[Sca-cooks] OOP: Tentative Lunar New Year Menu

[Christiane]

This all sounds yummy!

I'm a Sheep. A Fire Sheep in the Lunar Month of the Snake born in the Hours of the Ox, to be exact. 

I'm not quite sure what all that entirely means, but apparently it makes me more practical, organized, stubborn, and driven than most Sheep and less sensitive.

My husband is a Dragon, and every bit of one. Hoo boy.

Gianotta

I am Year of the 
>Hullo, the List!
>
>It's that time of year again. The Year of the Ox is approaching, which  
>is also the year that corresponds to my astrological sign. People have  
>asked at various times for our proposed Lunar New Year menu to be  
>posted, so here it is. Once again, we're trying to simplify things as  
>best we can, since there's more to this holiday for us than the  
>preparation of food. Between that and years of tradition, both within  
>our family and from a broader cultural base, you'll see a lot of The  
>Usual Suspects, but there may be changes, additions or subtractions by  
>the time the day arrives (sundown, Sunday).
>
>As usual, we tend to go offline for about 24 hours, from sundown to  
>sundown.
>
>Sunday Night Dinner
>
>-- *Fried Fish (2, whatever looks good on the day)
>-- *Steamed Chinese Sausages (in theory, two, but multiples of two are  
>good)
>-- Soup (probably chicken with dried longans this year)
>-- Poached Chicken with ginger-scallion oil (we may break down and buy  
>this)
>-- *Steamed Black Mushrooms With Shrimp and Pork Stuffing
>-- *Possibly Another Shrimp Dish To Be Named Later
>-- Blanched Green Vegetable (again, whatever looks good at the market  
>on Saturday or Sunday)
>-- Steamed White Rice
>-- Fruit
>
>[*Prepared before sundown, but not eaten until the next day.  
>Everything else prepared in sufficient quantities for two days or so]
>
>Breakfast, lunch, and any daytime snacking tend to consist of keeping  
>a steamer and a pot of boiling water going, so anyone present can  
>throw in dumplings, noodles for soup, etc., plus fruit, nuts, and moon  
>cakes, which aren't traditional, but which my lady wife likes, so  
>how's that for an imperative (we generally get the ones filled with  
>lotus seeds and two salted egg yolks per cake). Spring rolls may or  
>may not put in an appearance.
>
>Monday Dinner
>
>-- Jai/ Buddhist Delight (if we haven't, by this time, made spring  
>rolls previously, this could end up as spring roll filling) -- mixed  
>vegetables, cellophane noodles, shredded bean curd sheets, with black  
>mushrooms, dried shrimp and scallops, braised in oyster sauce
>-- Fried Fish (probably reheated and served with sweet-and-sour sauce  
>with mixed ginger pickles)
>-- Steamed Lop-cheung (sweet, red sausages flavored with hoisin and  
>vodka, usually)
>-- Soy-Sauce Chicken (again, we may break down and buy this, and the  
>poached chicken, at one of the local Chinese restaurants/shops that  
>sell cooked meats)
>-- Poached Chicken and Ham Phoenix Platter (this is just a pretty  
>presentation for the ham and chicken, possibly with extra stuff added  
>on whim)
>-- Twice-Cooked Five-Flower Pork (Braised, Sliced Pork Belly stir- 
>fried with sweet peppers, garlic, booze and fermented bean paste)
>-- Five-Spice Beef (braised, boneless knuckle/shin meat with tendons,  
>cold, sliced, think Chinese Pot Roast)
>-- Iron Steak (pounded, marinated steak slices, in this case  
>tenderloin since the freezer is full of it, quickly deep-fried, then  
>stir-fried with oyster sauce, mushrooms and too many Vidalia onions...)
>-- Lobster -- or prawns, again, depending on what looks good --  
>Cantonese (stir-fried and served with oyster sauce laced with  
>fermented black beans, ground pork, and egg) (I'm pushing for lobster;  
>prices are down, the lobstermen are hurting, and this being the time  
>for repairing bruised karma, I'm willing to spend a bit on this,  
>within reason)
>-- Soup from previous night
>-- Steamed Black Mushrooms from previous night
>-- Steamed Rice 
>--Boiled Egg Vermicelli
>-- Fruit, Nuts, Pastries
>
>Tea and coffee will surely be going all day, with judicious amounts of  
>beer, wine, single malt, and a for-some-reason-urgently-craved pitcher  
>of martinis, putting in appearances later.
>
>If, for any reason, this is not enough food, we'll have a freezer full  
>of dumplings, and I'll make up some bacon-wrapped shrimp for frying or  
>broiling. If I have deep-frying oil going anyway, there probably will  
>be spring rolls, but I'd prefer to get the frying out of the way as  
>early in the day as possible.
>
>You may note a comparative lack of small-cut foods and stir-fried  
>vegetables:  although they're assumed to be typical of Chinese cookery  
>the rest of the year, there are what amount to taboos against these  
>things for the New Year celebration for some Southern Chinese. A  
>simplistic expression of the rule is that at the New Year, cooking  
>should not make loud, angry noises, so foods are sliced, not chopped,  
>and things are simmered, braised, steamed or grilled, more often than  
>they're stir-fried. But the usual suspects are there: fish for health,  
>healing and general regeneration, shrimp for laughter (Chinese  
>dialects are full of puns, har de har-har), beef for strength,  
>preserved pork for overall lasting prosperity, golden chicken and  
>round, coin-shaped foods for wealth, eggs, fruits and seeds for  
>fertility. Foods are prominently garnished with fat toy seaweed, whose  
>name in written Chinese uses the same characters as the expression for  
>good fortune and prosperity.
>
>As always, we're cleaning the house top to bottom, paying debts,  
>settling arguments, and closing, as much as possible, the books on the  
>old year. We don't actively invite anyone over to share in our karma  
>for the next year, but anyone who does so is welcome to leave their  
>troubles outside the door.
>
>Happy New Year to one and all!
>
>Adamantius
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 6
>Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:00:13 -0500
