Many locals are busy preparing for lunar New Year’s Eve dinner, from designing recipes to shopping for ingredients and snacks. New Year dishes can easily be made to taste delicious and have a colorful presentation. Food styles should be diverse to cater to all the family members. We have invited celebrity chefs to present their signature home recipes, from Huaiyang style fish soup noodles to gold deep pumpkin soup and authentic Shanghai sweet and sour pork ribs. All the ingredients can be easily sourced. We recommend buying vegetables and meat in fresh markets.

Boiled fish and pumpkin soup with bird’s nest and bamboo fungus

Ingredients:

Black fish 500g; bird’s nest 50g; bamboo fungus 50g; pumpkin 250g; carrot 150g; celery 150g; onion 150g; salt a little; potato starch a little; oil a little.

 

Steps:

1. Remove all the internal organs from the fish to avoid any possible fishy odor.

2. Heat the oil in wok. When there’s smoke in wok put fish in (slide fish lightly by one side of the wok to avoid the hot oil being spilled out). Pan-fry the fish around two minutes and then add boiled water and cook for 30 minutes. Put aside.

3. Stir-fry pumpkin with carrot and celery. Put aside.

4. Filter the fish soup. Add sliced bamboo fungus, bird’s nest into the soup. Boil it. (Add some potato starch during the boiling to create a slightly sticky texture.)

Steamed sea bass fillets with bamboo shoots and mushrooms

Ingredients:

For main dish: sea bass fillets 12 thin slices; carrot half piece (finely sliced into eight pieces); cooked bamboo shoots half piece (finely sliced into eight pieces); tofu eight thin slices; sea salt flakes (to taste); white pepper; four sprigs (cut lengthwise)

For sauce: dried mushrooms two pieces (soaked, sliced); light soy sauce one tablespoon; dark soy sauce a few drops (depending on the color you want); chicken stock six to eight tablespoons according to your palate; sugar a dash; salt (to taste); cornstarch half tablespoon; water.

 

Steps:

1. Assemble the fish, bamboo shoots, carrot, tofu and spring onion according to the picture and steam for six minutes.

2. In a pot, sauté mushrooms with oil then add light and dark soy sauce and chicken stock. Allow boiling for one minute under medium heat. Season with sugar and salt. Then turn heat to a low simmer.

3. To make the thickener, add cornstarch and water to a bowl and dilute the starch. Add the thickener in the sauce and cook until it thickens. Serve the steamed fish with sauce.

Fried glutinous rice with cured meat and conpoy wrapped in lotus leaf

Ingredients:

Thai glutinous rice 350g (soaked in water for three hours); dried conpoy two pieces (soaked in water for three hours and finely sliced); Cantonese sausage 35g (finely diced); cured meat 25g (finely diced); dried mushroom two pieces (soaked in water until it turns soft and then finely diced); garlic 30g (finely diced); dried lotus leaf one piece (soaked in water until it turns soft); light soy sauce 20g; dark soy sauce 5g; pepper and chicken powder (to taste); dried shrimp 20g

 

Steps:

1. Warm up the pot with peanut oil.

2. Stir-fry the diced Cantonese sausages and cured meat with dried shrimp. Then add in diced mushroom, conpoy and garlic.

3. Add glutinous rice, light and dark soy sauce, pepper and chicken powder.

4. Wrap the glutinous rice and other cooked diced ingredients in the lotus leaf and steam for 15 minutes.

Sweet and sour pork rib

Ingredients:

Pork rib 250g; green onion 10g; ginger 5g; star anise one; Zhenjiang vinegar 50g; white sugar 80g; salt 2g; red yeast rice 10g; baking soda 4g; water 100g; sesame 1g;

 

Steps:

1. Cut ribs into sections about 4cm.

2. Add water and soda to cover the ribs. Soak ribs in soda water for six hours and rinse in cold water.

3. Boil water and add red yeast rice to get the red yeast rice water ready.

4. Heat the oil in a wok over medium-high heat and then add ribs to deep fry. Drain the ribs and set aside.

5. Start making sauce. Add green onion, ginger, star anise, ribs, red yeast rice water, vinegar, sugar and salt into wok orderly.

6. Simmer for about 40 minutes over high heat until the ribs become tender and the sauce reduced.

7. Season to taste. Serve with sesame on top.

Fish soup noodle

Ingredients:

One carp fish; one egg; flour 150g; salt 2g; ginger a little; shallot 5g; pepper a little; spring onion 5g; garlic a little.

 

Steps:

1. Scale off the fish and remove all its internal organs.

2. Use the knife to make slashes across the fish to help its flesh better absorb the flavor from the seasonings.

3. Pan-fry the fish with spring onion, garlic, ginger together until it turns golden.

4. Add water to it. Boil the soup until its color turns white.

5. Start making noodles. Add egg white into the flour and then mix them with water to make dough. Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until it becomes very thin. Sprinkle some flour over the dough and cut it into long, thin strips about 0.1 centimeter wide.

6. Add salt and pepper into fish soup and boil it.

7. Boil the noodles in water. Rinse and drain it.

8. Put the cooked noodles into the fish soup.