(Chinese New) Year of the Horse is here

Kung Hei Fat Choi! The year of the horse has once again arrived and if you feel like having something festive, but find Chopstix slightly too greasy, here’s a healthy recipe for you! If people tell you Chinese food is hard to cook, they are lying to you. There is an Chinese idiom “People rank food heavenly high”, so the cuisine has developed itself to be as accessible as possible, while keeping the good taste. Festive Treat

A good example is dumplings - or jiaozi. They came from the Ming Dynasty, when its name and looks resembled the money used at the time, so serving them is believed to bring prosperity - especially at midnight on Chinese New Year’s Eve. And since then, it has become one of the most popular foods of the nation, with variations served at breakfast, lunch and dinner - the same can’t be said for fish and chips! Ingredients:

• 500g of minced pork
• 100g of prawns
• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms, reconstituted with some hot water
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 spring onions
• 1 thumb sized chunk ginger
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• Some salt, pepper and sesame oil
• Dumpling/Wanton skin (available in Asian supermarkets)

1. Finely chop the garlic, ginger, spring onions, mushrooms and prawns. Add them to a big bowl with the mince pork, a bit of soaking liquid from the mushrooms, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Mix it up with your hand.
2. Put a tablespoon of filling onto the centre of the skin, then put a little bit of water around the edges and squeeze it into the “dumpling shape”. Here is where your creativity can kick in, any form is fine as long as it is sealed.
3. Put it in boiling water for around 5-10 minutes, or until they start to float. Usually served with noodles, but it’s up to you!

The brilliance of dumplings is the flexibility it provides. You can essentially put any filling - chicken, beef, mixed vegetables - as long as it is sealed properly (don’t overfill!) You can also steam and pan fry these dumplings to give it a different texture and flavour. To pan fry them, put a tablespoon of oil and once hot, fry the dumplings for around 3 minutes, until the base is golden. Add boiling water just around half way up, cover and let it steam away. You can serve it with different dipping sauces - my favourites are sweet chilli sauce or soy sauce and worcestershire sauce mixed together!

The recipe above does make quite a big batch but dumplings are freezer-friendly (freeze raw.) So make them over the weekend, then just take a few out when you want them. No thawing needed - just cook from frozen for a little longer.