恭喜發財!

Although the Year of the Rat began on February 7th, in China, people celebrate for two weeks, ending their celebrations on the 15th day of the Lunar New Year during the Lantern Festival (元宵節), which my mom has sometimes referred to as the "Chinese Valentine's Day". So although this entry comes a little late, they still have a few more days of celebration in China.

I hosted my own celebrations on Friday the 8th; some Asian student groups at McGill got together to host a night festival at a mall close to my apartment that night, but we didn't end up going because I came home late from a meeting and therefore dinner ended up running past when the night festival ended. It was fine; we ended up playing our own party games and had a lot of laughs.



We ate SO MUCH. Because I arrived home late from my meeting, my roommate Chelsea surprised us with an artichoke dip, shrimp ring and wine to entertain the guests while I was in the kitchen. I went to Chinatown and picked up a pound of bbq pork (叉燒) and an entire roasted duck (燒鴨). My roommate Cindy boiled some dumplings (餃子), a Northern Chinese new years tradition, and we steamed some baby bok choy (白菜苗) and Chinese broccoli (芥蘭), two of my favourite vegetables. All of the food was good, except the rice was a little undercooked because we filled our rice cooker with a little more than it could handle.

The star of the night was the Poached Cod with Tangy Sauce. Whole fish is generally served for New Years because the Chinese word for fish, 魚, sounds that same as the word for plenty/extra, 餘, and is therefore a symbol of good luck. While it may have been safer to just steam the fish and cover it in soy sauce, green onions and ginger, I tried one of Martin Yan's recipes and it turned out wonderfully. Kudos to the fishmonger in Chinatown who told me that this 2.56-pound 青班 (which barely fit in my pan anyway) would be a better choice for feeding 8 than the ½-pound-per-person recommendation that Yan gave.

Poached Cod with Tangy Sauce
Adapted from Martin Yan Quick and Easy
Makes 3 servings (if you're not having any other dishes, I'm guessing)

• 1 whole cleaned cod/trout/mild-tasting fish (about 675 g/1½ lb)
• 2 green onions, cut in half and lightly crushed
• 5 quarter-sized slices ginger, lightly crushed

Sauce:

• 60 mL (¼ cup) Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 60 mL (¼ cup) rice vinegar
• 30 mL (2 tbsp) soy sauce
• 15 mL (1 tbsp) fish sauce
• 15 mL (1 tbsp) shredded ginger
• 1 green onion, julienned
• 10 mL (2 tsp) cornstarch dissolved in 15 mL (1 tbsp) water

1. Place the fish on a cutting board and make 2 cuts, each 1 cm (½ inch) deep, along either side of the backbone, running each of them the length of the fish.
2. Pour water to a depth of 5 cm (2 inches) into a pan wide enough to hold the fish. Add the green onions and ginger and bring to a boil over high heat. Slide the fish into the water, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the fish turns opaque and just begins to flake, about 8 - 10 min.
3. While the fish is cooking, make the sauce. Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add the cornstarch solution and cool, stirring, until the sauce thickens slightly, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and keep warm.
4. With a slotted spatula, remove the fish from the poaching liquid (which you can save, because it is now a yummy fish broth) and place on a serving plate. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve.

We ended up enjoying three desserts: my roommate Jessica shared some Lindt chocolate balls she had lying around and I boiled some frozen 湯圓, small glutinous rice balls filled with a sweet black sesame paste served in a broth made with brown sugar and ginger. 湯圓 is generally eaten the night BEFORE the lunar new year, where the family gathers around to end the year on a good note. In Chinese, roundness symbolizes togetherness and completeness. Finally, I fried up some slices of 年糕, a glutinous rice "new years cake", one of my favourite Chinese New Year foods. My mom was kind enough to share her recipe for a version that uses coconut milk. Because Hong Kong is a British colony, the dry ingredients are measured by weight. You should be able to find the necessary ingredients in your local Asian-food store. (I found them in mine!)

Coconut Milk New Years Rice Cake

• 225 g (8 oz) Glutinous rice flour
• 85 g (3 oz) "Tang" flour*
• 185 mL (¾ cup) boiling water
• 225 g (8 oz) sugar
• 125 mL (½ cup) coconut milk
• 30 mL (2 tbsp) evaporated milk**

1. In a large bowl, mix together glutinous rice and tang flours.
2. Dissolve sugar in boiling water. Add coconut milk and evaporated milk.
3. Pour sugar water slowly into flour mixture. Mix.
4. Pour batter into a greased cake pan. Steam for 45 minutes to 1 hour (with a plate over the cake pan itself to avoid the condensation dripping down onto the surface and ruining the texture) until firm. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.
5. When serving: Cut into slices and pan-fry until browned, turning once.

*According to Wikipedia, this is wheat starch, but at the store that I went to, I found some that was purportedly made from mung beans, so it's probably best to ask a store clerk.
**I never have evaporated milk on hand, so I just used regular milk, since it's such a small amount. I would also be tempted to just replace it with more coconut milk as well.