Are there foods that are eaten on on special occasions in China?!
any help is greatly appreciated. :]
Answers: Name the occasion and the food if so.
any help is greatly appreciated. :]
1. Harvest Moon - Moon cakes
2. Dragon Boat Festival - Rice Tamales (Joong)
3. Chinese New Years - Vegetarian dish (Ji), Chicken, salted fish. Many foods and symbolism related to Chinese New Years.
4. Marriage - Rice Cakes, Chicken. Also, another food occasion with different dishes that have different symbolism.
5. Baby's 1 Month Old Party - Red Egg and Ginger
6. Woman that just gave birth - a soup made from black vinegar, pig's feet, ginger and hard boiled eggs (to help the mother recover)
7. Birthday - chicken.
In fact, you can view chicken as the universal special occasion food.
They eat pork hocks on a person's birthday.
Moon Cakes. Late October. For the harvest season.
This sweet, cake-like Nian Gao has a slightly sticky texture or bite to it. This is a good recipe if you don’t like standing over the stove worrying about the steamer boiling dry, if you don’t want to pan fry lots of pieces, or if you want to share with non-Asians who might be used to a more…cake-like cake.
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Ingredients:
16 oz. Mochiko sweet rice flour (glutinous rice flour), plus a bit extra for sprinkling on the baking dish
1 stick of butter or 3/4 cup of vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk
1 to 1 3/4 cup sugar--depending on if you like it sweeter
1 Tb baking soda
One can of red azuki beans
Preparation:
Mix everything but the beans with an electric mixer at medium speed for 2 minutes. Beat for 2 more minutes at high speed.
Sprinkle Mochiko flour over a 9"x13" baking dish that has been oiled or sprayed with Pam.
Spread half of the batter on the bottom of the baking pan Spread the red azuki beans (you can mix some batter into the beans if they are too thick to spread).
Spread the other half of the batter over the red azuki beans. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for 40 to 50 minutes.
Test for doneness by inserting a chopstick (this is Chinese New Year’s Cake after all)—if it comes out clean, it is done.
Chinese dumplings are a popular treat during the Chinese New Year season. Sticky rice (glutinous rice) flour and black sesame powder are available at Asian markets. If you can't find the black sesame powder, just grind black sesame seeds in a food processor.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
4 1/2 cups (500 g) sticky rice flour
7oz. (200 g) butter
7 oz (200 g) black sesame powder
8 oz (250 g) sugar
1 tsp wine
Water, as needed
Preparation:
Mix the butter with sesame powder, sugar, and wine. (You need to heat the mixture a little bit). Make small balls about 0.3 - 0.4 oz (10 g) each.
Take 1/2 cup of sticky rice flour. Add water into the flour and make a flattened dough. Cook it in boiled water and take out when done. Let it cool down. Then put it in the rest of the sticky rice flour. Add water and knead until the dough is smooth.
Make the dough into small pieces about 0.3 - 0.4 oz (10 g) each. Make it like a ball using hands first and then make a hole in the ball like a snail. Put the sesame ball into it and close it up. Cook them in boiled water. Make sure to keep stirring in one direction while cooking. When they float on the water, continue to boil for about one minute using less heat. This recipe is reprinted with permission of Jun Shan, About.com Guide to Chinese
Each region of China has its own special form of zongzi. For example, in southern China you will find pork soaked in soy sauce or bean paste in the middle of the glutinous rice. Meanwhile, Beijing zongzi is often made with dried dates. Other types of fillings include mashed red beans, egg, and poultry. There is also plain zongzi, made only with glutinous rice and designed to be eaten with honey or sugar. Zongzi can be many shapes, but the most common shape is pyramidal or triangular.
50 sheets of bamboo or reed leaves
Glutinous rice (1 kilogram)
Chinese dates (250 grams)
Preparation:
1.Soak the rice and the dates 12 hours or more till they are soaked thoroughly.
2.Wash the leaves.
3.A chopping board is necessary for laying out the leaves.
4.Fold the leaves flat at the leafstalk to make a sheet.
5.Hold the sheet, fold it round in the middle and make a funnel till both ends are laid over each other in one direction.
6.About 1/10 kg. of rice and 6 dates used for each dumpling. The dates must be covered by rice so that they won't lose too much syrup in cooking.
7.Fold the leaves up to seal the open side of the funnel and tie the bundle with a band made of twisted leaves. Make sure that the bundle is tied neither too tight nor too loose so that the ingredients are well cooked.
8.Put the dumplings in a pot with water over and make sure they are pressed and kept still while being boiled.
9.Cooking time: 40 minutes in a pressure cooker; 2 hours in an ordinary pot.
This recipe was submitted by guest writer Ronghe Yu.