Chinese New Year time for some Braised Vegetarian Yi Mein (Chinese Longevity noodles) with mushrooms and leek

Happy Chinese New Year!

There are many traditions for Chinese New Year and each family has their own version. Mine is a mixture of a few cultures. My mother is a very traditional Singapore Chinese, while my father was raised colonial in Hong Kong with another side of traditions. As with me, I follow what I called Mother's rules for most part.

I made a few traditional dishes, kept a New Year basket for good luck and good fortune and honored a few traditions here and there. I am keeping it quite simple this year. I was in New York for work last week and I knew a storm on the way, Mr Wonderful would stay back at his place up north. He had to deal with the snow at his house. Unlike being in the city, if he does not clear out the snow in batches and leaves the house for a few days, he will not be able to get into his property. The pros and cons of living in the country.

I was going to post my Jai - Buddha's Delight vegetarian recipe, I decide not too. It's a bit complicated and there were about 20 different ingredients. It is also a bit of an acquired taste. I thought the noodle recipe may be a better choice. This is my favorite noodle dish since I was a child. Yi Mein  (伊麵) is a variety of Chinese dried egg noodle. This is not a vegan dish. The is a version of the  classic Dried Fried Yi Mein (乾炒伊麵), usually with straw mushrooms and chives. I am using leek, since we are in the middle of winter and chive is not ready available, I kept the straw mushroom, but adding a package of Enoki. for some variety. I am working on another version without mushroom so that non-mushroom eater will get to enjoy the noodle too!

Braised Vegetarian Yi Mein (Chinese Longevity noodles) with mushrooms and leek
1 12oz Packet of Chinese Yi Mein, also called E-Fu Noodle sometimes.

1 can of Straw mushroom, drained and sliced in half vertically
1 package of fresh Enoki Mushroom, root removed, clean and rinse, then separate the mushrooms

1 small leek, cleaned, outside layer moved, cut in 1/2 vertically, rinse between the layers and slice

1 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 cup Vegetable stock
Seasoning:
4 tbsp shoyu
3 tbsp Vegetarian Oyster sauce

1/2 tsp brown sugar of palm sugar
Dish of salt and pepper
Directions:
Prepare the season. Mix shoyu, Vegetarian Oyster sauce and palm sugar together. Set aside.

Boil a large pot of water. Drop the whole noodle cake into the water, one at time. Do not break it up, it's bad luck for Chinese folks.

Gently fold and turn the noodle, the noodle will deflat once it hit the boiling water. Be careful not to break up the noodle too much. Let it cook for about 2 mins.

Remove from heat and drain. Risen/wash the noodle in cold water to remove the excess oil and starch.

Drain well and set aside

In a large pot or wok. Heat 3-4 tbsp of vegetable till hot, saute the garlic till fragrant.

Add leek and let it cook till the vegetable starts to wilt. 

Add mushrooms and let it cook for  a couple of min, till it is tender. 

Remove from the pot and set aside.

In the same pot, add the vegetable stock and bring the stock to a boil. 

Add seasoning. 

Once the broth comes to a boil, add noodle and lower heat to med, let the noodle stew in the broth for a few mins. 

Top it with leek and mushroom mix, Fold in the vegetable.

Let the noodle gently braised till all the broth is almost all absorbed. I like to leave a little liquor to keep the noodle saucy.

Plate and ready to serve.

Serve 8-10 as entree or part of a Chinese dinner.



Here is a few of our family Chinese New year Traditio
A big pot of Jai (Buddha's delight) for New Years Eve Reunion dinner and for the 1st day of New Year. 

We have Jai for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 1st day of the year, as a symbol of cleansing and kindness (no meat).

 The good luck New Year baskets with symbolic items.

 A whole chicken for Reunion Dinner, it is actually our "Thanksgiving" to give thanks to a good year and prepare for the next. I am practicing my mother's shoyu chicken recipe.

 

Fresh vibrant blooms symbolize a good year, good business. It is also the sign of Spring. Chinese New Year is also referred as the Spring Festival.