>From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcarrollmann at gmail.com>
>Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] period finger/party foods
>To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
>Message-ID:
>	<42830aa40901201000s78f4373ep49e9e448396e7c58 at mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
>On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 6:48 AM, Nancy Kiel <nancy_kiel at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Vegetables are a challenge, since today we usually serve them raw and in
>> period they were cooked.
>
>They were not always cooked in period.  I've mentioned before that the
>"Arte de Cortar" (Spanish carving manual, 1432) has instructions for
>cutting carrots and parsnips to be served raw.  Carrot sticks are
>period for noble (even royal) feasts.  Small, tender turnips.  Slices
>of radish sprinked with salt to mitigate their cold, moist humor.
>
>I'll leave aside the matter of salads, since we're discussing finger foods.
>
>-- 
>Brighid ni Chiarain
>My NEW email is rcarrollmann at gmail.com
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 7
>Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:02:40 -0500
>From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
>Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Gulf Wars BBQ competition - sigh
>To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
>Message-ID: <67A58FAD-B47A-4D4A-AD95-67F25F4B103D at verizon.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
>
>On Jan 20, 2009, at 11:42 AM, Michael Gunter wrote:
>
>> That has nothing to do with the gist of the competition for Gulf Wars.
>> They want smoked and tomato or mustard basted modern 'que. I'm not
>> happy with this.
>
>Do you think (I do; YMMV) that the reason why this simply won't go  
>away from SCA events is not because this is good food (we having  
>demonstrated billions of times that there are plenty of period  
>alternatives that are just as good), but because it's Officially  
>Discouraged? At least, in the eyes of many?
>
>The whole attitude that supports this sort of thing seems to be that  
>kids will be naughty, kids will be kids, and if the adults are stuffy  
>and stupid enough to make a fuss about it, it just proves they're mean  
>old grumps trying to spoil our fun.
>
>Alternatively, I think that by getting into the spirit of the thing,  
>but with certain subtle perversions of intent (i.e. a nice  
>carbonadoed, Scotched hank of spareribs with a mustard sauce, say),  
>essentially saying, "Yes, we know, you think you're being naughty but  
>what you're doing is actually pretty unremarkable from a historical  
>standpoint..."
>
>My feeling is that you, as the Crown and as a Laurel, should actively  
>encourage those projects you feel show the SCA in its best light.  
>Those that don't, you can either ignore or participate as a fifth- 
>columnist until they do ;-).
>
>Remember the story a certain Duke, and the Venetian Landing at Pennsic  
>(when last I checked, I think His Grace had forgotten this one  
>himself). We had a bunch of our local New York City teenaged rowdies,  
>who had all joined the SCA as a household at around the same time, and  
>for whatever reason, although no doubt there was a lot of alcohol  
>involved, they decided they needed to get all the East Kingdom's camps  
>prepared for a Venusian Landing scheduled for that night.
>
>It seems there was this Duke who misunderstood what they'd told him,  
>and spent quite a while explaining, in earnest tones, to them the  
>finer points of exactly how to deal with an invasion of the Venetian  
>Naval forces, identifying the Doge's flagship for capturing the  
>commander, etc.
>
>Well, apparently HE had a marvellous time through all this! I believe  
>the boys got a bit tired of it after a while.
>
>Go, thou, and do likewise.
>
>Adamantius
>
>
>
>
>
>
>"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
>when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
>bellies."
>			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>Message: 8
>Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:10:09 -0500
>From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius1 at verizon.net>
>Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] period finger/party foods
>To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
>Message-ID: <C98EB76A-7B99-477F-A012-A80F38497503 at verizon.net>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
>
>
>On Jan 20, 2009, at 1:00 PM, Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:
>
>> On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 6:48 AM, Nancy Kiel <nancy_kiel at hotmail.com>  
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Vegetables are a challenge, since today we usually serve them raw  
>>> and in
>>> period they were cooked.
>>
>> They were not always cooked in period.  I've mentioned before that the
>> "Arte de Cortar" (Spanish carving manual, 1432) has instructions for
>> cutting carrots and parsnips to be served raw.  Carrot sticks are
>> period for noble (even royal) feasts.  Small, tender turnips.  Slices
>> of radish sprinked with salt to mitigate their cold, moist humor.
>>
>> I'll leave aside the matter of salads, since we're discussing finger  
>> foods.
>
>There are probably ways to create finger-friendly salads; I believe  
>the original concept of Caesar Salad (which, yes, is not period)  
>involved spears of Romaine hearts which could be eaten with the  
>fingers; I'll bet some of the salad presentations in some of the later  
>period and early-post-period sources could be adapted similarly.
>
>And FWIW, the best modern crudites are often lightly blanched, rather  
>than raw, vegetables. They are generally agreed to maintain a better  
>appearance, for a longer period of time.
>
>Adamantius
>
>
>------------------------------
>
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>End of Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 33, Issue 48
>*****************************************