Friday January 31st, 2014

Dinner for 4

Star Anise Spiced Peanuts
Chinese Style Snapper
Stir Fried Bok Choy
Firecracker Corn
Hot and Sour Cucumber Salad
Fried Rice 

I love 'celebrating' Chinese New Year with a wonderful feast of food and this year it fell on a Friday Night.  I should have planned this better and had a big group over but it looks like it is just us minus our boy.  

I started with these Star Anise Spiced Peanuts.  I found the recipe here.  They were easy to make and rather addictive.  I love peanuts.

Baking this whole snapper in the oven then pouring hot oil over it at the end is such a great way to eat a whole fish.  Topped with plenty of coriander (cilantro) and green onions.  This recipe was used to make the fish. 

I often make stir fried bok choy as it is a favourite in our house.  I cleaned and trimmed the baby bok choy and then left it in the colander until I was ready to stir fry.  It only takes a few minutes to cook.  I heat the wok with a little peanut oil and sesame oil then add garlic to taste.  One or two cloves is good for a serving for four in our house but add more if you like.  Then I toss in the bok choy and fry until it is just wilted tender.  I usually add a little soy but I decided to leave it off today.

Firecracker corn was found in the Complete Chinese Cookbook by Ken Hom.  I recommend this cookbook if you like cooking Chinese food.  Everything I have made out of this book has been fairly straight forward and very tasty.  I used frozen corn for this dish.

The hot and sour cucumber was also from Ken Hom's book.  It was everything I love about quick pickles and then has the crispy fried garlic too.  Nice.

Fried rice is also a staple in our house, often sent in a thermos for lunch.  There are many ways to make fried rice.  I keep mine extremely simple because my girls, especially the youngest, like it this way.  I always start with cold cooked rice. I heat some canola oil and sesame oil in my large frying pan over medium high heat.  I add in the rice and stir fry adding a little soy sauce as I do.  When the rice is heated through I add two to three beaten eggs and stir fry them in.  It is a simple as that. Of course you could add garlic before the rice and of course vegetables and or meat with the rice.  It all depends on your tastes.