Luck and Fortune for Chinese New Year

When Ming of Butterfingers invited me to take part in her round-up of what South African bloggers make for Chinese New Year (23 January 2012), I was a little nervous. I love Chinese cuisine, don't get me wrong, but the closest I've got to actually making it is a higgledy-piggledy stir-fry with sweet and sour sauce. After learning more about Chinese New Year cuisine and the unique symbolism of each dish, and finding out that 2012 is the year of the dragon, I just had to take part. The year of the dragon is about good luck, fortune and the colour red (for more of the history, culture and tradition of Chinese New Year, please visit Ming's blog on 23 January). This year I will be celebrating the first birthday of my own business, so a mixture of good luck and fortune for year two wouldn't go unappreciated! I therefore decided to create two dishes (doubling my chances!) for my humble celebration of the most important festivity on the Chinese calendar: Coins and Greens to start, and homemade "Year of the Dragon" Red Fortune Cookies (complete with fortunes) to finish, with red paper Chinese lanterns and gold place-mat covers for decoration.

Coins and Greens
Stir-fried lettuce with shiitake mushrooms

I loved the sound of this dish the minute I came across the recipe for it during my search for unique Chinese New Year dishes. According to the recipe author, the Chinese pronunciation for "lettuce" sounds similar to that of "good fortune", making this dish a popular choice at many New Year's celebrations. I've also never eaten lettuce as anything other than raw, so I was very interested to see what it tasted like when stir-fried. This dish is incredibly simple to make and it filled my kitchen with absolutely mouthwatering aromas whilst cooking. It's fresh and light, with the lettuce giving a delicious crunch and the saucy mushrooms a flavour and texture sensation, and would make the perfect side dish along with some chicken and prawn egg-fried rice, or even as a main for vegetarians.

I adapted the recipe slightly by adding a whole packet of shiitake mushrooms and a little more fresh ginger, and I stir-fried the lettuce separately and topped with sauce on serving, but otherwise (as a novice when it comes to Asian cooking) I followed the recipe step for step.

"Year of the Dragon" Fortune Cookies

I absolutely love fortune cookies, but I didn't realise just how easy they are to make until I decided to include them in my Chinese New Year menu! There are many sites dedicated to the making of this all-seeing, all-knowing and often cryptic cookie, from videos to step-by-step guides to fortune sheets that you can print out and use. I followed the advice of the aptly-named MakeFortuneCookies.com, and I printed some funny fortunes found through my searches. I really wanted to incorporate the red colour theme, so I added some red food colouring to my cookie batter once it was ready. Sadly, it came out more pink instead of red (and became an even deeper pink when I added a few extra drops), but it's the thought that counts!

While the batter is an absolute cinch to make, I found a lot of conflicting advice when it came to how long to bake the cookies for. Some recipes said 6 minutes, some said 15 - that's quite a gap! They all agreed on an oven temperature of 150 degrees, so I played around with timing per batch. Whilst the cookies were easier to seal and close if they only had 6-8 minutes in the oven, they were chewy and didn't give that satisfying crack when bent in half. The cookies that were in for 11 minutes seemed to work the best, even though the edges were a little dry and therefore didn't seal as well. The mixture makes around 16-20 cookies, so play around and see what works for you. My only word of caution is to use gloves - they're piping hot when you fold them and it wreaks havoc on bare palms and fingertips! 

Happy New Year! Xin nian yu kuai!