Year of the Dragon Prediction (from Chinese Fortune Calendar)

“Dragon is a legendary animal and it is symbol of emperor in China. Since the Dragon is coated with mysterious color, Chinese consider that the dragon is unpredictable, untouchable and people cannot see its head and tail at the same time. Therefore, we can might see something unexpected happening in 2012.”

My prediction? Well, I’m no good at predicting things (which is why I’ve never won the lottery), but I’m all for major transformations this year!

Last year, I posted a long list of Chinese New Year recipes, and I’ve gotten several requests to republish the post. I’ve added a few new recipes as well.

Gong Hay Fat Choy!

From top left:

1. My Mother’s Famous Chinese Egg Rolls (egg rolls look like gold bars, which symbolize wealth)
2. Chinese Boiled Pork Dumplings (also symbolize wealth)
3. Pan Fried Shrimp & Pork Potstickers (wealth)
4. Shrimp Fried Rice (shrimp for happiness and joy)
5. Chinese Broccoli Beef Noodles (noodles for longevity)
6. Fresh Pear and Shrimp Stir Fry (shrimp for happiness and joy)

From top left:

1. Long Life Fertility Noodles and Happy Shrimp
2. Chinese Lettuce Cups (lettuce = rising fortune)
3. Hainanese Chicken Rice (serve your chicken whole & cut at table for Chinese New Year. Cooking a whole chicken or duck represents health — carving it before serving would meant to “cut” your health)
4. Chinese Tea Eggs (for prosperity)
5. Chinese Whole Steamed Fish
6. Stir Fried Beef with Nectarines (nectarine = happiness, health)

See more Chinese New Year Recipes on Steamy Kitchen!

More Chinese New Year Recipes

Jiaozi Dumplings – from my friends Nate & Mary Kate on Epicurious (who just came out with their Chinese cookbook Feeding the Dragon!)
Chicken Lettuce Cups - Nate & Mary Kate on Epicurious
Stir Fried Prawns with XO Sauce – Noob Cook
Stir Fried Leeks with Vegetable – Noob Cook
Chinese Almond Chicken – Appetite for China
Braised Bok Choy – Taste Hong Kong
Sichuan Wonton – Appetite for China
Steamed Pork & Shrimp Dumplings (Sui Mai) – Flavor Explosions
Steamed Chicken in Lotus Leaf – RasaMalaysia
Stir Fried Pine Nuts with Corn and Peas – RasaMalaysia (dish means “full of gold and jade”)
Stir Fried Broccoli and Scallop – RasaMalaysia (“richness and abundance”)
Baked BBQ Pork Buns – RasaMalaysia
Soy Sauce Chicken – RasaMalaysia (though serve your chicken whole & cut at table for Chinese New Year. Cooking a whole chicken or duck represents health — carving it before serving would meant to “cut” your health)
Flank Steak with Fried Noodles – Food Network
Ketchup Prawns – Sea Salt with Food
Egg Dumplings – Show Shanti
Homemade Chili Oil – Show Shanti
Singapore Black Pepper Crab – Sea Salt with Food
Chinese Long Beans – Washington Post (long beans = longevity)
Chinese Almond Cookies – Simply Recipes (beautiful, Garrett, just beautiful!)
Fortune Cookie Recipe – Martha Stewart
Fortune Cookie Recipe video – Cookbook Maniac (love her tips for fortune cookies)
Chocolate Fortune Cookies – Martha Stewart
Vegetarian Buddha’s Delight – Epicurious
Orange Peking Duck – recipe from Ken Hom, author of Ken Hom’s Top 100 Stir Fry Recipes
Sweet & Sour Pork – recipe from Grace Young, author Breath of a Wok
Buddha’s Delight with Tofu & Brocooli- Cooking Light
Peanut Sesame Noodles – Appetite for China
Soy Sauce Chicken – Appetite for China
Water Chestnut Cake with Ginger – Appetite for China
Dragon Well Tea Shrimp – Appetite for China
Dan Dan Mian – Appetite for China
Stir Fried Noodles, Taiwanese Style – Explore Hong Kong
Chinese New Year Cake – Asian Grandmother’s Cookbook
Scallion Pancakes – Tigers and Strawberries (perfect recipe. we made these many times)
Chinese White Cut Chicken – Sunday Nite Dinner (serve your chicken whole & cut at table for Chinese New Year. Cooking a whole chicken or duck represents health — carving it before serving would meant to “cut” your health)
Tea Smoked Duck – Cooking Channel
Nian Gao Cake - Asian Grandmother’s Cookbook
Shanghai Style Nian Gao – Donna Cooks (“rising higher each year” This dish is a must for our table – I love the soft, chewy noodles. This is also one of my Dad’s hometown dishes)
Stir Fried Shanghai Nian Gao – mmm-yoso
Lion’s Head Meatballs – NY Times (lion = strength; big round meatballs = family togetherness)
Fuscshia Dunlop’s Braised Pork Belly – Cookbook Maniac
Chinese Walnut Cookies – Lily’s Wai Sek Hong
Paper Lined Cup Sponge Cake – Lily’s Wai Sek Hong
Dragon Cookies – Lily’s Wai Sek Hong (love this idea – we’ll make these dragon cookies w/my kids)
Almond Cookie Cresents – Lily’s Wai Sek Hong
Double Sided Gold Noodles – Lily’s Wai Sek Hong (one of my favorite noodles as a kid)
Steamed Pork Bun Recipe + how to fold Chinese buns video – Christine’s Recipes
Braised Chinese Mushrooms – Christine’s Recipes (easy dish to make, we always have whole Chinese mushrooms on CNY)
Egg Custard Pastry – Christine’s Recipes (with a cheater crust! brilliant)
Stir Fried Glutinous Rice – Christine’s Recipes
Stir Fried Broccoli with Fish Fillet – Christine’s Recipes
Tomato Chili Prawns – Christine’s Recipes (shrimp = laughter and joy)
Butter Cookies – Christine’s Recipes
Braised Chinese Mushrooms – Christine’s Recipes
Baked Coconut Cake – Christine’s Recipes
Radish Cake – Christine’s Recipes

