Celebrate Chinese New Year With Recipes by Stephanie Yuen

Learn to make three delicious, traditional dishes for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is nothing without food and family. It’s one of the most important celebrations in the Asian community so everyone makes it a priority to gather for at least one amazing meal on New Year’s Eve. Dinner often takes hours, with tremendous significance and symbolism found in every dish served.

Vancouver-based cookbook author and media personality, Stephanie Yuen, is an authority on Asian food and culture. She’s recently developed three classic Chinese recipes that are perfect for lunar new year celebrations. Not only are they easy to make, but all the ingredients are easy to find at Loblaws and Real Canadian Superstore, which carries T&T food products like traditional Chinese sausages, dried black mushrooms and hoisin sauce.

Chinese New Year obviously celebrates a new lunar year, but it also symbolises the promise of good fortune, renewed friendships and rising success. That’s why it’s so important to share a special meal with extended family. “Even if all you have is simple fried rice,” says Yuen, “the point is that you’re together and truly connecting – not just connecting through Facebook and Twitter! We all have to eat, which is why food is one of the best tools to bring people together. People and food: it’s why I treasure this time of year.”

Click through for Stephanie’s Chinese New Year recipes. Get detailed instructions on how to cook a new dish (or three) and learn about the symbolism behind ingredients like whole fish, vegetables and rice cakes.

A Whole Fish of Bounty

Serving a whole fish is a very traditional dish at Chinese New Year – even better if it’s a live fish. The Chinese word for fish (yu) also sounds like the word for abundance, so presenting a whole fish from head to tail symbolises a complete year, from start to finish, that’s filled with surplus.

“Superstore makes it so easy to buy a live fish,” enthuses Yuen. “Just pick out your fish in the tank and do your shopping – they’ll clean and gut the fish for you so all you have to do is pick it up. It’s so fresh!” And Yuen notes that it’s also a great reminder, even if only once a year, that we should have a better understanding of where our meat comes from. Choosing a live animal and preparing it whole for a meal is a significant gesture, and one rarely appreciated in a world prioritising modern conveniences.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4 with steamed rice

Ingredients:

• 2 pc. T&T dried shiitake mushrooms, rinsed and soaked in ½ cup hot water for 30 to 45 minutes in advance, or until mushrooms are softened completely.
• 1½ to 2 lb live Tilapia, head & tail intact, scaled, gutted and cleaned. Cut 2 X 1” slits on each side below the gill where the thickest of the fish is.
• 1 Tbsp. julienned ginger
• ¼ cup julienned green onion
• ¼ cup julienned cilantro
• ¼ cup cooking oil
• 1 Tbsp T&T dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp T&T light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp water
• ½ tsp. sugar

Method:

• Remove mushroom cap and julienne thinly, discard water.
• Bring 3 cups of water in a large steamer (or wok) to a full boil. (Make sure the fish dish fits the steamer or wok. You can also use a microwave steamer to steam the fish and should take less time to cook)
• Pat dry fish and place on dish. Spread ginger and mushroom evenly on fish. Place dish in steamer, cover and steam for 12 to 15 minutes. To test for doneness, poke the thickest part of the fish with a sharp knife. Fish is ready when knife comes out clean.
• In a small saucepan, mix and heat dark and light soy sauces, water and sugar to bring to a gentle boil. Remove from heat.
• Remove fish dish from steamer, add green onion and cilantro.
• In a small saucepan, bring oil to a boil. Pour on top of the  green onion and cilantro – it will sizzle! Pour sweet soy mixture on top. Ready to serve.

Lettuce Wraps of Prosperity

The Cantonese word for lettuce (san choy) also sounds like “growing wealth,” which is why a vegetable-based dish is always a part of the Chinese New Year dinner. (If only it were that easy…) Beyond the symbolism, Yuen loves this dish because it’s a cinch to prepare and gives diners a fun DIY start to the evening. Everything can be prepared in advanced and brought out when guests arrive. Even better, it’s a fantastic way to serve up leftovers.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Serves: 6 to 8 (as an appetizer)

Ingredients:

• 1 head of lettuce, rinsed and drip-dried (trim 1” off head and cut into half vertically for easy peeling)
• 1 Tbsp cooking oil
• 6 pc. button or brown mushroom, small-diced
• 1 small can water chestnut, drained and diced
• A pinch of sea salt
• 2 cups barbecued duck or barbecued pork, diced
• 2 cups cooked shrimp, diced
• ½ cup crushed T&T unsalted cashew nuts (or peanuts)
• ½ cup Hoisin sauce
• 2 Tbsp T&T teriyaki sauce
• 1 Tbsp water 1 tsp brown sugar

Method:

• Peel off leaves which should be at least palm-sized and stack them on a plate. Reserve smaller leaves for other use.
• Heat oil in pan on high. Add mushroom, stir well. Add water chestnut. Stir and cook for 90 seconds. Add salt, mix well and place in a bowl.
• Return wok to stove, add duck, stir and reheat on medium high for 20-30 seconds, place in a bowl.
• Reheat shrimp in wok for 20-30 seconds, place in a bowl.
• Place crushed nuts in a bowl.
• To make the sauce, mix hoisin, teriyaki sauce, water and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil and empty into a sauce bowl.
• Place lettuce and all the bowls of ready-to-eat ingredients on the table for individuals to fill their own lettuce wraps. Add sauce to taste.

Wok-fried Four Fortunes New Year Rice Cake Pasta

These small rice cakes (nian gao) make a chewy, delicious, hearty dish with a double meaning that loosely translates to “may each year bring you higher.” For anyone who’s gluten-free and missing a good chew, this is the perfect dish. The rice cakes are much denser than traditional pasta and easily take on the flavours of accompanying meats and vegetables. This is also a very versatile dish – switch up the other ingredients and make it vegetarian or add in leftovers. Or, if you like spicy foods, Yuen suggests a healthy dollop of XO sauce.

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Serves: 3 to 4 as a main dish

Ingredients:

• 4 pc. T&T dried shiitake mushrooms, rinsed and soaked in 1 cup hot water for 30-45 minutes in advance, or until mushrooms are softened completely.
• 2 pc. lean pork and/or chicken sausages (lap-cheung); halved horizontally, then julienne diagonally. (Can be substituted with carrots or onion)
• 2 Tbsp. cooking oil
• 1 tsp. chopped garlic
• 1 tsp. chopped ginger
• 1 cup yellow bean, cut in half
• 1 small red pepper, cut in strips
• 1 pkg (1.5 lb) New Year Rice Cake
• 1 Tbsp. teriyaki sauce
• 1 Tbsp. T&T soy sauce
• 1 tsp. granulated sugar

Method:

• Remove mushroom cap and julienne
• Heat wok on high, add oil, garlic and ginger, mix well
• Add sausage and mushroom, stir and cook for 1 minute
• Add yellow bean, stir and cook for 30 seconds, add red pepper, stir and cook for another 30 second.
• Empty rice cake into the wok, stir well.
• Add ½ cup of mushroom water, mix well. Add teriyaki sauce, soy sauce and sugar, stir well. Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Discard remaining mushroom water.
• Remove lid, stir and cook for another minute. Ready to serve.