Chinese New Year is around the corner! Before we know it, visitors will come by our house for family gatherings. Although it is nice for a reunion, the problem comes in when you have no idea what to prepare for your relatives. 

Most of the time, we will settle with a hotpot. However, it can become quite repetitive and dry especially when the ingredients used are always the same. Why not try some simple, yet restaurant-standard recipes to spice things up for Chinese New Year?

 

Here are 3 dishes that will amaze your relatives! 

 

1. Steamed Crucian Carp 

 

Steamed fish is one of the most famous Chinese New Year recipes.The type of fish you use also matters-- especially if you have older relatives coming by! In this case, we highly recommend using Crucian carp. In Chinese, the Crucian carp is called the (鲫鱼 jìyú) which sounds like the Chinese word 吉 (jí'), meaning good luck. The crucian carp symbolises good luck!

 

Ingredients: 

1. 1 Crucian carp
2. 12 g oil
3. 6 g Soy sauce
4. 10 g ginger
5. 2 scallions
6. Parsley
7. Cherry Tomatoes
8. Onions 

 

Preparation steps: 

1. Wash the fish thoroughly. Remove the fish scales with a knife. Remove the fish intestines if it has not been done so. Lastly, rinse it well in water and repeat this for about 3 times
2. Chop the onions into nice and thin slices 
3. Chop the scallions into nice and thin slices 

 

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Cooking steps: 

1. Put ginger slices on the fish
2. Put more ginger slices and scallion inside the fish maw 
3. Place the fish inside a pot of boiling water and steam it for about 5 minutes 
4. Remove all the ginger slices and scallions from the fish and drain all the water. This will get rid of the fishy smell 
5. Drizzle the fish with soy sauce
6. Heat up a frying pan and add some oil
7. Fry the fish to give it more flavours 

 

Presentation notes:
To give the fish more colours, add some cherry tomatoes and scallions for garnishing. 

 

2. Buddha Jump Over The Wall
 

 

Ingredients

 

1. 60g soaked and cut fish maw
2. 50g dried scallop
3. 60 dried mushroom
4. 2 pieces whole ginseng
5. 3 pieces (About 5g) Dang Seng herbs  – Codonopsis Root
6. 1 kg Whole chicken
7. 300g Chinese Cabbage (Cut into chunks)
8. 1 Can of abalone (Reserve the abalone broth)
9. 1.5 litres of water

 

Preparation steps: 

1. Wash and soak Fish Maw and dried mushroom for at least 2 hours
2. Wash the chicken
    

Quick tip: NEVER wash chicken under tap water as it can increase your risk of food poisoning from campylobacter bacteria. Instead, rinse the chicken inside out with white vinegar, rub it with lemon wedges and sprinkle it with some salt and pepper. Afterwards, rinse it with white vinegar again. 

 

Cooking steps: 

 

1. Add all ingredients except abalone into the pot
2. Add the water and reserved abalone broth into the pot
3. Cook the soup for about 1 hour 

 

Quick Tip: 

 

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3. Stir-fry broccoli with seared scallops 
 

This sophisticated looking dish can just be prepared in under 20 minutes! You definitely wouldn’t want to miss this out as it symbolises prosperity and the blossoming of new beginnings.
 

For the vegetables: 

1. 300 g (7 oz.) broccoli, ends trimmed and separate to smaller florets
2. 300 g (7 oz.) fresh white scallops, around 12 
3. 1 medium carrot
4. 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
5. 3 slices old ginger

 

For the sauce: 

1. Vegetable cube 
2. 4 tablespoons hot water
3. Cornstarch solution

 

Preparation steps: 

1. Add ½ tbsp of cornstarch  in 1 tbsp water, stir till it is dissolved 
2. Cut broccoli into smaller pieces 
3. Peel carrots and slice them 

 

 

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Cooking steps: 

 

1. We will first begin with cooking the broccoli. Heat a large pot of water with vegetable oil added.
2. Once the water starts to boil,  add the sliced carrots and broccoli and blanch for 3 minutes. After that, take them out and set aside.
3. Add ginger slices to the water you previously used to blanch vegetables. When the water is boiling, blanch clams for 1 minute and scallops for 2 minutes. Take them out and set aside.
4. To prepare the sauce, dissolve a vegetable cube in hot water. Add vegetable stock to a saucepan/wok. When it comes to a boil, add cornstarch solution, bit by bit, till it reaches the desired consistency.
5. Pour the sauce over the vegetables you arranged previously and serve immediately.
    

Presentation notes: 

Place the broccoli around the plate with the stem pointing inwards, after which arrange the scallops and broccoli in the center, covering the broccoli stems.
 

 

You can even cut the carrots into flower shapes to make it look more visually appealing. This is a good way to get the children to eat vegetables if they dislike it!

 

Bonus:

If you are looking for a fast and effortless way of preparing your food, use the Gourmet Chef Intellipot. Whether you want to use it for steaming fish, stir-frying vegetables or even boiling soup-- this pot is all you’ll need! All you need to do is to set the timer and temperature function and you can go about doing your other tasks in the meantime. 

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These 3 dishes may look simple, but have a deeper meaning behind each dish. Your relatives will be impressed if you follow these steps! They will be even more blown away knowing how you prepared it.