China: Pan-fried Whole Snapper With Soy Ginger Glaze, 100 Flower Blossoms Kung Pao & Orange Rice With Lettuce Cups
The Q-Zine team cooked a beautiful dinner from
China
China
on February the 10th 2013 to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Snake . China has many wonderful & interesting food traditions & Chinese New Year is rich with symbolism so I did some
internet research & found some great guidance for our menu planning from several
sites but especially from http://chinesefood.about.com/od/chinesenewyear/a/symbolicnewyear.htm
Our menu included:
Pan-fried Whole Snapper With Soy Ginger Glaze,
One Hundred Flower Blossoms Kung Pao
&
Orange Rice with Lettuce Cups
Chinese New Year
celebrations are typified by The serving of foods that are symbolically "Lucky". Sometimes
the luckiness of food is based on appearance. Cauliflower & broccoli for example are lucky because they appear to have
many flowers. As such serving these vegetables on Chinese New Year means you are serving your guests food that represents a 'blossoming year' . For this reason we chose to serve the brocolli & cauliflower dish One Hundred Flower
Blossoms Kung Pao. Sometimes
the luckiness of food is based on A foods resemblance
to something else so we used round slices of carrot in the Kung Pao because their
shape & colour resembled gold coins.
The luckiness of food may also be identified by word association, that is to say the way the
Chinese word for that food sounds like another word for something lucky or auspicious. We served Lettuce Cups on our menu
because the Cantonese word for lettuce sounds like ‘rising fortune’. For this
reason it is also considered good luck to serve other lucky food in a lettuce
wrap. I had this in mind when I decided to use oranges on the menu because the word for orange sound like
the word for wealth; so serving Orange Rice in Lettuce Cups is double lucky!
The luckiness of food may also be identified by shape & appearance; this played a part in this dish
Orange Rice in Lettuce Cups as the round
shape of the lettuce cup signifies 'family reunion' & rice is a symbol of 'abundance'. Win Win I think on that one.
The serving of a whole fish at Chinese New Year is also lucky as the word for fish is "Yu," which sounds like the words for both 'wish' and 'abundance'. So we cooked Pan-fried
Whole Snapper With Soy Ginger Glaze because it symbolically represented a 'wish for abundance in the coming year'. For added luck, the appearance of a whole fresh fish with head and tail attached, symbolises a
good beginning and ending for the coming year.
WOW FACTOR: The Orange Rice
Overall this dinner was very fragrant, delicious &
simple to prepare, however, there were three of us cooking & there was a
lot of washing up so I only recommend cooking this whole menu at one time
if you have
helpers or you are a courageous cook!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
PANFRIED WHOLE SNAPPER WITH SOY GINGER GLAZE
INGREDIENTS:
·
I whole Snapper or other fish (our fish weighed 1.5 kg
& would feed 4-6)
·
3 cloves garlic – peeled
·
2 tbs ginger – sliced in thin matchsticks
·
3 tbs sesame oil
·
4 tbs soy sauce
·
8 spring onions/shallots – cleaned & cut in 4 cm
pieces
·
extra 2 tbs sesame oil
·
extra 2 tbs soy sauce
METHOD:
·
wash/wipe fish with paper towel to make sure it is
clean & free of scales
·
score the fish skin in several places without cutting
into the flesh
·
Place sesame oil in a very large pan or on BBQ hotplate
& gently heat
·
Add whole pieces of garlic & ginger to the pan and gently fry without
burning
·
Place the fish in the pan and cook for 5 minutes gently
using a spatula or similar to stop the fish from burning onto the pan.
TIP: Chinese Chef's normally lay the fish on the serving
platter on its right side, so
the left flank is
exposed. As a chef I know that the presentation side of food
should be cooked first
(when the pan & oil are the cleanest). So we put the fish
into the pan on its left
side first.
·
When fish begins to brown turn it over & cook for a
further 2 minutes
·
Cover with a lid (or aluminium foil), and leave for a
further 5 minutes - less for smaller fish, more for larger fish.
·
When almost cooked lift lid & pour soy sauce over
the fish & re-cover.
·
Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer & cook fish for
a further 5 minutes.
·
When fish is cooked gently transfer it to a serving
dish and allow to rest while you finish the dressing.
·
Keep pan moderately hot, scrap away any burnt bits of
fish but keep the bits of ginger & roasted garlic cloves. Add the spring
onions, extra sesame oil & extra soy stirring quickly for 1 minute. This
will form a sauce.
