Lunar New Year ( Tsang Hau Ling 2A 31 )

NEW YEAR'S CAKE

Ingredient:
3 Chinese dried red dates
5 slabs brown candy (peen tong), about 11 ounces
3 teaspoons vegetable oil
7 cups glutinous rice flour
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds
1 large egg
vegetable oil, for pan-frying

Preparation:

In a small bowl, soak the red dates in 1/4 cup cold water for 30 minutes, or until softened. When softened, remove and discard the pits.

Cut each brown candy slab into 8 pieces. Place sugar in a heatproof bowl, pour 2 cups boiling water over the sugar, and set aside until dissolved and completely cooled.

Grease a heatproof 8-inch round, 3- to 4-inch-deep, straight-sided bowl, such as souffle dish, with 2 teaspoons vegetable oil.

In a large bowl, place rice flour. Make a well and stir in cold sugar water. Knead dough in the bowl, adding an additional 1/3 cup cold water until dough is smooth, slightly moist, and shiny, 5 to 10 minutes.

Place the dough in the prepared dish and pat until it fills the dish evenly.

Cut the red dates into halves and place cut-side down in a ring around the outside of the dough, leaving a few to decorate the center.

Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds. Coat with the remaining 1 teaspoon oil, using your fingers and lightly pressing down on the dates and sesame seeds.

Bring water to a boil over high heat in a covered steamer large enough to fit the dish without touching the sides of the steamer. Carefully place the dish into the steamer, cover, and steam 35 to 40 minutes on high heat. Check the water level and replenish, if necessary, with boiling water. The cake is done when it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Carefully remove the dish from the steamer and pour off any excess liquid on the surface. Place on a rack to cool. Loosely cover and set at room temperature in a cool room until the next day, when it will be ready to eat.

Run a knife along the edge of the cake to loosen sides. Place a cake rack over the bowl and invert to unmold. Flip the cake right-side up onto the cutting board. Wrap the cake in plastic and refrigerate until ready to use.

When ready to eat, cut the cake into quarters. Cut each quarter crosswise, not into wedges, but into two 2-inch-wide strips. Cut each strip crosswise into scant 1/4-inch-thick slices. This is the typical way of slicing a cake Chinese style. Beat an egg in a small bowl, until frothy. Dip the slices in egg.

Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or skillet, over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add just enough vegetable oil to barely coat the wok, add the egg-dipped slices in batches and cook 2 to 3 minutes per side, until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Meaning: Grow up every year.
Taste: Sweet and delicious.
History: The lunar new year's cake serves as at first offers a sacrifice to the god, consecrates using of the ancestor. Later, lunar new year's cake changes to be the food for celebrate Lunar New Year.

---Dumpling---

The ingredients of dumpling are 1.5b dumpling skin, 1.5b ground pork, 1.5 b cabbage, 0.02b ground ginger, 0.02b sesame oil, and 0.02 b salt.

After you prepare all ingredients, you could start to make the dumpling. First, you have to cut the cabbage into shreds. Second, mix cabbage, ground pork, ground ginger, sesame oil, and salt for making the filling. And then put an adequate amount of filling in the middle of skin. Next, you can use your forefinger to moisten a little water to the edge of skin. Finally, wrap up and press patterns on the edge. When you finish these steps, you have almost finished the dumpling.

Then, you have to know how to cook the dumpling. The Chinese boil, steam or pan-fry the dumpling. In Taiwan, boiling the dumpling is the most common way. You have to fill a pot up 70% with water. When the water boils, put the dumpling into the pot. After the water boils, put some water into the pot again. You can repeat this step twice, it will make the dumpling well done. Next, when the water boils, you can scoop the dumpling up from the pot.

When the Chinese eat the dumpling, they put soy sauce and sesame oil into a small dish. If you like, you can also put a little Chinese chilli sauce. You can moisten each dumpling in this sauce. It's really delicious!

The shape of dumpling is like an odd-shaped gold. So the Chinese eat dumplings on the dinner of the lunar New Year's Eve. People will put one dollar (In America, you can put one cent.) in the filling into one dumpling. Someone who eats the dumpling with one dollar means he or she will be more lucky than the others in next year. Try the dumpling, you might be the lucky one.

Laobian Dumpling (with meat and vegetable stuffing)
Laobian dumpling is Shenyang's special flavor renowned at home and abroad, which has a history of over 160 years. The reason why it is so well-known is that it pays particular attention to the selection of material prepared with the choice stuff, beautifully made in shape, with delicious taste, the distinctive qualities of which lie in its prepared stuffing and dumpling wrapper.

---Rice Balls---
History: Rice Balls like is turn of bright moonlight hangs in the horizon, symbolic reunion auspicious meaning, mainly is Spring Festival food which the southerner likes eating.
Meaning: Meaning of the family reunion.
Taste: sweet
Appearance: It like a moon. It is white outside and usually brown or black inside.

Ingredients: 4 Taels Black Sesame Seed
2 tsps cooked oil
8 taels glutinous rice flour
5 Tael Granulated sugar
2 tsps lard
0.75 cups cold boiled water

How it prepared:
1. Sweet soup: 188g brown sugar, 1/2 tsp ginger juice, 6 cups water.
2. Wash and drain sesame. Fry over low heat until fragrant. Grate into puree.
3. Add combine sesame puree with sugar, lard and cooked oil. Divide into small cubes. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
4. Place glutinous rice flour into a big bowl. Add in cold boiled water little by little. Knead into a dough.
5. Divide dough into small portions. Stuff each wrapper with sesame paste.
6. Bring 1/2 pot of water to the boil. Add rice balls. Cook till rice balls float up. Boil sweet soup ingredients and pour into pot. Bring to the boil. Serve hot.

Opinions: Not to use too much sugar or it may be too sweet.