Chinese New Year '14

Looking forward to a good year, since the horse has long been one of my favorite animals.  In planning for Chinese New Year dinner, there were a few challenges, since it falls on a Friday; and it's most convenient to do grocery shopping on the weekends.  So, I had to plan for foods that were not to quickly perishable with ability to make-ahead since it will be a workday.  The menu I came up with includes:

• Dumpling soup - prepare the chicken broth during the week and use frozen dumplings
• Vermicelli w/Vegetables - use dried vermicelli and canned vegetables (e.g. baby corn, mushroom, bamboo shoot, mock abalone) and bok choy (which should last for the week)
• Lamb Stew - currently marinating the meet, and will slow cook it later in the week with daikon; and add dried bean curd sticks toward the end.   This can just be reheated in a clay pot right before serving
• Snow Peas w/Fish Fillets and Silken Tofu - The fish can be defrosted later in the week.  Hopefully, the snow peas will last
• Orange Chicken - Since this is frozen and packaged, it just needs to be baked that day
• Rice 
• Tapioca Bean Dessert - I wanted to serve a warm dessert; but, insisted that it be a Chinese dessert.  So, got this idea from dinner the other day.   

Tried making the Tapioca Bean dessert today; and learned a few things.   Firstly, most the recipes I found said to cook the mung beans and then drain; and also cook the tapioca then drain.  However, once the tapioca cooks, it seems hard to drain since it just becomes part of the water (maybe draining and rinsing helps get rid of the starch, similar to how it's done for pasta); Also, I assume a lot of the bean flavor and nutrients get into the water (much like pea soup).   Besides, it is a lot more work to cook in different pots.   But, one thing I did find was that milk makes a huge difference.   It really smooths the mixture and allows the tapioca to become more visible.  So, here's what I'm planning to do:  Soak the mung bean for 8 hours (it doesn't expand much); Soak the tapioca for 15 minutes (this expands to about twice the size).  Boil and simmer the beans until soft; mash it; then add tapioca and bring to boil and let sit till it reaches the right consistency; then re-heat and add coconut milk and sugar.  NOTE:  A half cup each of the mung bean and the tapioca pearls can be used to serve about 6

1-Feb:  The food for Chinese New Year dinner turned out well.  My parents, however, came only for 1 1/2 hours.  I do now have a lot of leftovers and do not really have to cook for the week.  I had modified the menu slightly.  Instead of dumpling soup, I opted for silken tofu and napa cabbage.  I felt that the tofu would be able to "soak" in the good flavor of the broth I had made during the week from soy-green onion chicken with lots of ginger.  The broth I made from the chicken with the Hawaiian rub was surprisingly less flavorful; but, the chicken was good with very light flavoring.  For the vermicelli dish, I decided to leave out the bamboo shoots.  For the lamb stew, I didn't add the beancurd sticks, since I didn't know whether it would be good cooking for so long (I ended up cooking the stew over the stovetop for 3 hours, then skimming the fat after it hardened overnight in the fridge; and then slow cooking it for another 8 hours in the crockpot till the meat and the daikon were really soft).   I used the tofu in the soup instead of the vegetable dish, so that it was only mixed with fish.  I may have baked the orange chicken a little too long, and it came out too hard.  For dessert, I also served an apple turnover pastry.  But, for the tapioca, I only used coconut milk (without the mung bean so that it would be smoother), and it was really good.  I did drain the tapioca in the small strainer; but, I did end up losing some of the tapioca that stuck onto the strainer.   However, the end result was definitely not as thick because some of the starch was able to be rinsed away.  And, then I just added the coconut milk and some regular milk to the tapioca, and added brown sugar.  So, there are some pros and cons to straining and rinsing the tapioca.  Either way, I would definitely make this dessert again.  Overall, for the dinner, the dishes were pretty healthy and tasted good.

6-Feb:  Following are some notes from having now made the Tapioca dessert a few times:

• Added some mangos and it did not work so well, especially when the fruit was not as sweet as the Tapioca
• Straining and rinsing the cooked tapioca is better for the warm dessert; but, if a thicker "pudding" is desired, then it is fine to leave the starch in.   Also, having the starch would work well for the summers, if freezing the dessert.  
• There may be "healthier" options by using some soy milk blends as well
• So far, the best is just the tapioca with coconut and regular milk.   Adding the mung bean makes it not as smooth but could work for the frozen dessert.  Have not tried the yams or taro yet.