It's the year of the Snake and time to celebrate with family and friends. A person born in the year of the snake is considered quiet, but wise with a desire to help others even though they have a tendency to overdo it .How do I know this? I sit on the advisory board of an international organization that helps children around the world with medical aid and protects them with foundling homes for abandoned children in South Korea, China, India, Haiti, Russia, Ukraine, Guatemala, Vietnam and Ecuador. This organization has an uphill battle to provide services to children and also to help some of these children to be adopted here in the U.S.
So, every year we have a Chinese New Year's dinner. This is not a fund raising article. You'll note that we don't even give the name of the organization, but we do want to share the glories of Chinese food and to help you plan a party for the occasion. This year we will help you with a dim sum evening. Traditionally, according to Susanna Foo, the famous chef and restaurateur, dim sum is served with simple dipping sauces; here we give you simple ones and one that is more westernized. In our first book, The Joslin Diabetes Gourmet Cookbook, published by Bantam Books, we had dumpling recipes. Here we take those and add some new flavors to update them, again thanks to reading many recipes and conversations with Ms. Foo. We also add a wonderful tofu dish as well as a chicken salad that will add variety to your menu.
This year our decorations for our fundraiser revolve around PR for our main benefactor, a major airline that brings our little ones to the US. Thanks American! We will use globes with airplanes flying around them along with the flags of our countries serviced as centerpieces, but in the past we have used Chinese lanterns and Chinese dolls as centerpieces. We also used chopsticks, red and gold silks, and a menu with a good description of what year it was and what that meant. If you have oriental friends they can lend you family treasures to display.
When we first moved to Washington, DC, I took cooking classes from Mrs. Moy, a local teacher who changed my orientation to cooking. I have loved oriental spices and style of cooking ever since. If you have such a person in your community, do pick his or her brains for decorations, and for fillings for dumplings. Do cut back on oil, whole eggs, and salt. Chinese food can be very high in sodium, so if you have hypertension, be aware that this may not be your way to entertain. Cutting back on soy sauce and using reduced-sodium soy sauce can help, but the sodium is still there.
You don't need to go out and buy a steamer. All you need is a low pan, a rack and close fitting top. Dumplings can be steamed, or boiled, using a lot of water, a few dumplings at a time; use a strainer spoon to get them out of the water. You can make more dumplings and freeze the remainder for later use. These dumplings were made with 3-inch square won ton wrappers. I just cut off the corners to make them more circular, or you can use a large biscuit cutter. You can also use round wrappers or gyoza. Some people fry dumplings in a small amount of oil. These are called pot stickers. To do that all you have to do is to use 1 tablespoon corn oil in a covered pan, add the dumplings, add 1/2 cup water, cover and cook for 10 minutes until the water is evaporated and the dumplings have browned. For this article we have steamed the dumplings, but experiment with boiling them or the last method if you are allowed the extra fat. By the way, if you freeze dumplings, Ms. Foo suggests that you place them in boiling water frozen. As soon as they float, they are done.
I bought all of the ingredients for these recipes in my local supermarket, so you can do it too. I wish I knew how to say bon appétit in Chinese, but you know what I mean.
(for the recipes, click on The Recipes or click on the individual recipe above)