Lucky Money - we call it Ang Pow(Red envelope) in Singapore

Last, but not least - got to have new slippers

Happy Lunar New Year!

Aloha

Classic Chinese chicken rice with Lap Cheong (Chinese cured sausage)

We had a gentle visit by an Alberta Clipper, it was 3*F past weekend. After all these years here in the upper mid-west, I learned how to deal with it. I don't complain about the cold much any more. I choose to live it, there is nothing much to complain about. Plus it's January, it's winter

With days like this, I love comfort food. Here is a classic Chinese winter dish that my family used to make. In Asia, this would be made in a clay pot and it gives the rice that lovely slight toasty flavor. I have a couple of those clay pot, but I chose to cook the rice dish in a regular, the clean up is much easier.

I am using Jasmine rice here, you can use Japanese short-grain rice. I would not recommend using American rice, the texture is not quite right with this. You can make this in a rice cooker. Here is a little secret about me... I am terrible with the rice cooker. The rice never comes out quite right for me.   I learned to cook rice from my All-American ex-husband. When my then husband  found out I didn't know how to cook rice. He was so surprised, I still remembered how he stared at me and said: "What kind of Chinese are you? You can't make rice!!" He made me practice making rice till I get it right, he said I needed to represent my "people". He lived in Hawai'i, he learned the Asian "knuckle water measuring" method from one of his Vietnamese girlfriend...

The sausage I used here is a "lean" version. It is made with chicken instead of pork. I made a dark soy sauce to top off the rice, it's Singaporean style. You can find the sausage, dark soy in most Asian store such as United Noodles here is Minneapolis. The sausage is usually in the refrigerated case and the dark soy is in the Chinese section.

You can use different protein in this. I may make a vegetarian version next weekend since my yoga teacher is back form Hawai'i. I have someone help me eat!!

Chinese Chicken Rice with Lap Cheong Sausage

3-4 skinless and boneless chicken thigh, cleaned, excess fat removed. Cut into 1" bite size pieces
2 Chinese Lap Cheong, I am using a chicken version. Washed

1 1/2cups jasmine rice
About 1 3/4 cups water
Chicken marinade:
1" piece of ginger, peeled
3-4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or Sherry
1 tsp corn starch
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp grounded dry ginger
salt and pepper
Sauce: 
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp dark soy

1 tbsp sesame oil
Garnish:

Chopped green onion
Cilantro - roughly chopped
Fried shallots

Directions:
Using a ginger grinder, grind about 3/4" of the ginger. Set aside

In small bowl, mix together the marinade,

squeeze the juice from the grind ginger in to the marinade. Discard the dry ginger.

Add the marinade to the chicken and set aside in the fridge to season for about 15-30 mins.

Cut the washed sausage in diagonal pieces

Place the washed rice in a largo pot. Add water and check the water level by the Knuckle method: Level the rice in the pot , the water should come up to the first joint of your knuckle. Same method apples to the rice cooker.

Bring the rice to a boil over medium high heat uncover. Add chicken and sausage, 

Stir the meat into the rice

Lower heat to low, then cover. Let the rice cook for about 20 mins. Turn off the heat, do not open the cover and let it steam for about 10 additional mins. Fluffy the rice with a fork.

Transfer the rice to a clay pot or casserole.
Drizzle with soy sauce, top with green onion, cilantro and fried shallots, or you can serve the garnish on the side and let everyone choose how much topping one would like!

Serve 6 as an entree

Enjoy
Aloha!

Beef and Lettuce fried rice.

I am in a very nostalgic mood lately. I have been on the mainland most of my adult life. I may be what the ohana and my family overseas would caller "haole-fied", however I do try to keep some of my roots very much alive with cooking

I came from a household where the children were pretty spoiled. My grandfather made sure our amahs prepared dishes that "the kids" would eat. I wouldn't eat pork (I will tell you the story some other time.) Our amahs made me chicken or beef and lied that extremely lean Char Sui, (Chinese BBQ pork) came from a very special Char Sui (like a cow). Since the meat was red and didn't resemble pork or even had any taste of pork, I would eat it. They also made sure there would not be any fat so that I would not suspect it was pork.  Of course I had never seen how a Char Sui looked like. The household was not allowed to mention anything with pig or pork in front of me. Everything was "chicken", unless I could identify it, then came the "eating strike"! They could not make me eat it. To avoid the trouble, everyone went with the flow till I went off  to college. I then learned to like "everything" and I learned to appreciate different variety and flavors.

