More Chinese…Even Though I’m Less Chinese

We had our extended family Chinese New Year dinner ten days ago, but since today is the actual Lunar New Year, we decided that some more Chinese food was in order. This year that meant eating our own body weight in char siu bao, a favorite for all of us and one of Matthew’s basic food groups. 😉

We also had some more gau. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get the stuff to cook at our altitude and thus far, the pressure-cooking method was the only one with which I’ve had success. I was talking to my mom yesterday and she told me how she made little ones with only a two-hour steaming time in her water well rice cooker. I don’t have that kind of rice cooker, but the recipe she uses also offers some tips on using bamboo steamers, which I do have, so I just had to try it to see if I could replicate it. I did get it to work, but it took six long hours. I actually took it off the heat after five hours because it was late last night and I really needed to go to bed, but I put it back in the steamer for another hour today and it finally did finish cooking. Seriously, sometimes I wonder if I’m just not quite Chinese enough to be able to work some of this Chinese food magic. 😂 BUT, it did cook eventually.

Matthew and I were both excited to eat some more gau, and Malia decided she was going to try it again. She has actually been really fantastic about that lately. She has been trying all kinds of new things, knowing that if she still doesn’t like stuff, we won’t make her eat it. And some things she still hates. And that’s ok. So, she ate some gau…and then she voluntarily ate some more. This time she decided that she likes it! I was honestly super surprised, but she said that it is better warm, and today’s batch was definitely fresh and warm.

I think next year I’m going to try replicating the water well rice cooker with a pressure cooker rack in a stock pot. Maybe having a smaller space will make things cook more quickly. But just in case it still takes forever, I’m going to start early in the day so that I have time to let it finish cooking long before bedtime!

(See how the shallow one is cooked but the taller ones need a bit more time? Another hour of steaming remedied that problem.)

Translation: "Wishing You Great Happiness and Prosperity"

Tonight was the annual extended family dinner celebrating the Chinese New Year. My sisters, my dad, and I convinced my mom to simplify things a bit, which was a good thing. There was still plenty of good food to be had though, in part because people volunteered to help a bit more than happens sometimes. And the most important parts of the feast were still there, of course-bao, wontons, gau. At least those are the most important parts in my opinion. Malia tried gau again, even though she despised it last time. But Kate was pretty much daring her to eat it, so she finished a small piece just to prove she could, even though she still thinks it’s completely revolting. 😂

Daniel was super brave and invited Tawni to attend with him. My family can be pretty overwhelming at first just by sheer numbers. I mean, there are seven siblings plus spouses and children and my parents…it adds up pretty quickly. And while most Sunday dinners have seen lower attendance of late, Chinese New Year is the one that no one misses. So, it’s a lot of people and a lot of noise. But Tawni was not cowed by the situation. She was talkative and answered questions and tried all the food, even the weird stuff, and pretty much, by the time the evening was over, she had won all of us over, even my parents. 

My little portion of the insanity lingered a bit longer than most of the others. And like always, levity ensues when we are together and Tawni just rolled with it. Which is good. Because sometimes people get all deer-in-the-headlights when the puns start rolling. But she jumped right in. I’m really beginning to like this girl. Not only does she bring out the best in Daniel, but she fits right in.

It was a highly enjoyable evening. We ate too much and talked too much and laughed too much (if that’s possible) and had a fantastic time. Gung hay fat choi. May the next year be a happy one.

Year of the Ox

One of the ways my family celebrates our Chinese heritage is celebrating Chinese New Year. The actual lunar new year was on February 12, but today would have been the day my family gathered for our traditional big family feast in honor of the day. With our current need to social distance, I decided we were still going to celebrate. However, cooking a dozen courses all by myself seemed daunting so instead of creating one enormous feast where just one bite of everything would make me so full I felt like barfing, I decided to spread the feast out over an entire week. My immediate family was totally on board with the endeavor, of course, so we’ve spent the past week enjoying Chinese cuisine.

While I was pondering how to structure our menu for the week, I realized that while I know how to cook all the Chinese fare, I don’t usually bother with the exception of teriyaki and a variety of stir fries. I know my mom will make things for our Sunday dinners fairly regularly, so I just enjoy it on those occasions. But the accompanying light bulb was the fact that if I don’t teach my kids how to cook these traditional dishes, they will lose that part of their culture. That is something I definitely don’t want to happen, so as often as possible, I included the kids in the creation of the past week’s meals.

We started our weeklong ethnic food experience with the sweet courses, because who doesn’t like to eat dessert first once in a while? Our treat for family home evening on Monday was Chinese almond cookies and gau. The cookies are always a favorite around here, but gau receives more mixed reviews. Daniel, Nathan and I like it while Kevin, Matthew and Malia give it a hard pass. And I’m ok with that. It is actually pretty weird by American standards. I did learn that due to our high altitude, gau doesn’t cook well if you try to steam it the same way you would at sea level. But once I consulted with my mom and broke out the pressure cooker, it came out just right.
 

