JACKSONVILLE — It’s time to break out the chopsticks! Today is Chinese Lunar New Year, and to get your family in the mood, try decorating the house in the traditional manner, and be sure to allow time to prepare Chinese festival foods. Gather the children, because cooking with all hands on deck is a big part of the holiday.
While many cultures around the world celebrate New Year’s as a time of renewal, the Lunar New Year means that and much more. It is a time to gather with family, honor ancestors and always, always celebrate with a big banquet that symbolizes the advent of prosperity.
“We always get together on New Year’s Eve and have fish because it symbolizes plenty — plenty of good luck, plenty of money, whatever you need a lot of, Sue Khoo of Jacksonville said with a laugh.
Growing up in Taiwan but settling in the states, Khoo has made sure to pass on her culture to her three children, the youngest of whom is 13.
“It’s easy for children to prepare the home for the holiday,” she said.
Hanging the customary posters on the front door is an easy project with which even the youngest children can help. Symbols of prosperity and luck, simple wishes or special poetry created to ward off evil and welcome good things may be printed. Stringing snakes from bottle caps or rolling play-dough snakes are a great way for kinesthetic learners to contribute. Lanterns and colorful crepe paper hung around the house are also potential crafting opportunities.
“All children love to create,” Khoo said. “I always make sure I have colored papers with me, and when I’m waiting at the airport, I start making origami, and pretty soon, all the children come and start making them, too.”
Khoo, who sponsored the first Asian festival in Jacksonville in 2003, has previously taught a Chinese cooking class and plans to host another one, she said.
“It’s fun for the young kids, and the dumplings are cooked in water, so it’s very easy to cook.”
Dumplings — the very word is synonymous with traditional Chinese food.
“Yuan xiao are round dumplings, which are popular especially during the New Year’s festivities,” she said.
The dumplings, a staple in Chinese cuisine, are made with sticky flour. They can be filled and swerved as a sweet snack or made plain and cooked in a soup with vegetables, meat and dried shrimp. The round shape of the dumpling is a symbol of wholeness, completeness and unity.
In some areas of China, coins are placed in the center of dumplings, and whoever bites into one of these dumplings will have an exceptionally lucky year.
In addition to dumplings, fortune cookies are easy and fun to make with children, particularly when you turn your creative juices toward filling the cookies with personalized or silly “fortunes.”
Most of the dishes served during Lunar New Year are symbolic of something positive and hopeful. Chicken and fish, for example, symbolize happiness and prosperity — especially when served whole. Dishes made with oranges represent wealth and good fortune because oranges are China’s most plentiful fruit. Turnips are cooked because their name (cai tou) also means “good luck,” and eating kumquats is considered to bring luck.
Noodles are never cut because they represent longevity.
Some foods, like bean curd, or tofu, are avoided, however, because their white color suggests death and misfortune.
The ancient way of China was to discourage cooking on the actual day of New Year’s, so revelers had to eat leftovers until the Fourth Day, when cooks were allowed to turn on the stoves as part of the God of Stove’s return to the household after reporting his duty. The Welcome Ceremony was held off until the afternoon to allow for the god’s journey back to earth.
“One thing I always made sure to teach my children was the tradition of receiving good-luck money. The morning of New Year’s is like Christmas to Chinese children,” she said.
At the stroke of midnight, tradition dictates that the people open their doors and windows and light firecrackers to ward off all the bad things and make room for the incoming good things.
Khoo is glad she has been able to share her traditions with her children.
“My mother passed away when she was 53, and I’m 58 years old, so I told my kids that after 53, everything is extra. I am truly blessed,” she said.
Khoo shared the following recipes.
Kumquat Salsa
This salsa is great served with steak or with seafood, such as halibut, black sea bass or salmon.
Ingredients:
2 cups chopped, cleaned and thinly sliced kumquats
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
Dash of cayenne pepper
Pinch of kosher salt
Directions:
Combine all ingredients. Add more or less red pepper and cayenne to desired heat. Let sit for one hour for the flavors to more fully blend.
