Chinese menu planning

[jtnippon1985]

Hi all. I decided that for the last day of CNY festival I'd try cooking Hongshao Wanyu or red-cooked carp. But....I don't know exactly what I'd use for the side dishes since I am not real good with typical home-style plating and typical side-dish accompaniments to a main dish (is there a book that explains this topic?) so I just was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for a few easy side dishes.

I also want to prepare Tangyuan, 汤圆, 湯圓. I bought the already made, frozen glutinous rice flour balls (plain and peanut filled) but don't know what kind of soup to cook them in (I want sweet not savory)

Any help would be gladly appreciated. Thanks for looking!

Edited February 27, 2007 by jtnippon1985 (log)

[Gastro888]

Try boiling the balls in water with a good amount of rock sugar and a cracked egg. Sweet egg drop tongyuen soup!

[hzrt8w]

Try boiling the balls in water with a good amount of rock sugar and a cracked egg.  Sweet egg drop tongyuen soup!

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Yeah. Add some broken dry beancurd sheets to it while you are at it.

Another simple sweet soup is cut up a yam (sweet potato) - either slices or cubes. Boil with water and add some rock sugar. Then add the tang yuen.

[Dejah]

Hi all. I decided that for the last year of CNY festival I'd try cooking Hongshao Wanyu or red-cooked carp. But....I don't know exactly what I'd use for the side dishes since I am not real good with typical home-style plating and typical side-dish accompaniments to a main dish (is there a book that explains this topic?) so I just was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for a few easy side dishes.

I also want to prepare Tangyuan, 汤圆, 湯圓. I bought the already made, frozen rice balls (plain and peanut filled) but don't know what kind of soup to cook them in (I want sweet not savory)

Any help would be gladly appreciated. Thanks for looking!

←

How many dishes are you planning to serve? Is this for a party or a simple family meal?

Some suggestions: a simple soup such as wintermelon (with Chinese mushroom, little bits of ham, in flavourful stock), stir-fried mixed vegetable, or single vegetable like baby bak choi, Shanghai bak choi, pea tips, with beef or chicken slices, and fried rice or noodle dish (chow mein, mung bean thread, rice noodles).

For sweet tong yuen, in addition to Gastro's suggestion, you can add fresh or rehydrated bak hap (lily bulb), leen jee (lotus seeds), hung yun (Chinese almond or whatever else they were called in another post! )

[Gastro888]

Are these the same tongyuen that you're supposed to have the night before you're married or something? But they're not peanut filled, right?

My roommate eats sweet tong yuen for breakfast all the time. That's too much sugar for me!

[sheetz]

Aside from the chicken, the menu I prepared (Winter melon soup, cold meat platter, stir fried lotus root w/ veggies, glutinous rice chicken, sweet red bean soup) and took pictures of in the CNY thread was as simple as you can get. The only problem, if it is one, is that it's decidedly Cantonesey, while your red cooked carp isn't. You can easily put your tangyuan in the red bean soup and it's so easy to make. Just boil the red beans until they are soft, then give the whole thing a whirl in the blender. Add sugar to taste and the tangyuan. As dejah said you can add other symbolic items like lotus seeds, almonds, or lily bulbs.

[annachan]

Hi all. I decided that for the last day of CNY festival I'd try cooking Hongshao Wanyu or red-cooked carp. But....I don't know exactly what I'd use for the side dishes since I am not real good with typical home-style plating and typical side-dish accompaniments to a main dish (is there a book that explains this topic?) so I just was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for a few easy side dishes.

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At home and in restaurants, we usually look for a balance of dishes(series of courses) rather than looking at have a main dish and side dishes as accompaniments. I would definitely recommend making whatever seasonal vegetables you can get that is fresh to make a vegetable dish. Another option is a mushroom, tofu and vegetable claypot. I would also suggest another protein. If you want something other than plain rice, maybe a chow mein or a fried rice dish.

[Ben Hong]

At home and in restaurants, we usually look for a balance of dishes(series of courses) rather than looking at have a main dish and side dishes as accompaniments.

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Absolutely right Anna. A traditional family meal has to have minimum of 3 dishes plus the rice. These three dishes do not have to be big productions. Typically:

Soup

Salty small dish (can be steamed on top of rice). This is usually called the "extender" in case company drops in unexpectedly.

Stir fried dish

Stewed or moist cooked dish

Vegetable dish

Meat Dish

Fish/seafood.

Think variety and small dishes, one for each member.

The main cooking methods, ie: steaming, moist cooking, stirfrying, frying, should be used for each separate dish. For example, you wouldn't want three deep fried dishes at one meal.

Aren't you glad you asked? .

[peony]

Dishes eaten during the CNY period are symbolic and have auspicious meanings..

it is good that you have a dish of fish as it is a symbol of abundance and eating it means a year of abundance of good fortune...

the last day of CNY is yuan xiao, so we have something round to symbolise fulfillment and unity among family members. So, we made glutinous rice balls or tang yuen on this day.

a vegetarian dish - lohan chai , for it contains ingredients that sound like luck, good fortune and properity.

a dish of prawns - laughter n happiness thru'out the year

a chicken dish - it symbolize the phoenix, which by itself is a symbol of great fortune n prosperity.

Edited February 28, 2007 by peony (log)

[hzrt8w]

...

the last day of CNY is yuan xiao, so we have something round to symbolise fulfillment and unity among family members. So, we made glutinous rice balls or tang yuen on this day.

...

fortune n prosperity.

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We already have... our round body!

So much to eat in CNY...

[jtnippon1985]

Thank you all, I appreciate all the responses. Now that I know how its layed out, I just need to figure WHAT to cook. So many choices...