Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Chinese New Year is this Sunday, January 22 and, as usual, we will celebrate on the Saturday night with a big feast of Chinese food. Quite a long time ago (last century!), I bought a Chinese cookbook and tried quite a few of the recipes. We always start our meal with a Phoenix Tail salad (a display of raw vegetables and egg slices arranged to resemble the extraordinary tail of this mythical bird) and sesame soy dip. I have given details of how to make this dip and arrange the salad on a previous blog, here. I also make Szechuan cucumbers annually to accompany this meal and give the recipe here. This year my husband put up all the decorations so things were in different places than previous years -- I liked the new configurations of decoration! The glass bricks that separate the kitchen from the entrance hallway are a great place to put things. Of course, there are also decorations on the door.

It is Year of the Rabbit this year (or Year of the Yin Rabbit, also known as Water Rabbit). For further information on Chinese New Year check out the Wikipedia page here.

Each year I make a simple drawing to cover up the original image on this elaborate decoration (it is originally from 2007 I think). In a previous blog I have shown a Year of the Pig cover up, but I also posted a picture of the full decoration. The decoration has always hung on the kitchen door, but this year it hangs on the living room door so can be seen when one first enters the house, as that door is directly opposite the front entrance door.

The kitchen side of the glass bricks is also decorated and the LED lights will be switched on during our feast. 

I have been asked many times why I celebrate Chinese New Year, since I have no particular Chinese connection. However, I used to live near Chinatown in Toronto and always enjoyed the celebratory atmosphere in the darkness of winter, late Jan or early Feb. When I moved to Ireland, I decided to continue this celebratory appropriation. It is an excuse to celebrate with good food and honour another culture. We decorate the house, and adhere to certain rituals of cleaning and luck. For further information on simple greetings that are easy to learn look here. Kung hei fat choi!

Year of the Ox

Kung Hei Fat Choy! I used to live near Chinatown in Toronto and always enjoyed the celebratory atmosphere in the darkness of winter, late Jan or early Feb. When we moved to Ireland we decided to appropriate the celebration of the lunar new year, certainly because evenings are still dark at this time of year, but also because we like having an excuse to celebrate with good food and learn something about another culture. We decorate the house, and adhere to certain rituals of cleaning and luck. I blogged here about the celebration we had with my Mum in 2016, before her death a few months later.

A number of years ago, I bought a Chinese cookbook and tried quite a few of the recipes. We always start our meal with a Phoenix Tail salad (a display of raw vegetables and egg slices arranged to resemble the extraordinary tail of this mythical bird) and sesame soy dip. I have given details of how to make this dip and arrange the salad on a previous blog, here. I also make Szechuan cucumbers annually to accompany this meal. I was delighted last year when I gave a jar of these pickles to my friend from Hong Kong and she reported back that they were both delicious and authentic! I blogged about them and give the recipe here.

Because the celebration this year was so close to Valentine's Day, we interspersed our Chinese decorations with red paper hearts. Click here for more information about the traditions surrounding the lunar new year.

We originally got this elaborate decoration in the Year of the Dog, some years back, when visiting family in Prague. We  were invited to dinner by friends whom we had met on previous visits. Our child loved the Chinese decoration (New Year was over) and was given it as a keepsake. We have kept it since, just making our own appropriate designs annually to cover up the dogs! In a previous blog I have shown a Year of the Pig cover up, but I also posted a picture of the full decoration.

This year, as well as having our fabulous Chinese New Year feast, we also logged on to China Spirit for a zoom celebration. China Spirit is located physically in Wallesley, UK, but we were made aware of the organisation when they were offering free tai ch'i classes by zoom during the spring 2020 lockdown. We have just found out that they received National Lottery Funding (UK) to offer free zoom classes again and those tai ch'i classes start next week. Hurray! Happy New Year!

Phoenix tail salad & sesame soy dressing

To celebrate Chinese New Year, we prepare a feast that always begins with a lovely "phoenix tail salad". The phoenix is a mythological creature and you can find more details of it here. In China, the closest thing to the phoenix is the equally mythological and fearsome peacock-tailed bird Fenghuang.
I think this salad really refers to Fenghuang, as the point of it is to display the ingredients like a peacock's tail. The salad provides a lovely centre piec.

These are pictures from a few different years, so the ingredients and placement of veggies may differ slightly, but the overall effect is the same. Start with a bed of greens (spinach, rocket, coriander, parsley or a mixture) and layer slices of hardboiled egg above the centre of your plate. Shredded green onion, strips of red pepper and/or thin sticks of celery can be tucked behind egg, peeking out of the "tail". Slices of tomato circle the bottom area of the plate, and add sticks of carrot as a final touch. One year I used cherry tomatoes and also added thinly sliced radishes. Another year I included snow peas/mangetout in the mix. The exact placement of ingredients and the ingredients themselves can be left to your own imagination and preference.

