I thought I would NEVER get through this meal… preparing it, that is. Don’t get me wrong, the flower rolls, fish, and noddle dish were all good but time consuming (as most of my weekend meals of late have been). Let’s get to the reason for the weekend.
As mentioned and described in detail in my preview Friday post, this past Saturday, January 25th was this year’s official date of Lunar New Year, Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival; it has many names depending on where it’s celebrated. In China, it’s often referred to as Chinese New Year and in other Asian countries it’s Lunar New Year. It is a week-long public holiday in China (and other Asian countries), but it is traditionally on the first day when the lucky foods are eaten. While modern China, along with other Asian countries, go by the Gregorian calendar, they continue to include and celebrate some of the Lunar calendar holidays like Lunar New Year. With over 4,000 years of Lunar New Year celebrations, it is the most important of the Chinese festivals. It ends this year on February 8 with the Lantern Festival (the day for creating lanterns). Each day between January 24 and February 8, there are specific activities, foods, and superstitions that are appropriate to do, eat, or follow on these days. Check out this link, Chinese New Year Calendar 2020, for details with regard to the different days. For example, today January 27th, is the Day of the Rat (the day rats get married… hmmm, OK…) where people leave crackers and grains in the corners to share their harvest (and go to bed early not to distract the “wedding”) with the rats in hopes of a peaceful year between the two (peaceful rat wedding = peaceful year). Hmmmm… as I said… OK.
Since the food traditions were highlighted in my preview Friday post (a much longer preview post than normal), I will only focus on the ones I selected to bake/cook in this one.
For a new baking and cooking adventure, I chose the steamed rolls (that’s right, NOT baked), steamed whole fish (yes! head with eyes, tails, and more bones than you can count), and homemade noodles (long and fat ones… I want a long and healthy life baby!) with lots of veggies. As usual, I looked at many recipes for each dish before I selected the ones that were authentic, interested me, were a challenge, and contained ingredients I thought I could find in my local grocery store or substitute. Since I temporarily live in Colorado, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go to a local fish market on the coast, so I had to locate a quality, fresh fish (from a trusty vendor)… concerning at first… wasn’t sure I could do this, but ALAS… whew! it happened… we’re still alive, didn’t get sick, and enjoyed the fish immensely (minus the bones). The meal and recipes worked!
With a baked-focus blog, we’ll start with the beautiful Hua Juan (Flower Rolls). These are called flower rolls because they are rolled and twisted to resemble a flower. The rolls are a basic yeast bread dough rolled out like a cinnamon roll and covered in sesame oil, salt, and chopped scallions and then rolled up and sliced like a cinnamon roll. Cool, right! These are a traditional staple Chinese bread known as mantou (steamed buns). These days, they are eaten as a breakfast item or as a snack. Hey, if .you like this filling option but want to bake the bread, you could use the same dough from the Filipino post last week and add this as your filling. Actually, since this is a traditional bread dough, I’m sure you can just bake these rolls like any other baked bread.
The recipe selected was easy to follow, though I had to look at another for pictures showing how to make the flower after slicing the roll. The process was pretty simple; no artistic ability required, trust me. Thanks to Spruce Eats for the recipe Hua Juan Recipe for Traditional Chinese Flower Rolls. As a Lunar New Year dish, I placed this meal element in the dumpling category, since it’s a steamed dough which represents wealth.
Hua Juan Ingredients:
The dough preparation process…
This dough recipe has 2 rises back to back with only a punch down between rises. Over a warm oven, the rises only took an hour each instead of 1 1/2 hour each as the recipe predicted.
Hua Juan (Flower Rolls) thoughts: This was such an unusually different bread from the westernized traditional baked bread. The bread was soft, fluffy (like a pillow) and had a distinctive sesame taste, very appropriate for a typical Asian dish. Due to the steaming, there was neither browning nor crusty exterior. The bread would go very well with an accompanying soup, though we enjoyed it with a noodle dish and fish. It was also good heated with a pat of butter. I don’t usually think of a baked bread with an Asian meal; however, I can see how this one totally fits the bill. Since I love my bread, I will definitely keep this recipe in mind for future Asian dishes that particularly include a soup. Good bake and a keeper!!
This meal had a 2nd dough… homemade egg noodles. The recipe used is from the website “The Omnivore’s Cookbook”, Fresh Homemade Noodles (手擀面). I really like this website for Chinese cuisine; it’s thorough and the recipes are clear.
Fresh noodle ingredients…
Time to cook them!
