I somehow got commissioned the other week to plan a Chinese New Year luncheon for my floor. This mostly involved sending out a mass email and then going on a shopping spree at T&T, with someone else’s money, and frantically cutting 30 BBQ pork buns into quarters in a boardroom. And then docketing the time. All in all, a pretty sweet gig.
As employees arrived to eat themselves into a fat-sugar-carb-pork-shrimp-fried daze, some of us began discussing which traditions our families observe over Chinese New Year. Some spend a full two weeks going to visit random family members they barely know and accumulating lai see (red packets of cash money). Some people get haircuts or purchase new outfits (to symbolize a new start). Many spend a lot of time doing things that are “auspicious” and avoiding things that are “not auspicious” (a word that I only, ever, hear Chinese people use). Others ensure their houses are sparkling on the eve of the new year to sweep away any bad luck that has accumulated (following this, you have to put away your cleaning implements and abstain from sweeping the house, so as not to sweep away any good luck from the New Year — something that never made any sense to me as a child, but which I now halfheartedly do out of some bizarre superstitious obligation to my mother, who no doubt only does it because her own mother insisted upon it). Our family? We cook and then eat a ten-course meal. Aaaand there are six of us.
And so we should eat like crazy, because legend has it that most of the time-honoured Chinese New Year traditions that we participate in as a matter of habit, or obligation, really started because some mythical, crazy, lion-fish-dragon-wolf beast called the Nian would show up every spring around Chinese New Year and eat the local children. Luckily, the villagers eventually discovered that the Nian was:
a) sensitive to loud noises;
b) averse to the colour red; and
c) appeased by food left on doorsteps.
Hence, no Chinese New Year celebration is complete without:
a) firecrackers;
b) red decorations plastered everywhere; and
c) stuffing your face for two weeks and feeling good about it, because if you don’t put that food out, local children everywhere will die.
One dish central to any Chinese New Year dinner is a whole steamed fish, head and tail included, scattered after steaming with fresh ginger and green onion whose flavour is infused by pouring hot, sizzling oil over the whole affair and finishing with a drizzle of soy sauce. The fish is de-boned at the table, then portions of the delicate fish are spooned with the sauce onto bowls of fresh steamed rice. For those who freak out at the whole fish-with-head thing, this dish can still be done in a flash when you use fillets instead.
It’s an incredibly simple and comforting dish that uses very few ingredients and only takes a bit of chopping prep. Sole works, but if you can find pickerel or grouper fillets I really recommend using them; they are a bit more flavourful and the texture when steamed is a bit firmer and meatier than the sole, which tends to fall apart. Serve with some steamed rice and stir-fried vegetables.
Steamed Fish with Ginger and Green Onion
4 fillets white, medium-fleshed fish (pickerel, grouper, snapper or sole work)
6 green onions, 4 of them cut into 3-inch lengths and then sliced thinly lengthwise so you have little mini ribbons of green onions (set the other two aside)
1 2-inch piece ginger, peeled and cut the same way into matchstick pieces
large handful cilantro leaves, stems reserved
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 tbsp light soy sauce
Special equipment: If you don’t have a steamer, you will need a wide, shallow pan with a cover — wide enough to place a plate in, with a trivet to keep the plate elevated. If you don’t have a rice cooker, here’s a good guide to steaming rice properly.
1. Cut the remaining green onion into 4-5 smaller pieces and place on a steamer plate with cilantro stems.
2. Arrange fish on top in single layer.
3. Bring an inch of water to a boil in your pan or steamer, place the dish in the pan, cover and steam fish for about 5 minutes — or until cooked through, depending on thickness of fillet. Flesh should flake off easily with a fork and should be opaque all the way through.
4. Transfer fish to a serving dish, discarding the stems and green onion from the steamer plate. Arrange ginger, then green onions loosely and evenly atop fish.
5. While fish is steaming, heat oil in a small saucepan on high heat until smoking.
6. Pour hot oil over fish evenly (be sure to stand back — it will spatter!)
7. Drizzle soy sauce over fish. Garnish with fresh cilantro leaves. Serve fish with small bowls of steamed rice, spooning the sauce on top.
Sara Chan is an articling student at a Toronto law firm. Her favourite food group is pork. Sara’s column appears every other Tuesday here on lawandstyle.ca.
Photo by Alex