Makes about 2 1/2 cups of salsa.
Fortune Cookies
Ingredients:
1 egg white
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a cookie sheet. Write fortunes on strips of paper about 4 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Generously grease two cookie sheets.
Mix the egg white and vanilla until foamy but not stiff. Sift the flour, salt, and sugar and blend into the egg-white mixture (batter).
Place teaspoonfuls of the batter at least 4 inches apart on one of the prepared cookie sheets. Tilt the sheet to move the batter into round shapes about 3 inches in diameter. Be careful to make batter as round and even as possible. Do not make too many, because the cookies have to be really hot to form them, and once they cool, it is too late. Start with two or three to a sheet, and see how many you can do.
Bake for five minutes or until cookies have turned a golden color 1/2 inch wide around the outer edge of the circle. The center will remain pale. While one sheet is baking, prepare the other.
Remove from oven and quickly move cookies with a wide spatula and place upside down on a wooden board. Quickly place the fortune on the cookie, close to the middle and fold the cookie in half. Place the folded edge across the rim of a measuring cup and pull the pointed edges down, one on the inside of the cup and one on the outside. Place folded cookies into the cups of a muffin tin or egg carton to hold their shape until firm.
Yuan Xiao
Also known as Tang Yuan. It can be small or large, filled or unfilled.
Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups sticky rice flour
7 ounces butter
7 ounces black sesame powder
8 ounces sugar
1 teaspoon wine
Water
Directions:
Mix the butter with the sesame powder, sugar and wine. (You need to heat the mixture a little bit). Make into small balls, using approximately 1 level teaspoon each and rolling into small balls with your hands.
Place the glutinous rice flour in a large mixing bowl. Add the water, a small amount at a time, working and shaping the dough until it has a texture similar to play dough — not too soft, but smooth and easy to manipulate.
(Note: Glutinous rice flour can be a bit tricky to work with — at first it looks too dry, and the next thing you know, the dough is sticking to your hands because you’ve added too much water. If that happens, add a bit more glutinous rice flour. On the other hand, if the dough is too dry, add more water, a small amount at a time).
Pinch off a piece of dough approximately the size of a golf ball. Roll the dough into a ball. Use your thumb to make a deep indentation in the dough, place a sesame ball into the hole and close it up. It is important to make sure the sesame ball is completely covered with the dough. Continue with the remainder of the dough.
Cook the dumplings in boiled water. Make sure to keep stirring in one direction while cooking. When they float on the water, continue to boil for about one minute, using less heat.
Chinese Dumplings
Also known as Jiao Zi.
Ingredients for Jiao Zi dough:
3 cups all-purpose flour
Up to 1 1/4 cups cold water
1/4 teaspoon salt
Ingredients for filling:
1 cup ground pork or beef
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper, or to taste
3 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 green onion, finely minced
1 1/2 cups finely shredded Napa cabbage
4 tablespoons shredded bamboo shoots
2 slices fresh ginger, finely minced
1 clove garlic, peeled and finely minced
Directions:
Stir the salt into the flour. Slowly stir in the cold water, adding as much as is necessary to form a smooth dough. Don’t add more water than is necessary. Knead the dough into a smooth ball. Cover the dough and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.
While the dough is resting, prepare the filling ingredients. Add the soy sauce, salt, rice wine and white pepper to the meat, stirring in only one direction. Add the remaining ingredients, stirring in the same direction, and mix well.
To make the dumpling dough: Knead the dough until it forms a smooth ball. Divide the dough into 60 pieces. Roll each piece out into a circle about 3 inches in diameter.
Place a small portion (about 1 level tablespoon) of the filling into the middle of each wrapper. Wet the edges of the dumpling with water. Fold the dough over the filling into a half moon shape and pinch the edges to seal. Continue with the remainder of the dumplings.
To cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add half the dumplings, giving them a gentle stir so they don’t stick together. Bring the water to a boil, and add 1/2 cup of cold water. Cover and repeat. When the dumplings come to a boil for a third time, they are ready. Drain and remove. If desired, they can be pan-fried at this point.