Chinese New Year

Tags

appetizers, cheese wonton, chicken stir fry, Chinese food, Chinese New Year, ethnic cooking, ethnic cuisine, Ethnic Food, fortune cookie, hot tea, main dish, recipe, shrimp rolls, spring rolls, steamed rice, stir fry

This year, Chinese New Year falls on Valentine’s Day. Enter the year of the tiger. Dressed in red, a bowl of tangerines in hand, and chopsticks next to the place setting our festivities were just beginning.

On the Eve of Chinese New Year, while Hubster took a nap, Pumpkin and I set up the festivities and prepared the food. My bamboo was intended for our centerpiece, but then I decided to proudly display the flower my Pumpkin bought me. On the menu? Cheese wontons, spring rolls, stir fry, steamed rice, hot white tea and pomegranate juice. We nibbled on chinese noodles with duck sauce and wasabi rice crackers while prepping the meal.

We planned to use my fortune cookie recipe and add sweet messages to show Hubster/Dad how much he means to me, but time was a little short. The store was of mung beans, Bok choy and snow peas, but our feast turned out just as nice. I cannot believe how much my 8y.o. actually did, I love having a sous-chef!

Cheese Wontons
Pumpkin lined my mini muffin pans with mini wonton wrappers. Then mixed together cream cheese with chopped green onions. He spooned the mixture into the muffin cups and folded the wrapper over. All I did was talk him through it and bake the wontons at 350°F for 20 minutes.

Cheese Wontons

Spring Rolls
I prepped the veggies, pumpkin rolled them and I fried them! We stuffed the spring roll wrappers with shredded cabbage, shredded carrots, shredded celery and alfalfa sprouts (they were out of mung beans). He whisked a few eggs and drizzled over the veggies, and rolled the wrappers and sealed shut with the egg. I fried them vegetable oil until they were golden brown.

Spring Rolls

Chicken Stir Fry/ Fried Rice
I poured the remaining egg mixture into my sauté pan to cook. I then removed the egg from the hot pan. I cooked thin chunks (I didn’t have the time to cut thin slices) chicken breast in the pan with stir fry sauce until done. I added baby corn, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, the remaining cabbage, carrots, celery and alfalfa sprouts to the sauté pan. I tossed the cooked egg back into the pan and sprinkled with sesame seeds and fresh grated ginger. Pumpkin decided he wanted the steamed brown rice thrown in with the stir fry, so it turned out somewhere between stir fry and fried rice.

Stir Fry/ Fried Rice

Although we didn’t have a festival of lanterns, the dragon or fireworks, our festivities brought good luck and fortune into our home.

Chinese New Year