Chinese New Year (still!)

My understanding is that Chinese New Year runs for 15 days to the Lantern Festival.  (When we were young my mother would celebrate for 10 days.  Since we had to wear red every day, 10 days is about right.  I’ve since discovered that the holiday is actually 5 days longer.)  Usually this means that there’s at least one weekend where I can make a full meal at home with the luxury of cooking all day.  (Weekdays make it hard to do a lot of the traditional dishes.)

*Interestingly enough, with all the birthdays and celebrations, we’ve been going out to eat a lot.  We’ve revisited our very favorite here in Boulder, Frasca.  We also visited The Kitchen, Black Cat, and Jax Fish House.  For Chinese New Year celebrations, we went to both Spice China (for the lion dance) and Heaven Star (for an actual banquet).  It’s been an eating tour of restaurants in Boulder these last two weeks.

*So, this past Saturday, I hung a duck.  (I actually had a tub underneath but removed it for the picture.  It hung until around 3 PM on Sunday and then I dipped it into a glaze.  Then it hung again for about 2 hours.  (The times on the hanging can vary.)  For food safety, this is probably not the best idea; however, in all the years I’ve been doing this duck, it’s always been fine.  You really get a great crispy skin.

*On Sat afternoon, I also pulled out all the dried mushrooms and rice noodles and soaked them.

*Sunday morning I made the almond jello (as in the previous post).  In the past, I’ve made custard tarts (dan tart) and dan go as well; but this was just going to be a relaxed family gathering. 

*My sister came over in the afternoon with the fixings for wontons.  We stood/sat around the counter with our daughters folding wontons.  There are several ways to do the wontons and we taught them the easiest way.  My brother-in-law then fried a lot of them.  Some of the wontons were filled with nutella.  My daughter made some with PB & J.  It was a lot of fun.

*We had some traditional dishes for Chinese New Year, as well.  For example, I made ji which is a rice noodle dish mixed with a mushroom that is named after the good luck symbol.  It’s can be a vegetarian dish including shredded cabbage and shiitake mushrooms, too; however, it is also usually served with ha mei (very small dried shrimp), oyster sauce for flavoring and broth for moisture. 

*I made a whole fish – head and tail included for good luck.  Chinese restaurants will also serve the fish whole during banquets, as well as whole chicken, duck, and port.  You can buy whole roasted duck at the Asian grocery, too.

*My sister made beef with broccoli.  (Broccoli is her “go to” vegetable.)  In addition, she made hup to ha (walnut shrimp).  She deep fried the walnuts and then added them to her shrimp dish — really yummy.

*For dessert we had the almond jello with lychees, mandarin oranges, and cherries, plus fried nutella wontons.

*It’s fun to have my sister here.  We are lucky to be able to watch our daughters grow and to teach them things we learned when we were kids.  Gung Hay Fat Choy!