Lunar New Year Celebrations: Pig Out!

Welcome to the Year of the Pig! Fill your plate, fill your table, fill your life with filling food. Eat and be well. It's still midwinter but the light is turning and in some spots around the northern half of the globe the ground is thawing and buds emerge. Celebrate the return of life! The Chinese typically do it by eating one of everything--egg, duck, chicken, pork, fish--and trying to show morality by starting with the traditional tofu vegetarian dish known as Luohan Zhai, Food of the Accomplished Meditators. Yes it's Buddhist, from the monasteries.  Pork and fish are particularly prized as New Year food because neither the pig nor a fish look backward. They only go forward.

The Chinese and the Tibetans, Vietnamese and Koreans who all celebrate this Lunar New Year also eat noodles, lots of long noodles meant to signify the wish for long life--at least til the end of the year and new noodle slurping. And what's more comforting right now than a huge bowl of steaming noodles! Glass/cellophane/mung bean noodles are gluten-free.

So here are a few ways to welcome the new year, which incidentally, the Chinese will do for two weeks, the Tibetans for two days. So you have time.
Luohan Zhai, aka Buddha's Delight

not my photo

This is THE dish eaten in every Chinese household at the New Year. I have the whole backstory in Veggiyana, The Dharma of Cooking, along with this recipe. It contains symbols of the four elements affecting our lives: air (mushrooms which grow from airborne spores), fire ( fermented products like tofu and red bean paste), water (water chestnuts and lotus root (also noodles must be cooked in water) and earth (snow peas, soybean, carrot). Who says you can't eat meaningfully?

serves 6

1 1/2 tbsp corn oil

1 cube fermented red bean curd (Fu Shung) or 1 tsp miso paste as an easier to find alternative

2 oz tofu (extra firm is best, pressed is better, sticks are most authentic), cut into thin strips

1 oz wood ear or shitake mushrooms (whichever you can find; soak any that are dried)

3/4 cup soaked golden needles (lily buds), soaked overnight

½ dozen peeled gingko nuts or raw, shelled peanuts

10 snow peas, cleaned

10 water chestnuts, drained from the can and halved

1/3-1/2 cup bamboo shoots

any one of the following (depending on what you can find):

    1/4 cup jujubes (red Chinese dates), soaked overnight and pitted

    1/3 cup black Chinese moss (fat choi), soaked overnight

    1 sm lotus root, peeled and sliced into thin disks

    1 carrot, peeled and cut into thin disks

6.5-7 oz cellophane noodles (depending on how they are packaged), soaked in boiling water for two minutes and drained just before you start

2 tbsp soy sauce, or more to your taste

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp rice cooking wine or vinegar

Do not throw away any of the soaking water. Combine them.

Have all ingredients ready to throw into the wok or skillet. Arrange them on a large platter.

Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over a hot flame. Add fermented bean curd or hoisin sauce and stir to blend. Fry tofu strips for one minute to crisp them. Add mushrooms, lily buds, nuts, snow peas, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and whichever of the three final ingredients you chose. Stir-fry for one minute. Add noodles and ½ cup of the soaking water. Try to separate the noodles and blend into the other ingredients. Stir-fry 2-3 minutes, adding soaking water in ¼ cup increments as needed to nothing sticks or burns.  The steam from the water is also necessary for fast cooking. Add soy sauce, sesame oil and vinegar, stirring to blend. Continue to stir-fry 1-2 minutes, making sure there is always some liquid in the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat and serve.

Ping Sha

not my photo

This Tibetan dish uses the endlessly long cellophane noodles to symbolize long life and meat to symbolize the herder's wealth of animals.  You can use Chinese mung bean noodles or the green bean noodle known as Sai Fun or Italian vermicelli in this clever dish where the noodles soak up all the stew juices so that it’s served on a plate as though it had been a braised dish. The recipe is from my Himalayan collection waiting to be a cookbook.

Serves 4 as a main dish

 2 oz. bean thread noodles

1 lb. grilling (quick cooking cut) beef, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 lg. onion, peeled

2 tbsp. ginger/garlic paste

1 tsp. chili powder

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. crushed Szechuan pepper

1 lg. tomato

½ cup peas (frozen are fine)

4 boiling potatoes, peeled

1 tbsp. cooking oil (corn, canola, mustard, safflower)

Heat the oil in a medium casserole.  Over medium heat sauté the ginger/garlic paste and the onion until the onion is translucent.  Add the chili powder, Szechuan pepper and the beef and blend. Stir fry two-three minutes to brown the meat on all sides.

Chop the tomato and add along with two cups of water or enough to cover everything. Once it begins to boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 30 minutes.

Put the Asian noodles in a large bowl and totally cover them with boiling water. Let stand 20 minutes. They will expand. Cook vermicelli according to package directions. Drain. Cut with a scissors two or three times to make them easier to handle.

Slice the potatoes into thin disks or cut them into bite-sized chunks. Add to the stew and continue to cook another 5 minutes.  Add the peas and salt, stirring to blend. Add another cup of water if necessary to have everything just covered. Simmer five minutes. Stir in the noodles. Heat through. They will soak up the sauce.  Serve.

Vietnamese Garlic Noodles

not my photo: no greens here

This recipe is also in Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking. My research revealed that it was likely created at a Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco, not back in the home country. But it is now a staple of all Vietnamese restaurants probably because it is mighty tasty. You can use this as one of many dishes instead of a main course.

 serves 4-6

½ lb spaghetti

4 cups coarsely chopped fresh kale or Asian mustard green leaves (no stems)

6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

¼ tsp ground black pepper

1/8 tsp salt

juice of ½ large lemon

1 tbsp butter

6 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp finely grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese

Cook the spaghetti according to package instructions. Halfway through add the kale or mustard greens to the pot.  While the spaghetti cooks, in a large sauté pan, heat the butter and 3 tbsp olive oil. Add the garlic and sauté for 60 seconds over medium low heat so the garlic doesn’t brown.  Add the black pepper and continue to sauté another minute. Add the cheese and reduce heat to lowest setting. 