 

On Tuesday we enjoyed Hawaiian style chicken long rice. While it may not be traditional Chinese fare, my mom grew up in Hawaii so elements from other cultures are mixed up in our traditions. When they are as tasty as chicken long rice, I feel like it is a boon rather than a diluting of the traditions. And it is a reflection of my family heritage. Matthew and Malia absolutely love this particular dish which means I made lots so there would be enough to go around. And I made Malia earn her portion. She sat and shredded all the chicken once it was cooked.

 

Dinner on Wednesday was composed of Chinese chicken salad and shumai. Malia was my sous chef again and help me assemble all the shumai. They are supposed to end up looking like little meat filled baskets, but she thinks outside the box (or the dumpling) and decided she liked them much better shaped as little flowers. They were definitely cute, but due to the fact that they had shrimp in them, she didn’t actually end up liking them. Next time I make them I might have to be a nice mom and leave the shrimp out of a few so she can actually enjoy the fruits of her labor. But for those of us who like seafood, they were delicious. Definitely something we want to see on our menu again.

 

Thursday was our fried rice day. This is a meal that we have more regularly, but I don’t make it the way you usually see it in restaurants around here-rice with some ham, peas and egg. I make it the way my mom taught me-rice with some ham, a plentiful amount of various tasty stir fried veggies and egg. That way it is a full meal rather than just a side dish. I always make one big pan with all the fixings and one small one without the egg so Matthew can enjoy it as well.

We celebrated the arrival of the weekend by eating stir fry noodles with char siu pork on Friday. While I was in the planning phases of this big adventure, I discovered that the char siu seasoning packets I’ve always used have a cross contact warning for peanuts, so I made the char siu from scratch this time. Let me tell you, it was well worth the extra time. It was absolutely delicious. Matthew told me that we never need to use the packets again and I agree with him whole heartedly. We broke with tradition again because didn’t use the traditional egg noodles. Matthew can’t eat them which is why we ditched them, but the egg-free yakisoba noodles we used instead were entirely delicious. Because of the egg noodles, this is one dish Matthew can never eat when we gather with my family. That was a huge perk to doing our food celebration on our own-Matthew could eat everything. 

Saturday was dim sum day. With everyone at home (including Daniel), I had plenty of helpers when it came to creating all our tasty morsels. We enjoyed char siu bao, sweet bean paste bao, wontons with sweet and sour sauce, banana fritters, egg rolls and potstickers. We purchased the egg rolls and potstickers, but everything else was home made.

Throughout the course of the day, I discovered that when my children are involved, Chinese cooking lessons can also double as entertainment. While making bao, Nathan lost his grip and ended up with a bao floor taco. He also managed to create a bao dinosaur which is funny because he was actually trying to make a normal bao and as his attempts headed south, he turned his food into art. The other kids did pretty well with the bao and after several years of practice, I managed to create a couple that look pretty darn close to the traditional twisted top. 

 

While Nathan struggled with bao, he did just fine folding wontons. Of course, he has had lots of practice there so he had some past skills to fall back on. Malia was terribly dismayed with the sad results of her first wonton, but by her third she had it all figured out. Matthew’s first attempt was laughable, but his second was just fine. However, he is a (nearly) 14-year-old boy and he got bored making normal wontons so he got creative and we ended up with an Eiffel Tower wonton. As for Daniel, origami genius extraordinaire, he made beautiful wontons from the get go.

I think dim sum night was my favorite of the week. Yes, there is a lot of manual labor involved. But not only did we eat the foods that we generally eat least frequently, but all my little clan was here. And we all worked together to create our meal. And we talked and laughed and celebrated our heritage and had a fabulous time. And yes. I did in fact eat too much. But not so much that I felt like barfing. So that’s a plus. 😜

 

This evening we finished our weeklong celebration with our family favorite broccoli beef. We also celebrated Matthew’s birthday, but that is another post. After the whirlwind of activity that was dim sum day, today was a nice, calm day. It was wonderful to have all my kiddos here. I know that in coming years, these moments will become fewer and farther between, so I intend to enjoy them whenever they occur. And while the social aspect of celebrating with our extended family was missed, I actually really enjoyed spreading the food out so I could enjoy each and every dish. Having said that, I’m really starting to crave a good burger. 😉

It Was a Love/Hate Thing

Over the past few years, Daniel and Nathan have gotten a lot braver about trying new foods and have discovered that they like many of the new things they try. Matthew is also a bit braver, but still errs on the side of caution. Malia is still firmly in her picky food stage as well as her allergen induced caution. As a result, I was enormously surprised when she actually agreed to try several new (to her) things this evening. The first was wontons, which got an enthusiastic thumbs up. The second was a piece of gau (which I love and which is totally weird to anyone who wasn’t raised on it). She was enthusiastic at the outset but quickly decided that it “isn’t right.” I was fine with that, proud of her for at least trying it. I thought she had finished it but was proven wrong when I discovered ten minutes later that she was still holding it in her mouth. I gave her a napkin to spit it out and then she moved on to Chinese Almond Cookies.

So gau was a no go, but she loves wontons!