Lunar New Year recipes: 5 sweet-and-savoury recipes

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With Lunar New Year celebrations set to begin Feb. 10, we asked a few Vancouver chefs and restaurant teams to share their favourite celebratory eats. From sweet dumplings to wing bean salad, here’s what they cooked up.

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Black sesame ‘Tang Yuan’ sweet dumplings served in golden ginger soup

Recipe by: Dickson Li and Pearl Lam, Dicky’s Dumps

Before we even learned to make meat-filled dumplings, we sat down at the kitchen table with mom and made tang yuan for special holidays — Mid-Autumn, Winter Solstice, and Lantern Festival which caps off Lunar New Year festivities. Tang yuan, made with glutinous rice flour, are soft and chewy with a melty lava centre. The round, delicate sweet treat symbolizes the joy of family reunion and togetherness. Personally, we could eat these any time of the year.

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1 cup sweet black sesame paste(see chef’s note below)

1½ cup glutinous rice flour

9-10 tbsp. boiling water

Divide black sesame paste into small marble-sized balls, set aside in the fridge to keep firm. In a heat-proof bowl, slowly add water bit by bit and work into flour until it forms a ball of soft and smooth dough that doesn’t stick to the bowl. If you are not using dough right away, wrap it in cling wrap to retain moisture and keep in the fridge.

Divide the dough in half. Working on a surface dusted with glutinous rice flour, roll each half into a cylinder about 1½ inches thick and cut the dough into segments about 1 inch wide; dust with more glutinous rice flour as needed to prevent sticking.

With your thumb, flatten your dough ball. Place the sesame fill ball in the indent, wrap the dough completely around it, making sure there is no fill or cracks visible. Roll and form a ball. Place on a floured sheet. Repeat.

If not serving right away, dumplings may be placed in the freezer (place on a tray spaced apart to freeze, bag up when frozen.).

Golden ginger soup

2-inch knob fresh ginger, sliced and lightly smashed with flat side of cleaver/knife

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½ to 1 stick Chinese slab (brown) sugar

4 cups water

Place ginger, sugar, and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, stir periodically until sugar is completely dissolved. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes. Set aside, keep warm if serving dumplings immediately.

In a large pot, bring water to a boil. Lower dumplings with a slotted spoon and push them around gently; do not overcrowd the pot. Turn heat down to medium-high, stir periodically.

Once the dumplings are floating, they are ready. Remove from heat. Gently ladle 2-3 tang yuan per serving bowl. Cover with ginger soup and enjoy. Warning, dumpling centres will be very hot!

Chef’s note: You can find ready-to-use sweet black sesame paste, or other similar dessert fillings such as red bean or lotus paste at Asian grocers. Alternatively, if you have a food processor, you can make your own with ¾ cup roasted black sesame seeds, 5 tbsp. sugar, and 4 tbsp. of shortening or butter. You can also get creative! We’ve also made fills with ground nuts, peanut butter, and more — as long as the fill is of a consistency that you can work into a ball easily.

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Makes 15-20 dumplings.

Lo Hei

Recipe by: Chef Welbert Choi, Executive Chef of Fresh Ideas Start Here

Lo Hei, also called Yee Sang or “prosperity toss” is a raw fish salad enjoyed during Lunar New Year. Family usually gather around the table together while ingredients are being added to the plate. Then, they use chopsticks to toss the salad up – an auspicious way to “toss up good fortune” for wealth and long life.

12 large slices of smoked salmon or one 200 g pack of smoked wild B.C. Sockeye Lox

1 small daikon radish, peeled

1 small carrot, peeled

1 English cucumber

¼ small green cabbage

1 25-g bottle Tsumami Umami Seaweed Jam

5 tbsp. shallot oil

1 cup kimchee or pickled vegetable of choice

1 tbsp. sesame seed

3 tbsp. crispy crackers of choice

½ tsp. gold flakes

Julienne carrots, daikon radish, cucumber and green cabbage using a mandolin. Arrange vegetables on a large plate. Place shredded cabbage and kimchee in the middle.

Place smoked salmon on top of cabbage. Drizzle with shallot oil. Garnish with gold flakes, which can be found at specialty food stores, Tsumami Umami Seaweed Jam, sesame seeds and crackers.

