviche like dish), whole fish, duck, Cantonese style noodles, vegetables in deep fried potato dish, lobster, and sesame seed balls for dessert.  I had not seen mom eat so much since she’s arrived.

~On Friday I went to visit my mother in the morning – brought her a pine nut cookie and another sesame candy.  That evening the extended family ate the leftovers – I added fresh rice and peanut noodles because there was not quite enough of each item left for the number of people.

~In previous years, I have had multiple CNY dinners, inviting many guests.  I am still not quite into the routine of this year.  So, my sister and I just celebrated together.  She brought 2 dishes (walnut shrimp and Chinese chicken wings) and I made whole fish and ji.  Ji consists of rice noodles, fat choy (mushroom), dung go (shiitake), and cabbage (which I forgot) and it can be made vegetarian but I used dried shrimp and oyster sauce (in the sauce for the dish).

~For dessert, I made almond jello with mandarin oranges, lychees, and maraschino cherries (for the bright red color, not for health).  I also tried “tangerine pie” (caramelized pineapple pastries) from Pichet Ong’s cookbook, The Sweet Spot. This is an involved recipe.  I made the dough and filling separately on Friday (to let the dough have time to rest).  Today I brought the dough to workable condition and made the rounds.  They have to sit in the fridge before you can brush them with yolk, stick the clove in (not edible), and bake.  However, they tasted great…
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~One of my friends posted that she had missed National Nutella day. When I looked, I found David Lebovitz’s site stating that World Nutella day is today. I hadn’t missed it…! I took a brownie recipe, removed 1/3 of the batter, mixed the nutella in, and then swirled it on top. It was very chocolatey…

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