Chinese New Year

[Ivebeenaroundtheblock]

i do a Chinese New Year pot luck every year.
this year i'm not sure who will show up, no one has really confirmed.
either way dh and i will happily eat left overs.
i want to keep my part simple but good, so far the plan is;
steamed plain rice ( maybe anaise seed, or the top of the green onions added once cooked??)
Mongolian beef
Jamie oliver beef and broccoli dish using chicken breasts
dh will make orange and almond biscotti
jasmine green tea

okay MN
how about a couple other EASY options please.

[SandLand]

What about some stirfried vegetables? Or some steamed fish (salmon?) With ginger and spring onions?
Please don't put aniseed in all the rice!

[KSI]

Got to do some dumplings on new year! Fairly easy to make and you can freeze any excess ones you have to cook another day. Would recommend a noodle dish too.
Go for plain rice or at least have a seperate pile of plain rice.

[Ivebeenaroundtheblock]

Okay no anaiseed ;)
I hate fish, even if I should consider my guests
What noodle dish?

[Ksi]

Traditionally it’s longevity noodles. But go for something like egg noodles or whatever you have available, mixed up with some stir fried veggies (or meat too if you want) soy sauce, rice wine vinegar etc

[SandLand]

@Ksi could you share your easy dumpling recipes? The kitchen looks like a bombs gone off when we do them! Cheers.

OP - some aniseed rice is fine, just not all of it!

[AdaColeman]

Some soup would be a good idea, you could serve it in cups. Based on a rich beef or chicken broth with shredded vegetables like Pak Choi, grated carrots, finely sliced bamboo shoots, ginger, a little five spice.

Spiced duck pancakes are very popular too, and would be easy to prepare.

[KSI]

sand The dough or the filling ? (Or both!)

[Ivebeenaroundtheblock]

Both please

[SandLand]

Dough, mainly.
Fillings are, err, restrictive as I can't access pork here .

[ksi]

For dough you want a ratio of for every cup of flour would want 1/4 cup of water (adjust though either way if dough to sticky or dry, also if your wanting thinner skins use hot water, but if you've had issues of skins splitting on you due to the filling use cold water) dump in a bowl to begin with and mix together with spoon/fork/chopsticks, when it starts coming together, get it on the board and start kneading it until smooth.
Then you want to rest it for at least an hour (in a bowl with a damp cloth on top) when you take the dough out, you want to stick your finger bang in the middle of the dough, this bits kind of hard to explain in writing, but you want to basically expand that hole, start using your hands to kind of make the hole larger and the dough smaller, like your trying to make a thin doughnut (sorry for this rubbish explanation!) then when all the sides are roughly even, cut in half and start rollling (with your hands the cylindrical dough out) not to flatten it just to make sure its even and a bit longer. (important to keep it all the same kind of thickness)
Then you want to cut the dough off into pieces, the pieces you want are quite smaller, little bit smaller then a chestnut.
You then want to flatten that ball with the palm of your hand, then with a rolling pin, go half way up the dumpling wrapper, then turn it around and repeat until you have the dumpling wrapper.
Then take a small amount of your filling, don't over fill, fold up into a half moon shape and pinch to seal (lots of videos on youtube showing how to do this seal better then I'm describing it!). Then boil or panfry depending on the method you want to use!

For fillings I'm actually vegetarian so I have some good veggie fillings.
(I don't have measurements as I normally eye ball this!)
Firm tofu, drained very well, chop it into tiny cubes and marinate it in a separate bowl with soy sauce and miso and sesame oil. Then afterwards combining with mushrooms, ginger, garlic, any leafy green vegetables you have cut really small.

Also do a one with cabbage, carrot, ginger, garlic green onion, soaked dried mushrooms seasoned with pepper, soy sauce, shaoxing wine and sometimes vermicelli, basically rummage the fridge for veg, chop everything up really well and mix together is my basic philosophy with dumpling fillings!

[ksi]

oh and salt any vegetables like cabbage if possible (then wipe or wash off) to drain excess water so the filling isn't too wet, if you forget a small amount of potato starch in the filling works too.

[SandLand]

Wheat flour or rice flour? Or something else?
Thank you.

[ksi]

Plain or all purpose depending on which country your in and what they name it!

[Ivebeenaroundtheblock]

cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1013451-longevity-noodles-with-chicken-ginger-and-mushrooms?smid=fb-share