Our Belated Chinese New Year Celebration

Over the weekend, I cooked up a feast for everyone since it was Chinese New Year on 2/3/11. 新年快樂 Xin nian kuai le everyone! So I’ve decided “why not cook some yummy Chinese food for our late celebration”. Took me a week to decide on the dishes I want my guinea pigs to try, after some long and confusing research I have made of my mind on these 3 dishes: Lion’s Head Meatballs, Red Cooked Pork, and Beer Glazed Wings. I know, what you are thinking…that’s a lot of meat, what can I say, we are Carnivore.

Lion’s Head Meatballs

This is one of the traditional Chinese dishes to serve during Chinese New Year in my family. You suppose to make it as big as you can, because I was told as a child, after eating a lion’s head meatball I will be as strong as a lion.

Ingredients:

Meatballs

1 lb ground pork

2 finely chopped spring green onions

1 ½ tablespoon finely chopped ginger

1 egg

1 tablespoon Shao Hsing cooking wine or dry sherry

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon white pepper

Soup Base:

2 cups peanut oil

1 head chopped medium size napa cabbage

6 dried shitake mushrooms

2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup water

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

2 tablespoon light soy sauce

½ tablespoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon sugar

1 package of LungKow noodles (thick glass noodles)

Directions: 

1.        Soak dried mushrooms in hot water for 30 mins.

2.       Meatballs: combine ground pork, egg, green onions, ginger, soy sauce, Shao Hsing cooking wine, sesame oil, cornstarch, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Using wet hands to mold ground meat into a golf ball size, makes about 8 meatballs.

3.       Pour the peanut oil into a wok or frying pan and heat over high heat. When the oil is hot add the meatballs and cook for 5 minutes on each side, or until brown. Remove meatballs and drain on paper towels.

4.      Pour 2 tablespoons of oil into a pan then add mushrooms to sauté for about 2 minutes. Layer the napa cabbage on the bottom; add chicken broth and water bring to boil, and then add meatballs; dark and light soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar cover and simmer over low heat about 30 – 45 minutes.

5.       Add the LungKow noodles, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Then ready to serve.

Red Cooked Pork 紅燒肉 (Hong Shao Rou)

Growing up in Shanghai, Red Cooked Pork is everywhere; I call it my staple food. It is a Shanghainese dish; I grew up eating this at least once a week. I just love the texture between the fat, gelatiny skin, and that rich sauce.

Chris and I when to China this past November, I showed him my lovely home town. And if I can remember we ate Red Cooked Pork almost every day when we were in Shanghai. I will post some pictures from my trip next time.

Ingredients:

1 ½ lb. pork belly

4 cloves of garlic

3 scallions

4 whole star anise

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon brown sugar

3 tablespoon dark soy sauce

¼ cups Shao Hsing cooking wine

1 ½ cups stock or water

5 hard boiled eggs - optional

Directions: 

1.        Cut pork belly into 1.5 inches cubes, put pork in boiling water about 15 minutes then drain the pork belly and place to cool.

2.       Melt the sugar with vegetable oil in a wok over medium high heat, until the sugar turns brown. Add the pork in and let it caramelize with the sugar. (*Be extremely careful with the hot oil, sugar and pork fat, the hot oil will splash everywhere. I got some bad oil burns from it, please be very careful and protect yourself. How come I didn’t read about the warning sign from different blogs and recipe websites? Not very cool!)

3.       Transfer the meat into a pot, put garlic, scallion, star anise, dark soy sauce, rice wine and stock (from boiling the pork belly). Cover and simmer over low heat for 1 hour, make sure to stir the meat occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom.

*Optional step: put in peeled hard boiled eggs after 30 mins.

4.      Remove the lid and turn to medium high, cook about 10 more minutes to reduce the sauce.

I would like to thank Red cook for helping me out with this recipe.

Soy-Glazed Beer Wings

I heard about a lot of different ways to cook the chicken wings, some uses coke, honey, balsamic, pineapple juice, orange juice and even orange soda. I decided why not use “beer”? We cook with wine, beer should taste as good. So…this will be my first time cooking wings and experiment with beer, so I told Chris, “Wish me luck.” Either this will make it or break it; 20 minutes later…wings are done!!! An amazing sweet & soy aroma lingering around the house, it’s like your can taste it. “OMG….this is the dumb…beer huh? Who would have known?” This is a definitely quick and easy recipe under 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

12 chicken wings

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 can or bottle beer

2 tablespoon dark soy sauce

2 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

2 spring green onion quarter chopped

2 clove garlic – roughly chopped

5 slices of ginger

5 cups water

Directions: 

1.        Bring 5 cups of water to boil, add wings in for 2 minutes then remove from water.

2.       Heat olive oil in a wok or frying pan over medium-high heat, add wings in until brown. Pour in a can or bottle beer, dark and light soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and spring onion, then cover and reduce heat to medium for 10 minutes.

3.       Remove lid, add sugar. Let liquid reduce then ready to serve.

Please try out these dishes, have fun cooking and eating. Talk to you next time, peace out.