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 21 comments

One of my very first blogging friends is Bee from Rasa Malaysia. In the early days of the blog, we used to chat on the phone after my kids went to bed about the technical side of blogging — silly acronyms like SEO, PHP, CSS and HTML. Back then (I say “back then” like it was decades ago, but in reality it was just 4 1/2 years ago!) there weren’t a ton of plug-ins and support forums weren’t available for food bloggers. Wow, have we come a long way! 

She asked me to write the Foreword for her brand new book, Easy Chinese Recipes, it’s a beautiful book with simple recipes that you’d find at your favorite Chinese restaurant, like Shrimp Fried Rice, Kung Pao Chicken and Homestyle Chow Mein Noodles. I hope you enjoy this recipe for Black Pepper Steak from her book. ~Jaden

***

Hi all, I am Bee of Rasa Malaysia, a food blog about easy Asian recipes. I am extremely thrilled to be on Steamy Kitchen today, sharing a recipe from my cookbook “Easy Chinese Recipes.” Jaden and I met some four years ago

through our blogs; we also share the same publisher, Tuttle Publishing. I wanted to take this special opportunity to thank Jaden for writing the Foreword of the book and hervaluable advice when I was working on the project. Truth be told, I wouldn’t have done it if she didn’t tell me to “do it” when I got the offer!

Easy Chinese Recipes is a compilation of 80+ popular Chinese recipes: all-time favorites, Chinese takeout dishes, dim sum, dumplings, and more. Some recipes reflect my many travels in China and Hong Kong. Others are my interpretation of classic Chinese recipes, perfected through years of preparing them at home.

Black Pepper Beef is one of my favorite recipes in the cookbook as I love the combination of bell pepper and black pepper in Chinese stir-fries. These two ingredients, coupled with the right cut of beef—I like beef tenderloin, flank steak or flap meat—will often guarantee a successful dish. If you love the sweetness and slightly charred taste of caramelized onions, stir-fry the onions and bell peppers slightly longer before adding  the beef to the stir-fry. You will be rewarded with a richer flavored Black Pepper Beef. Enjoy! ~ Bee

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 22 comments

I was a-browsin’ for crab rangoon recipes when I came across Philadelphia Cream Cheese’s version that included baking the wonton wrapper into a cup-like shapes in a muffin pan instead of deep frying. What a fab idea! I had to give it a shot, the presentation was just too pretty.