Drain the cooked spaghetti and kale well. Toss into the sauté pan and raise heat to medium low. Add the salt and lemon juice and toss the spaghetti to coat with the garlic and oil.  Heat 30-60 seconds. Remove from heat and add the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil, blending it in to serve.

Desi, Tibetan ceremonial rice aka sweet rice

I am about to make a vat of this (pronounced deysee) for a Losar (Tibetan New Year) party at a fledgling meditation center. At one time I was called the Queen of Desi for making it so many times for Tibetan Buddhist celebrations in the US and Canada. The lamas loved my rich version. It is also in Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking. This is not something to serve as dinner but as dessert or for tea or for celebrating when you lift a
glass of bubbly to toast the New Year. It's sweet rice, sweetened to symbolize how enlightenment is, made golden by saffron to symbolize the richness of indestructible truth (dharma) and studded with raisins and nuts to symbolize the fullness of life. Sorry I can't find my picture of mine.

Serves 12-16

2 cups Basmati rice

1/8 tsp saffron, crushed in 1 tbsp hot water

2/3cup dark raisins

1 tbsp orange juice or 1 tsp orange flower water + 1 tbsp water

¼ cup cashews, roasted

½ tsp ground cardamom

3-4 tbsp. unsalted butter (depends on how rich you want this)

1/3 cup granulated sugar (Tibetans would use more) 

Rinse the rice well and cook according to package instructions.

 While it’s cooking, plump the raisins in the orange juice or flower water 5 minutes and drain well.

 As soon as the rice has finished steaming, lift the lid and add saffron, stirring to blend.

 Pour rice into a large bowl and while it is still hot, add raisins, cashews, cardamom, butter and sugar.  Blend all ingredients.  Let cool before serving.

Soba Noodles with Mushrooms and Long Beans

Another treasure from Veggiyana, the Dharma of Cooking appropriate for right now: long noodles and long beans for long life and mushrooms which in Asia symbolize sprouting of Spring and seizing opportunity the way spores do to survive. Soba noodles are essentially buckwheat noodles, buckwheat being the grain that grows in coldest climates. You should read the package ingredients carefully as some are made with more wheat flour than soba. Buckwheat noodles are popular in eastern Bhutan, Japan, northern China and Korea.

Serves 8

¾ lb soba noodles

3 tbsp corn oil

2 tbsp sesame oil

3 lg garlic cloves, peeled, smashed and sliced into very thin strips

½ tsp red pepper flakes

½ lb Chinese long beans or any green bean like Blue Lake or Kentucky Wonder, cut uniformly into 2- 2½ ” lengths

¼ cup vegetable broth or water

1 bunch scallions, cleaned and minced

10 oz. shitake mushrooms, stems off, washed and sliced into thin strips

3 ½ tbsp Chinese rice wine or Japanese Mirin

4 tbsp soy sauce

Fresh cilantro leaves, chopped for garnish

Cook the soba noodles in boiling water according to package instructions. Drain and coat with 1 tbsp sesame oil.

In a wok or other large sauté pan, heat corn oil and 1 tbsp sesame oil over medium high heat. Add garlic and red pepper flakes, lower heat to medium and sauté 30 seconds. Add green beans and ¼ cup vegetable broth or water. Stir-fry over medium low heat 1-2 minutes until the liquid has mostly evaporated. Add mushrooms, scallion and rice wine, blending with other ingredients. Cover and cook 3 minutes or until mushrooms are soft and shiny. Remove cover.  Add soba and soy sauce, carefully blending. You will probably needs large forks or pasta implements to do this.  Continue cooking over medium low heat until noodles are hot, 1-2 minutes.

Remove from heat. Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro leaves to serve.

Chinese sesame peanut noodles

A kid's delight: noodles in peanut butter!  Peanuts represent good luck (sort of like found money) to the Chinese, snow peas represent unity (peas in a pod) and sesame shows how big things come in small ways. These are served room temperature.

Serves 6-8

1 lb fresh Chinese egg noodles (sold refrigerated, often near produce)

2 tbsp olive or corn or canola oil (don’t use fruity olive oil)

3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

1” fresh ginger root, peeled and minced or grated finely

1 tbsp rice vinegar or wine vinegar if you don’t have any

 ¼ cup soy sauce (heavier is better but not mandatory)

1/3 cup crunchy peanut butter

½ cup Chinese sesame oil

1/8 tsp hot chili paste or Tabasco or habanero sauce

1 tbsp sesame seeds, lightly toasted

1 cup chopped fresh chives (the thick Chinese chive works best)

¼ lb fresh snow peas, cleaned

Cook fresh noodles in boiling water according to package instructions or for two minutes. Drain and refresh under cold water.  Mix olive or other oil into the noodles to keep them from sticking and set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, blend garlic, ginger, vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and chili. Stir in peanut butter and keep stirring to make a smooth sauce.

Put the noodles in a large serving bowl and pour the sauce over them. Use a fork to blend. Mix in chopped chives (you may have to use your hands). Sprinkle sesame seeds all over the top. Optionally, if you like chili, you can now sprinkle some red pepper flakes on.

To garnish with snow peas, line the edge of the bowl by placing one snow pea upright next to another.  You can also chop the snow peas and mix them into the noodles.  Serve at room temperature.