Rice as many know is a main staple in Asian diet. I actually didn't like rice when I was growing up. I preferred potatoes and I still do. One way to get me to eat rice was fried rice, or rice with butter and shoyu.

Beef and lettuce fried rice was one of my childhood favorite, there was no pork and it's a fried rice. Ah King Jie, our amah used to put butter in it to make sure I would eat it! I still make it the same way and that last tablespoon of ghee or butter is in honor of Ah King Jie. She raised my father, then raised me from birth till my teen years. She passed away during my freshman year in Hawai'i.

Back to our recipe, You can actually order this in any Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong, very popular at lunch! You will also notice that I am putting frozen peas in the rice. It's not a mistake, I don't want to overcook the pea. The frozen peas when cook in the rice, retained the moisture. It will "self cook" in the hot rice.

Classically peanut oil is the choice, however I prefer vegetable oil for cooking Chinese. Olive oil has a tendency to be too strong and it does not always work with Chinese cooking.

Here is another tip, the best fried rice is to use leftover or day-old rice. A dried texture makes it easy to stir fry. Plus it will absorb the flavor of the other ingredients better. Fried rice is designed to be a "leftover" dish!

Note: The pictures will not match the proportion of the recipe. I made a double portion here for our HCC (Hawaiian Civic Club) ho'olaule'a (celebration)

Beef and Lettuce Fried Rice

4-6 oz lean ground beef
1 tsp corn starch
1 tbsp shoyu
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sugar
Optional: 1 tbsp Chinese Shao Xing wine (available in Asian grocer, such as United Noodles here in Minneapolis. It's over by the Chinese seasoning section) or you can use sherry.
1 small onion, peeled, cleaned and diced, about 1/4" small pieces.
1 tbsp chopped garlic
3 cups cold cooked short grain rice. Preferable day-old. You can make it overnight and leave it in the fridge.
2 eggs, lightly neaten
1/2 cup frozen baby peas
3-4  green onion, washed and sliced.
1 small romaine lettuce, washed and shredded.
Sesame oil
4-5 tbsp shoyu
1 tbsp of ghee or butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Vegetable oil for frying.
Directions:
Most important - make 4 cups of cooked short grain rice ahead and make sure it is cold.
In a large bowl, mixed beef with shoyu, cornstarch, sesame oil, wine, and sugar. Set aside and let it marinade for about 10-15 mins up to an hour

Preheat a large frying pan or a wok, add a couple 2-3 tbsp of vegetable and heat will very hot over med-high heat. Add garlic and let is sizzle for a min or 2

Add the meat and stir fried till the meat is cooked. Remove from the pan.

Drain the meat if it is too greasy, but make sure you keep a couple tbsp for flavoring the rice.

In the same pan, heat 1-2 tbsp oil and  stir in onion and green onion and cook till the onion is translucent.

Add the rice, stir fry for a few mins. I am using a non-stick pan. I do not need a lot of oil. However if you using a traditional wok, you will need to add more oil, or you can add the reserved fat from the meat. Fry the rice for a few min till it is hot.

Return the beef and the reserved liquid (if you have not done so) right to the rice, mix well.

 Add frozen peas and mix well, cook for about 2-3 mins, till the peas are nice and bright.

pour in the eggs and mixing. Check to make sure you rice is not sticking to your pan.

Season with shoyu, a dash of salt and pepper

Keep turning the rice till the egg is set

Add the ghee or butter. Mix well

Add the lettuce. Mix well. 

Ready to serve once the lettuce wilt light. It will continue to "cook" with the heat of the rice.

Serve 2 as an entree.

Ah King Jie tried to round up my brother and I (Hong Kong).

Enjoy
Aloha.