The key to making the wonton skin crisp is to spray both sides of the wonton skin with cooking spray before putting them into a muffin pan. Just a light spritz is all you need on both sides.

This is a sponsored review
by BlogHer and Kraft.

I LOVE crab, but the problem with most crab rangoon that I have at Chinese-American restaurants is too much cream, not enough crab. So my version is loaded with crab meat with just enough creaminess and kick of flavor.

I season the crab with a good squeeze of lemon (any canned seafood can use a little lemon to fresh its flavor), salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce. Of course add in Philadelphia Cream Cheese and a spoonful of mayo. You can use either canned crabmeat or fresh crabmeat if you’re up for doing a little work.

How to make Baked Crab Rangoon

The ingredients are simple and easily customizable – I’ve used canned crab but you can substitute any type of cooked seafood like scallops or shrimp. Add sriracha hot chili sauce for a spicy version.

The wonton skins are baked in the oven until the edges are golden brown. They turn into crisp little cups. Add in the crab meat filling, return to the oven for a few minutes and it’s done.

Continue reading Baked Crab Rangoon...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 39 comments

Last week, on a surprise visit to see family, Mom made a couple of dishes that I normally don’t cook myself. One of them is this Chinese Fried Sticky Rice Cake Noodle dish (long name!) In Chinese, it’s called 炒年糕 Chǎo Nián Gāo.

The recipe is from my Dad’s hometown of LingBo in China.

What are Sticky Rice Cake Noodles (Nian Gao)

Nian Gao is normally eaten for Chinese New Year, as it signifies good fortune for the coming year. “Nian” means year and “gao” means high — translating loosely to “every year, may you reach higher and higher.”

Nian Gao can also mean sticky rice cakes that are fried in egg (savory) or fried with sugar (sweet). The Shanghainese and Korean version (TteokGuk photo)of nian gao is this recipe, where they take the glutinous rice cakes, cut them into ovals 2 inches long, 1 inch wide, and stir fry them like noodles.

You can find these rice cake noodles at Asian markets, either dried form (in the dried noodle section), frozen or in the refrigerated noodle section. Mom likes to buy frozen rice cake noodles, as they keep well in the freezer. They have to be soaked for 2 hours up to overnight in water. Purchase either the Korean or Chinese version, they are the same.

The rice cakes have to be soaked for 2 hours (up to overnight)

Dried or fresh Chinese mushrooms (or shiitake), canned bamboo shoots

Mom used mustard greens that she had salted overnight, but I’ve given easier instructions in the recipe to use Napa Cabbage.

and Pork marinated in soy, rice wine, pepper, cornstarch and a pinch of sugar.

The pork is first stir-fried until almost cooked through.

Then add the Chinese mushrooms.

Continue reading Chinese Stir Fried Sticky Rice Cakes (Nian Gao)...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 37 comments

Wendy, one of my best friends and I were whisked away to NYC for a 4-day vacation to celebrate NYC Restaurant week, featuring over 200 restaurants in NYC with prix fix $24.95 lunch and $35.00 dinners. Fancy restaurants like Nobu, Bar Basque, Adour Alain Ducasse and Aquavit participate! UPDATE: Restaurant Week has been extended until Feb 27, 2010

What we didn’t expect was the crazy cold weather – we’re Florida girls and we’re used to flip flops in January. In fact, this was taken a couple of weeks ago:

And this was NYC when we arrived, in between 2 huge storms.

So we bundled up as warm as we could – I have like 24 layers on – which meant that I couldn’t button up my big coat. Which meant that the 24 layers were useless. That hats? Useless because they didn’t cover our ears.
Continue reading Steamed Fish with Black Bean Sauce...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 23 comments

Chinese New Year 2011 is the Year of the Rabbit!

Chinese New Year begins on February 3, 2011 and is celebrated for 15 days. Each year, the date is different, it begins with the new moon of the new year and ends on the full moon.

Gong Hay Fat Choy! (in Cantonese) Gong Xi Fa Cai! (in Mandarin)

This will be the year of the Rabbit – and according to The Holiday Spot, here’s the horoscope for 2011:

A placid year, very much welcomed and needed after the ferocious year of the Tiger. We should go off to some quiet spot to lick our wounds and get some rest after all the battles of the previous year.

