Year of the Ox

Happy New Year!

Today we celebrated the beginning of Chinese New Year...the year of the Ox (which happens to be my sign as well!) which will continue for the next 15 days, ending with the Lantern Festival.

The day began with a very fun playdate with 9 other mom friends and their 11 children, it was a full house. Fun was had by all. In an effort to minimize stress on myself I made nothing except for coffee. I did buy some fun treats at my FAV Asian market...trying to keep to the New Year traditions (and still be American kid friendly) I got green tea pumpkin seeds, sweet candies and taro filled wafer cookies*.

After the house quieted and was tidyed up, I set to preparing our meal. It was a simple dish but delicious and very easy to make, which was served with Yu Choy. G-Mama and Bopa joined us for the festivities.

Xinjian Rice Pot with Lamb
san geung yeung yuk faan

(copied from Food of the World - China)

This wholesome dish from Xinjiang Province is known in Uygur as "poluo rice" which means finger-food. Thus is eaten with the fingers rather than chopsticks* or spoons. This dish is always served at weddings, funerals, and traditional festivals, including the first day of Chinese New Year.

Serves 6-8 (generous servings)

2 tablespoons vegetable or peanut oil

10-1/2 oz/300 g lamb or mutton, cut into bit-size cubes

2 carrots, coarsely chopped

2 onions coarsely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon Sichuan peppers, lightly roasted and lightly crushed

generous 2 cups short- or medium-grain rice

3-3/4 cups water

In a large casserole, heat the oil and stir-fry the meat for 1-2 minutes, or until the pieces are sealed on all sides. Add the carrot and onion and stir-fry until the vegetables are beginning to soften. Add the salt, ginger, and Sichuan peppers and mix well.

Finally, add the rice and water and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and cook over low heat for 30 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed all of the water. Serve alone or as part of a meal.

We cracked open a bottle of wine

we picked up in China, and put some
traditional Chinese music on the stereo.

CiBaby was so proud of her chopstick skills,

even though there were near misses!

Wishing you all the best,

CzaMama, T-Daddy and CiBaby

*If you see Durian fruit wafer cookies by Garden Company, run fast and far. Horrible. They smelled so awful and tasted just as bad. The coconut and peach were good, and the taro (by I-Mei) were good too. All not terribly sweet...like american wafer cookies.

**We used chopsticks...Bopa wasn't too excited about using his fingers to eat.