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Serves 4-6.

Wing bean salad

Recipe by: Brandon Intharangsy, Fat Mao Noodles

Chili Lime Dressing

½ cup fresh lime juice

1 tbsp. salt

5 tbsp. sugar

3½ tbsp. chili paste (Mae Anong Brand)

2 red Thai bird’s eye chili peppers

Blend all ingredients into a smooth dressing. Set aside. Makes one cup.

Salad

2 tbsp. chili lime dressing

½ cup wing beans, sliced

½ cup French green beans, sliced

½ cup Chinese long beans, sliced

2 tbsp. ground roasted peanuts

2 tbsp. fried shallots

Pinch fresh lemon grass, thinly sliced

Blanch all beans in boiling water for 15 seconds. Transfer beans into an ice water bath to stop the cooking. Once the beans are completely cool, drain well and transfer into mixing bowl. Combine beans, chili lime dressing, and lemon grass together. Once mixed, add in the peanuts and fried shallots and combine once more. Transfer to a serving dish and top with more peanuts and fried shallots. Chef’s note: Salad dressing can be stored in the fridge for up to five days.

Serves 2-3.

Whole roasted fish salad

Recipe by: Justing Cheung, Potluck Hawker Eatery

Dressing

4 oz. fish sauce

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3 oz. lime juice

1 oz. white sugar

1 tsp. toasted rice powder

½ tsp. dried chili flakes (can add 1 bird’s eye chili finely sliced for more heat)

Salad

1 large golden pompano fish

6 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 shallot, finely sliced

½ cup basil

1 cup cilantro, picked (you may use stems as well, chop into 1-inch slices)

½ cup mint, picked

½ cup green onion, sliced on a bias

Score the fish by making five slits on the flesh of each side. Season with a tablespoon of fish sauce and allow to marinate for 10 minutes.

Roast in air fryer at 375 F for 20 minutes until golden and crispy. Alternatively, you can roast in a home oven for 30 to 45 minutes on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Allow fish to cool and then remove its meat. Flake the meat and set aside.

Toast raw rice in a pan on medium heat until golden (about 5 minutes). Grind in coffee grinder or pound in a mortar and pestle until small granules.

Make the dressing by mixing all ingredients together until sugar is dissolved. Add the dressing to the flaked cooked fish. Tear herbs and add the rest of the salad ingredients. Mix together and serve on your favourite platter (if the whole fish is intact you can lay the salad on top of its “skeleton”. Garnish with additional fresh herbs to your liking.

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Serves 2-4 as a side dish.

Salted egg yolk shortbread

Recipe by: Nikki Tam, Pastry Chef, Minami Restaurant

Salted egg yolk is a popular flavour in Asian dishes. This is a sweet and salty treat to ring in Lunar New Year.

4 egg yolks (or more)

Salt

Fill a shallow container with ½ inch of table salt, use the back of a spoon to make dents in the salt as holders for the yolks. Carefully separate all the whites from the yolks and place the yolks in the dents created. Cover the yolks completely with more table salt. Let sit in the fridge for 8 hours. Carefully rinse the salt off the yolks with cold water and pat dry with a paper towel. Preheat the oven to 170 F and dehydrate yolks on an oiled wired rack for one hour or until they are dry and firm. Once the yolks are cooled, they are ready to be grated using a fine cheese grater and can be kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three months.

Salted egg yolk shortbread recipe 

½ cup butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup icing sugar

4 salted egg yolks, grated

2 tbsp. black sesame seeds

2 tbsp. white sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Add room-temperature butter, flour and icing sugar into a bowl, mix with a mixer using the paddle attachment until it starts to come together. Add grated salted egg yolks into the mixture and keep paddling until the dough is formed. Shape dough into a log about 1.5 inches in diameter.

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Spread black and white sesame seeds evenly on parchment paper. Roll log back and forth on the seeds to cover it evenly. Place shortbread log into the freezer, line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Once the oven is preheated, remove shortbread from the freezer and slice into ¼ inch thick pieces. Bake cookies 1 inch apart for 8 minutes or until slightly golden.

Cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cookies stay fresh in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Makes 1½ dozen cookies.

Aharris@postmedia.com

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