Good taste and refinement will shine on everything and people will acknowledge that persuasion is better than force. A congenial time in which diplomacy, international relations and politics will be given a front seat again. We will act with discretion and make reasonable concessions without too much difficulty.

A time to watch out that we do not become too indulgent. The influence of the Rabbit tends to spoil those who like too much comfort and thus impair their effectiveness and sense of duty.

Law and order will be lax; rules and regulations will not be rigidly enforced. No one seems very inclined to bother with these unpleasant realities. They are busy enjoying themselves, entertaining others or simply taking it easy. The scene is quiet and calm, even deteriorating to the point of somnolence. We will all have a tendency to put off disagreeable tasks as long as possible

Money can be made without too much labor. Our life style will be languid and leisurely as we allow ourselves the luxuries we have always craved for. A temperate year with unhurried pace. For once, it may seem possible for us to be carefree and happy without too many annoyances.

***

Chinese New Year Recipes

I’ve compiled a list of Chinese New Year Recipes from Steamy Kitchen and New Asian Cuisine for you – but first read up on some of the food superstitions – what to serve and what NOT to serve (especially if you want to keep your job in the Year of the Rabbit!

Chinese New Year Food Superstitions

A couple of years ago, I interviewed my parents about Chinese New Year Food Superstitions:

My Mom:

• To begin with, Mom always serves a noodle dish, the strands of the noodles signifies long life. Don’t cut the noodles before serving, otherwise you’re snipping your life short.

• A whole chicken, head and all, is served simply steamed to represent good health. A whole steamed fish, eyeballs and all, was served for abundance.” The Chinese word for fish is, “yu,” which, according to my mom, sounds similar to the Chinese word for “every year our family has something leftover and we always have enough.” The Chinese are very efficient in the language department.

• Crispy egg rolls, once fried to a golden brown, resemble long gold bars. Handmade dumplings, either pan fried or boiled, look like ancient Chinese gold ingots. My mom’s family used to hide a gold coin in one of the hundreds of dumplings that they would make and the lucky bastard who bit into the dumpling with the coin was to receive wealth and prosperity throughout the year following a hefty dental bill, I’m sure.

• For luck, display plenty of tangerines, preferably big fat ones with leaves still attached. Also of great importance is “Nien Goh,” or steamed rice cake, which signifies “every year you reach a higher level of life,” says mom.

• But whatever you do, don’t serve squid, called “Yow Yu.” In the olden days, workers would have to travel far from home to work, often bringing personal belongings rolled up in a blanket. When a worker was fired, he was ordered to “yow,” or roll up his blanket, packing his stuff to go home. Serving squid symbolizes being fired in the coming year. If your co-workers or subordinates pleasantly surprises you with a dish of succulent squid on February 3th, be very suspicious.

My Dad, from the Ling Po province of China, near Shanghai, is a simple man. Here’s what he had to say…

“In our kitchen, we would hang a portrait of the Kitchen God. The Kitchen God watches over you all year and on Chinese New Year, he goes back to the heavens and reports to the other Gods of prosperity, fortune, and health, on what you’ve been doing and how well you’ve behaved. Before the end of the year, my family would create an elaborate banquet just for the Kitchen God and display the plates of noodles, dumplings, fish, candies, cakes and meats right in front of his portrait. Basically, we bribed the Kitchen God to say nice things about us.”

I love how my Dad rolls. So, there you have it. Whether you choose serve your friends and family a wonderful Chinese meal to welcome the Year of the Rabbit, or cook to bribe the Kitchen God, here is a massive list of recipes that would be great for the holiday.

Recipes from Steamy Kitchen

My Mother’s Famous Chinese Egg Rolls (egg rolls look like gold bars, which symbolize wealth)
Chinese Boiled Pork Dumplings (also symbolize wealth)
Pan Fried Shrimp & Pork Potstickers (wealth)
Fresh Pear and Shrimp Stir Fry (shrimp for happiness and joy)
Shrimp Fried Rice (shrimp for happiness and joy)
Hainanese Chicken Rice (serve your chicken whole & cut at table for Chinese New Year. Cooking a whole chicken or duck represents health — carving it before serving would meant to “cut” your health)
Chinese Broccoli Beef Noodles (noodles for longevity)
100 Flower Blossoms Dish (broccoli and cauliflower look like blossoming flowers to represent blossoming prosperous new year)
Long Life Fertility Noodles and Happy Shrimp
Chinese Lettuce Cups (lettuce = rising fortune)
Stir Fried Beef with Nectarines (nectarine = happiness, health)
Chinese Whole Steamed Fish (having more than enough for this coming year)
Chinese Tea Eggs (for prosperity)
—> more Chinese New Year Recipes on Steamy Kitchen