·
When cooked spoon any sauce over the fish & arrange
the roasted onions & garlic
around the edges of the
fish
Recipe adapted from original found at:
ONE HUNDRED FLOWER BLOSSOMS KUNG PAO
INGREDIENTS
·
1 cup cauliflower – cut into flowerettes
·
1 cup broccoli – cut in flowerettes
·
1 cup carrot – peeped & cut in rounds to resemble
gold coins
·
3 whole
fresh oriental chillies
·
2 tbsp chopped ginger
·
2 tbsp chopped garlic
·
2 tsp soy sauce
·
2 tsp coconut palm sugar
·
2 tsp cornflour mixed with 1/4 cup water
·
1/2 tsp white rice vinegar
·
1/2 cup
cashew nuts
·
1 tbsp sesame oil
·
salt to taste
METHOD
1. briefly
Blanch vegetables in boiling water then refresh in cold water to retain colour.
2. Toast
cashews in a medium hot dry frypan until golden
3. Heat
sesame oil in a frypan, add the
chillies and gently sauté until they begin to brown
4. Add
the ginger, garlic and sauté for a few minutes until tender
5. Add
the vegetables, 2 cups of water, soy sauce, sugar and salt and gently bring
to the boil.
6. Simmer
for about 5 minutes until vegetables a tender but firm
7. stir
the cornflour paste into the vegetables & bring back to a boil, stirring
constantly to prevent sauce from becoming lumpy.
8. Keep
stirring & cook the mix for a little to ensure the thickening process is
complete then add the vinegar and fried cashews and mix well.
9. Serve
immediately.
Recipe adapted from two found at:
http://www.steamykitchen.com/2191-10-flower-blossoms.html
http://www.tarladalal.com/Kung-Pao-Vegetables-4148r
ORANGE RICE
INGREDIENTS:
·
1 cup jasmine rice
·
1 cup vegetable stock
·
1 cup orange juice
·
1 tsp butter
·
½ tsp salt
·
zest of 1 orange
·
3 tbs sesame seeds
METHOD
1.
Wash rice in running water until water runs clear (not milky)
& drain.
2.
Gently heat butter in a medium sized pot.
3.
Add orange zest to hot butter & stir with a wooden spoon
until you smell the fragrant orange oil being released from the zest
4.
add the rice & salt
5.
Stir till rice is coated with butter and orange zest is mixed
around (don’t stir too much or the zest may break).
6.
Add orange juice
& stock then bring to the boil, stirring occasionally to ensure the rice does not stick to
the bottom of the pot.
7.
When the liquid
reaches a gently boil, reduce the heat under the pot to minimum and cover the
pan with a well-fitting lid.
8.
Don’t take the lid off again until you are ready to serve the
rice.
9.
Cook rice on low
for 10 minutes.
10.
Turn heat off & leave the pot on the cooling element for
10 minutes.
11.
Whilst the rice is resting toast the sesame seeds in a
medium/hot dry frypan, shaking the pan constantly to stop the seeds from
burning.
12.
When you see the sesame seeds begin to brown turn off the heat
& continue shaking the pan until they are toasted on all sides the quickly
tip them onto a plate to cool
13.
When you are ready to serve the rice sprinkle the top of the
rice liberally with the toasted sesame seeds
Recipe adapted from original found at:
LETTUCE CUPS
INGREDIENTS:
·
1 iceberg lettuce
METHOD
NOTE:
You will use this same method if you want to make Lettuce
Cups for San Choy Bow
1.
Clean off the
outer leaves off the lettuce & discard
2.
Now de-core the
lettuce (that is, remove the hard center stem of the lettuce)
TIP #1 you can de-core an iceberg lettuce by holding the cleaned
lettuce in your hands – core faced down toward the bench - & giving the
bottom of the core a swift yet gentle bang onto the bench; the core should just
pull out easily after that.
3.
Once the lettuce is de-cored, hold it upside down under a tap
& run cold water gently into the lettuce to rinse & keep rinsing until
the lettuce feels like it is expanding & the individual leaves begin to
visibly loosen from each other
4.
Now turn the lettuce up the other way & let excess water
drain out –then sit it in a colander in the sink for a few minutes if it has
lots of water inside
5.
Once the lettuce is drained your next step is to separate the
individual leaves into cups: beginning from the outside gently separate each
leaf away from the lettuce being
careful not to tear them; as you do this turn each lettuce cup upside down onto
a tray
TIP #2 you will find that the
best cups will come from the middle of the lettuce; the outside leaves plus
those right in the middle may be better put aside to make a salad with; if you
have more than 3/4 people & you want them all to have a few really nice
lettuce cups do two or more lettuces – you can’t make more cups last minute so
better to have too many than not enough!
6.
When the lettuce is completely taken apart in this way cover
the lettuce cups in a clean wet tea towel & place in the fridge on a middle
rack to crisp up
7.
Serve cup upwards on a platter
8.
We filled ours with the orange rice topped with pieces of
Snapper
This recipe is a Q-Zine original –
if you use it
elsewhere on the net I would appreciate acknowledgment
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