Chinese New Year

I have a large family, and every year they cook up a big meal to celebrate Lunar New Year.  This is the spread my family cooked.

It included some odd dishes, like the coca cola chicken.  A modern update to an old Chinese recipe of fried chicken. This is simmered using a reduction of coke. Like, you put the chicken wings in the wok, pour a 12 oz can of coke in, and simmer.

Some dishes, like this involved salted preserved duck eggs, I was less interested in learning the recipe for, much less trying.  I still can’t quite get over the texture.  Ick.

Some foods, of course, are very traditional.  I can never quite get the crimped edges right on dumplings… it’s an acquired skill.  These used to only be eaten at Spring Festival–they were a luxury food.  Sort of like turkey on Thanksgiving.  My relatives reminisce fondly about the days of scrimping to get enough white flour to make enough dumplings so that everyone could have a few.  Ah, the good old days.  Now dumplings are cheap and available everywhere.

You may know this as the funny fried crunchy stuff they have sitting on the table at Chinese restaurants. What you might not know that this is a dish traditionally served at New Year’s, called “Pai Char”. The recipe is simple. Dough, flattened and twisted, and then deep fried in peanut oil. There’s a video that shows how they’re made.

Pai Char the Video