Recipes from New Asian Cuisine

Prosperity Cakes
Singapore Pineapple Tarts
Chinese Pork Ribs with Daikon and Dried Oysters
Tangerine Pie
Red Roast Duck with Baby Bok Choy
Teochew Braised Duck

Other Chinese New Year Recipes

I’ve handpicked more Chinese New Year Recipes for you – let me know in the comments if you have any more suggestions! Would love to know some of your favorite recipes!

Steamed Chicken in Lotus Leaf – RasaMalaysia
Stir Fried Pine Nuts with Corn and Peas – RasaMalaysia (dish means “full of gold and jade”)
Stir Fried Broccoli and Scallop – RasaMalaysia (“richness and abundance”)
Baked BBQ Pork Buns – RasaMalaysia
Soy Sauce Chicken – RasaMalaysia (though serve your chicken whole & cut at table for Chinese New Year. Cooking a whole chicken or duck represents health — carving it before serving would meant to “cut” your health)
Chinese Almond Cookies – Simply Recipes (beautiful, Garrett, just beautiful!)
Fortune Cookie Recipe – Martha Stewart
Fortune Cookie Recipe video – Cookbook Maniac (love her tips for fortune cookies)
Chocolate Fortune Cookies – Martha Stewart
Vegetarian Buddha’s Delight – Epicurious
Orange Peking Duck – recipe from Ken Hom, author of Ken Hom’s Top 100 Stir Fry Recipes
Sweet & Sour Pork – recipe from Grace Young, author Breath of a Wok
Buddha’s Delight with Tofu & Brocooli- Cooking Light
Peanut Sesame Noodles – Appetite for China
Water Chestnut Cake with Ginger – Appetite for China
Dragon Well Tea Shrimp – Appetite for China
Dan Dan Mian – Appetite for China
Scallion Pancakes – Tigers and Strawberries (perfect recipe. we made these many times)
Chinese White Cut Chicken – Sunday Nite Dinner (serve your chicken whole & cut at table for Chinese New Year. Cooking a whole chicken or duck represents health — carving it before serving would meant to “cut” your health)
Tea Smoked Duck – Cooking Channel
Nian Gao Cake - Asian Grandmother’s Cookbook
Shanghai Style Nian Gao – Donna Cooks (“rising higher each year” This dish is a must for our table – I love the soft, chewy noodles. This is also one of my Dad’s hometown dishes)
Stir Fried Shanghai Nian Gao – mmm-yoso
Lion’s Head Meatballs – NY Times (lion = strength; big round meatballs = family togetherness)
Fuscshia Dunlop’s Braised Pork Belly – Cookbook Maniac
Year of the Rabbit Cookies – Lily’s Wai Sek Hong (cookie with rabbit cutout – you can find rabbit cookie cutter usually as part of big box of 100 cookie cutters, like this one or this)
Chinese Walnut Cookies – Lily’s Wai Sek Hong
Paper Lined Cup Sponge Cake – Lily’s Wai Sek Hong
Dragon Cookies – Lily’s Wai Sek Hong (love this idea – we’ll make these dragon cookies w/my kids)
Almond Cookie Cresents – Lily’s Wai Sek Hong
Double Sided Gold Noodles – Lily’s Wai Sek Hong (one of my favorite noodles as a kid)
Steamed Pork Bun Recipe + how to fold Chinese buns video – Christine’s Recipes
Braised Chinese Mushrooms – Christine’s Recipes (easy dish to make, we always have whole Chinese mushrooms on CNY)
Egg Custard Pastry – Christine’s Recipes (with a cheater crust! brilliant)
Stir Fried Glutinous Rice – Christine’s Recipes
Stir Fried Broccoli with Fish Fillet – Christine’s Recipes
Butter Cookies – Christine’s Recipes
Baked Coconut Cake – Christine’s Recipes
Radish Cake – Christine’s Recipes