For the rest of the dish, I used a Longevity Noodle Dish from the website 196 Flavors, China: Long Life Noodles (Chang Shou Mian) using the above noodles in place of store-bought. Since we had fish on the side, I chose to make this dish vegetarian… no chicken but more mushrooms…
Long Life Noodles ingredients:
Longevity Noodle Dish thoughts: The homemade noodles were very good, thick, and chewy. In my previous noodle dish from the Japan blog, I had a much easier dough to work with, but I think this noodle recipe was good; I just needed to add more liquid… my fault, not the recipe. I would make this again, but I have a note for myself on the recipe to add more liquid (humidity level makes a difference in amount of liquid needed in dough). I added 3 ounces of veggies instead of the recommended 2 and I used 9 ounces of mushrooms instead of 8 ounces of chicken and only 2 ounces of mushrooms. With the additional veggies and noodles, I increased the sauce to 6-7 tablespoons instead of 4. Overall, the changes I made based on our preferences worked out well. The dish had enough sauce and flavor for the amount of noodles and veggies. This is a great dish if you like pasta and want a hearty meal… a nice change from an Italian pasta dish.
The LAST meal element… the main protein… the FISH. So, who won the staring contest? Well, the Yellowtail Snapper was in the lead, until my second wind and then he lost. Here’s how that went down… it really was questionable for a while!!
I questioned locating a quality, fresh, whole fish in landlocked America. I went to several locations with no luck. While I had access to a local Asian market, I had read some questionable reviews of the fresh fish, so I opted for Whole Foods… I thought, surely… Whole Foods will have a whole fish. Yep! I was right… they had quite a few options. I spoke with the fishmonger who recommended the red snapper (red for Lunar New Year’s); however, I didn’t need a fish that big, so I opted for the Yellowtail Snapper… a nice white fish. One thing to look for in purchasing a good quality fish is the clarity of the eyes! That’s right… clear eyes = fresh fish. You know, people may get freaked out by buying a whole fish, but honestly, that’s the way to go so you KNOW you’re getting a fresh product. Once the head (and eyes) and tail are removed, you have no idea how long that fish has been in the store.
I had never cooked a whole fish before, so I was a bit creeped out by the idea; however, the recipe I used gave me confidence that I could totally make this a success. Thanks to The Woks of Life for the recipe, Steamed Whole Fish-Chinese Style. Here’s Mister Snapper… and the beginning of the staring contest…
In addition to the main ingredient… we have…
Starting with Mister Snapper… he put up a really good fight… I didn’t have a steamer, so I create a makeshift cooking apparatus. It should’ve worked, but it didn’t… here’s my try.
At this point, I thought Mister Snapper had won, but I didn’t give up. After some research, I finally decided to preheat the oven to 400 degrees and bake him (on a foil-lined, oiled pan with more oil on the fish and covered with more foil). It WORKED! So, 12 minutes later he was opaque and the thermometer read 150 degrees (145 degrees is recommended for a perfectly cooked fish). Here he is…
While Mister Snapper was steaming/baking, the flavorful topping was prepared…
The Final Product… All Together!
Steamed Fish thoughts: My husband and I are not big meat eaters, so this dish was a challenge. In fact, we hardly eat any fish aside from sushi (my favorite kind of fish dish). I was very hesitant about the whole process of buying, prepping, and cooking the fish. In the end, the fish was cooked well, not dry at all, and the topping was salty, sweet, and tangy… pretty much pleasing to all of the taste buds. What we didn’t like about this dish… all of the bones… small fish… lots of tiny bones. I was so afraid I would end up in the ER by accidentally getting a bone stuck in my throat. Remember, I am not a fish connoisseur and really have no experience in eating around the bones or cooking any kind of fish. I will likely not make this again, because it’s not something we typically eat; however, If you’re inclined to eat or try a dish like this, I highly recommend it… it was a really tasty dish. You could probably use the same recipe with a different fish.
Lunar New Year’s Meal Final Thoughts: As I stated when I started this blogging adventure, my goal is to try new baking and cooking adventures getting out of my comfort zone. I guarantee I would never have gone through all of this trouble to cook a whole fish or steamed bread had I not set out to trying something challenging. I’m glad I did as I have confidence to cook with meat and steam food without a steamer knowing that I can “figure” it out when I hit an obstacle… just like the Italian Panettone fiasco, that turned out OK (the 2nd time around). Whether it’s baking or cooking… most things can be salvaged; I think patience, experience, and being resourceful (internet!!) can get us through most anything. These little tips I’m learning through this adventure carry on through future adventures… baking or not. I think life challenges, whatever they are, are simple steps that build and build into making us better problem solvers in all aspects of life. The whole point of being a life-long learner is to try something new and different and know that whatever happens, good or bad, we come out smarter, stronger, and more experienced on the other side… regardless of age. Take that for a New Year’s resolution… try something new!!
Thanks for reading! Please like, comment, and/or follow my blog. I will be out-of-pocket for the next 3 weekends… life’s adventures! My next blog will be at the end of February. Please don’t forget about me; I promise I’ll be back!!