The sesame soy salad dressing should be kept separate with a small serving spoon, to individually ladle onto the salad once you have chosen your ingredients for your own plate. The tasty dressing is simple to make: combine 3 tblsp soy sauce, 2 tblsp rice or white wine vinegar, and 2 tsp sesame oil.
This is a delicious and healthy start to any meal, but won't be a centrepiece for long!

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Chinese New Year is next week, Tues Feb 5 2019 - Year of the Pig. At my house we will be having a little celebration feast on Saturday as it is more convenient for us. So in preparation, the decorations came out last weekend and it was my task to update the changing design we have for the heart decoration. I googled images of pigs and the Chinese character for pig, and did a quick sketch to see how the image would fit in the decoration.

I remember when my child was about three years old, we decorated a bunch of dragon line drawings. We put several on popsicle sticks and had a type of dragon puppet show. Now these dragons sit in vases for the festivities.

Red is considered lucky in China, so I reproduced my sketch in red ink and white-tacked it onto the decoration. This decoration has it's place on the door between the kitchen and hall. It will over-look our feast on Saturday evening.

 2019: Year of the Pig. Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Szechuan cucumbers

Kung Hei Fat Choy! This is the Chinese new year greeting, easy to remember, as The Year of the Dog begins (Feb 16 2018). My friend from Hong Kong assures me that the new year's celebrations traditionally go on for two weeks, so there is plenty of time to include this easy-to-prepare and absolutely delicious Oriental pickle to accompany any meal.

Ingredients: 3 cucumbers (washed but not peeled); 3-4 garlic cloves (sliver); 4.5 tsp salt; 4 dried hot red peppers*** (I haven't been able to get whole dried chillies in years, so I just use a few tsp chilli flakes); 4 tblsp sesame oil; 6 tblsp white vinegar (I use white wine vinegar, but if you have rice vinegar that would be great); 65 g/2.5 oz sugar.

To prepare cucumbers, slice half lengthwise and using a teaspoon, scrape out the seeds. This is easy to do. Though it may seem wasteful, this part of the cucumber is mostly water - I usually drain before putting the seedy pulp into my compost bin (if you are using an outdoor compost, you don't need to bother). Cut the cucumber halves into approximately 1 cm slices (as below). Place in a container and sprinkle with salt. LEAVE FOR ABOUT 4 HOURS BEFORE CONTINUING.

Drain, rinse, drain, and maybe rinse and drain again. Place cucumbers, garlic slivers and chillies in a serving dish (not plastic as you'll be adding hot ingredients to it!). Heat up sesame oil in small pot on high heat till it begins to smoke and pour over mix. Heat up vinegar in same pot and pour it over the mix too.

Add the sugar and stir the whole lot well before adding to a container for refrigeration. Again leave this for about 4 hours before you plan to serve. This recipe will last a week in the fridge (though it has never lasted that long in my house!).

Chinese New Year

Kung hei fat choi! We happily celebrate Chinese New Year every year. We used to live near Chinatown in Toronto so it was always a big deal in our neighbourhood. As usual, it is a family celebration with my Mum joining us. I always make a souvenir menu for her and this year, since our printer is out of commission, it was done by hand. I got a box of linoleum for xmas as I wanted to do some lino printing, and I have been sharing them. For this occasion, Year of the Fire Monkey, my husband (James Hayes) created an image based on a "netsuke" monkey carving and kindly made a print for me to use on the menu card cover.

We celebrated a few days early, as Saturday was more convenient for us! Dinner was delicious! By the way, "mei wei" means "delicious" in Chinese. "Gift tea" is Jasmine tea which is tied in the shape of a flower and made in a glass teapot so that you can watch the "flower" bloom as it is steeping. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of this.

I  tried my hand at some calligraphy to include the character for monkey with the card (opposite the menu).

London!

We were in London for Chinese New Year.  We missed the parade (which started at 10 am) as we didn't want to spend the whole day outside in the rain (it was non-stop).  It was very festive and crowded for the events in Trafalgar Square, and Chinatown was absolutely packed.  Lanterns all over the streets of Chinatown, this is the view from our restaurant window.  We were happy to be inside at Hung's, not outside!

While in London I also did a few new Placements.  This is outside Hamley's toy store near Oxford Circus, we spent a few hours inside with my daughter!

This gives some context for the Placement.