Continue reading Chinese New Year Recipes + Superstitions...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 47 comments

These are my Mom’s Famous Crispy Chinese Egg Rolls and a recipe that I published way back in 2007 but somehow got lost in the Internet void. Thank goodness that this recipe was part of my cookbook so I still had the text and photos. ~Jaden

***

This is one of those recipes that is a little more time consuming to make, but one that’s my favorite because 1) it’s my Mom’s recipe 2) everyone who has tried them instantly declare they are the best they’ve ever had 3) you can make a big batch of them and freeze them. I usually call a couple of my girlfriends over and we have an eggrollin’ party where we’ll make a massive batch of them, enjoy them fresh that night and have enough for all to take home and freeze. If you are making these with friends, I’d suggest doubling the recipe so each person has some to take home to freeze. I promise you they will taste just as good fried after frozen and you will never taste better egg rolls than these. BUT – you must follow my Mama’s rules.

Ready?

Mama Ruthie’s Egg Roll Rules

Mama’s Rule #1: Your egg roll filling ingredients must be drained of excess moisture and cooled before rolling. Soggy, hot filling makes soggy egg rolls.

Mama’s Rule #2: Use the right kind of wrapper. The size I get is 8 x 8 inches (20 x 20 cm) around and come 25 wrappers to a package. These wrappers are light, paper-thin and fry up to a shatteringly crisp crunch.  Oh yes, before I forget – “spring roll” and “egg roll” are interchangeable and mean the same thing. Sometimes my regular American grocery store will have “spring roll pasta sheets” that are in the refrigerated produce section. Do not use those – they are way too thick! Let’s just say that if it has Italian writing on the package, it probably ain’t the good stuff for Chinese egg rolls.

Rule#2A. Treat the wrapper right. You also want to keep the wrappers covered with a damp towel at all times to prevent the edges from drying and cracking.

Mama’s Rule #3: Roll small and tight! Sloppy and loosely rolled egg rolls will break apart and allow oil to seep into the inside of the roll. Mama says baaaad. One time I was watching a celebrity chef on television making monster egg rolls the size of a cola can. Who in the heck can wrap their mouths around that thing? It looked hideous. Mama’s egg rolls are elegant and skinny. Don’t be too greedy and overstuff them!  And roll them tight so that the filling doesn’t fall out while frying! Remember the days when you were younger and rolled your own…um…cigarette? Channel those rolling skills back.

Mama’s Rule #4: Lay the rolled egg rolls neatly with a piece of parchment, foil or wax paper in between each layer if you are stacking them on top of each other. Keep them covered with plastic wrap or a towel to prevent drying. If you are freezing, freeze them in like this first. Once frozen, you can gather them up and transfer them to a plastic freezer bag. If you roll them out and jumble them all together in a big pile, they’ll eventually stick to each other and you’ll tear the delicate skin trying to pry them apart.

How to make my Mother’s Famous Chinese Egg Rolls

The printable recipe is below, but here are step by step photos on how to wrap. The recipe is for ground pork as the filling, but as you can see in these photos, the filling is very flexible. I’ve used chopped shrimp, ground chicken, ground beef, ground turkey, very thinly sliced pork (almost like matchstick sized). In these photos, I used crawfish and diced Chinese sausage!

These photos are just a guideline to teach you how to wrap (and the wrong way to wrap Chinese Egg Rolls!)

After you fry the filling, you’ll want to spread it out to cool on a baking sheet. Tilt the baking sheet and prop it up so that all the juices accumulate. You’ll discard this juice. Too much juice in filling makes soggy eggrolls.

Lay the wrapper on a clean, dry surface as shown. Spoon just a heaping tablespoon of filling near the bottom corner. Resist the urge to over stuff with too much filling!

Lift the bottom corner up and begin rolling until you reach halfway up.

Fold over the left side, and then the right side towards the center.

Continue folding up with a tuck-roll-tuck-roll motion. Dip your fingers into the cornstarch slurry and brush all over the final top corner. Finish up the roll and seal.

See how tightly the egg roll wrapped? Any holes or large air pockets will allow oil to seep in, resulting in a greasy egg roll! The width or diameter of the egg roll should ONLY be 1.25-inches. If you make them any larger (i.e. too much filling) you’ll end up with less egg rolls.

