I wasn’t expecting for it to just be my husband and I for the first day of Chinese New Year. I just found out about it on the day before, New Year’s Eve. So of course I knew I wanted to still make a feast for us! Requirements were for me to use what we had in the fridge and for this to be low effort but have the main things- noodles, chicken, fish, vegetable, rice – which all have positive symbolism.

I started off the day with defrosting chicken thighs and branzino fillets.

A fews hours after they were defrosted, I marinaded the chicken: rubbed in a lot of salt, pandan leaves, lemongrass, ginger, and oil. For the fish, I also just rubbed in some salt.

At noon, I soaked the dry ingredients in water- mushrooms, scallops, shrimp.

After work, I chopped the cabbage, garlic, and scallions.

When it was time to cook, I soaked vermicelli in water.

Then here was the order of events:

1. Chicken Rice: I used chicken broth instead of water and just dumped the chicken into the rice cooker.
2. Steamed Egg: (Using my mom’s method!) Save a little less than half a shell. For 4 eggs, use warm cooked water and pour into the egg shell 5x + a little more. Whip 100-150x until the egg white is all well incorporated. Remove the bubbles. Add a little salt and oil.
   Bring water up to a boil, put it in, and steam under low heat for 5min. Check if it’s silky. If still needs more time, can cook for up to 7min. (Once cooked, I decided to drizzle perilla oil on top).
3. Thai Steamed Fish: recipe is already on my blog!
4. Abalone Scallop Mushroom Vermicelli: In a heated pan- pour in a can of abalone, as well as the soaked scallop, mushroom, and vermicelli. Bring it to a boil and it’s ready! No additional seasoning is needed.
5. Stir fried Cabbage with Dried Shrimp: Add oil to the same heated pan, stir fry the cabbage with dried shrimp. Pour in the water that was soaking the shrimp, mushroom, and scallops. Grind some salt and mixed it in. Cover the pan with a lid for a few minutes until it steams and it’s cooked.

I’m so glad that the prep was so effortless and cooking really only took an hour for 5 dishes! This is probably the most Chinese dishes I have ever made and it was a first for my little family.

The only other few times I cooked for Chinese New Year was when I insisted to celebrate with my friends in college, but it was more of a fusion of dishes. And another time when my parents were on vacation, so I wanted to make our family’s staple meat dish. And this post reminds me of when I used to do blog my monthly eats in college :’) Just a reminder that I’ve come such a long way.