The wrong way:

Common mistake is to not fold over and tuck good enough. See that big space? Oil seeps in and will make your egg roll greasy.

Big holes = your egg roll will fall apart while frying.

See the difference between the above photo and this one?

***

Other Egg Roll/Spring Roll Recipes

Red Lantern Vietnamese Spring Roll Recipe Cha Gio

Firecracker Shrimp with Sweet Chili Dipping Sauce

Egg Roll Recipe on RasaMalaysia

White on Rice has a vegetarian Vietnamese Curried Tofu Spring Roll (not fried!)

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 130 comments

Traditional Taiwanese Lo Ba which Lo ba literally means stewed meat in Taiwanese. “Lo” = stew “ba” = meat, is one of those comfort foods that will have your house smelling delicious all day. The star anise and cinnamon give this dish its authentic Taiwanese flavor.

This simple recipe only takes a few minutes to make and I’m sure it will become a family favorite. Serve with a side of steamed broccoli.

Brown the meat with the shallots (or onion) and spices.

Then add the soy mixture, simmer.

Serve over noodles.

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments

My blog would not be complete without mention of one of my kids’ favorite dessert in the whole wide world, Chocolate Wontons. In fact, the site serves as my family’s visual menu of sorts, my kids will click through the site and point at dishes they want to have for dinner. Which is why you don’t see any photos of McDonald’s, Burger King or Bob Evans, the chain restaurant that serves the world’s best gummable food — hey, I live in Florida where 45% of the population is old, retired or have no teeth.

But, I digress. Where was I? Oh yes, chocolate.

You can get all fancy and put your favorite, most expensive dark chocolate truffle in the middle of these wontons. The combo of the sweet sprinkle the powder sugar, crackly crisp fried wonton skin and the warm, melty, oozing chocolate will send you straight to blissdom.

Or, go ghetto like us and just stick a piece of Hershey’s Kiss in there and call it “The Bestest Dessert In the Whole Wide World” according to my kids.

The recipe is flexible, if you really can call a recipe. I’ve adapted this fried wonton dessert for Thanksgiving with Sweet Pumpkin Fried Wontons and even made them with strawberry preserves topped with whipped cream for Mother’s Day. The lovely members of The Daring Kitchen even made them!

Want to know how to make Chocolate Wontons? Watch the short video!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2010. | Permalink | 58 comments

Okay, okay, so both calendars are kinda screwy.

But what I meant was that Western New Years is always called January 1st. Chinese or Lunar New Year falls on a different day every year, anytime between January 20th to Feburary 19th, depending on the sun and moon cycles.

This year, it just so happens that that Chinese New Year is on Feburary 14th, 2010, which means you can take Valentine’s Day off as a paid holiday. Well, that is, if you celebrate Lunar New Year….but I promise….I won’t tell your boss.

The Chinese are highly superstitious, especially with food. Honestly it’s quite complicated, and rather than risk an entire year of good fortune (i.e. nixing the possibility winning $76 million in the lottery), I play it safe. I eat what’s on the list.

So wanna know what’s on the list?

I know it’s V-day on February 14th, so if you’re celebrating the day of love with cutesy hearts and fondue, perhaps you can do a combo-dinner (Chinese fondue anyone?) or even celebrate Chinese New Year a little early. I’ve got a list of simple recipes for your Chinese New Year feast to ensure you a prosperous, healthy and happy year of the Tiger.

Chinese New Year Recipes

What to eat for Chinese New Year for maximum health, happiness and prosperity!

	Mom’s Famous Crispy Egg Rolls – to bring on wealth
	Chinese Whole Steamed Fish – for having “more than enough” this coming year
	Garlic Brandy Prawns - for happiness
	Chinese Tea Eggs – for wealth
	100 Blossoms – to wish you a blossoming and beautiful beginning in the new year.
	Pork and Shrimp Potstickers – recipe from Andrea Nguyen to represent gold ingots.
	Broccoli Beef Noodle Stir Fry – for long life (don’t cut the noodles – leave them long!)

And if you want more Chinese New Year recipes, head over to Rasa Malaysia and Lily’s Wai Sek Hong!

What’s on your menu for Chinese New year?

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2010. | Permalink | 41 comments