2026: Year of the Horse
If you have chanced upon this post you might be wondering what is CNY. It simply means Chinese New Year.
January and February are the bleakest months here in London. This year the rain has been incessant. However, we have Mr Gochugaru’s birthday as well as Chinese New Year to lift our spirits and spur us on to making good things to eat. This weekend we gathered for an early CNY lunch which was extra special on account of HK Sister and Nieces Number One and Two joining us.
It is usually a given that everyone is busy (good for them!) so in planning an extended family meal, I try to start a few days earlier and aim to make familiar dishes. To this end the menu today consisted of: CNY yee sang, pan-fried dumplings (shop bought), sesame prawn toast, stir-fried noodles, griddled broccoli, spring onion milk bread rolls and a whole chicken roasted in a spice paste. For dessert we had cookies, pineapple tarts and chocolate coated fruit and nuts (all shop-bought).
Photos of the lunch below, and a time plan at the end of the post.
This year’s Yee Sang, fashioned by Niece Number Two, of two smiling and happy horses
Fried Noodles
Sesame Prawn on Toast (SPOT)
Dumplings
Spring Onion Milk Bread
Chicken Roasted In A Spice Paste
Griddled Broccoli with a topping of fried cashews, chilli oil and panko breadcrumbs
I am very fond of time and food preparation plans, having learnt how to do this in Domestic Science (as it was called) in Secondary School. Here is my plan for today’s lunch. I am posting it as a template for next year’s CNY lunch. Despite starting two days earlier, I still required a lot of hands-on help on Sunday. Thankfully we had willing hands in all areas (even washing up) so the burden did not fall on one person.
Preparing ahead means a need for storage in a cool place, ideally a fridge. Our small fridge cannot cope with this quantity of food, so I put the prepared vegetables in tupperwares then packed them into large cool bags. The cool bags were then wrapped in plastic sheets (on account of the rain) and kept outside on our secluded patio. Any meat item must be stored in a fridge, and all vegetables washed before using.
| FOOD | FRIDAY NIGHT | SATURDAY | SUNDAY MORNING |
| YEE SANG | Peel pomelo
Make salad dressing/ roast peanuts
Tie ribbons on long chopsticks x 10
Wash trays x 2
|
Fry gyoza skins
Wash + dry salads
Spiralize carrot/ daikon
Slice pickled onions/ radishes/ deseed pomegranate
|
Slice mango
Ginger/ peanuts/ sesame seeds/ lime leaves
Assemble on trays |
| ROAST CHICKEN | Dry chicken overnight in fridge
|
Marinade + Roast
Flake chicken + remove oil from sauce
|
|
| Sesame Prawn on Toast (SPOT) | Defrost prawns
Dry bread flat on tray
|
Make prawn paste + remove bread crusts
Make + deep fry
|
Reheat and slice into quarters
Sweet chilli sauce
|
| FRIED NOODLES | Cook noodles
Cut Cabbage, carrot, onions, shiitake mushrooms, garlic
Make omelette for topping/ slice chilli
|
Fry Noodles | |
| MILK BREAD ROLLS | Make dough/ first rising
Slice spring onions finely
|
Fry spring onion in oil
Make and bake rolls |
|
| DUMPLINGS
1 x beef/ pork 1 x vegetarian |
Make dipping sauce
1 Tbsp soya sauce 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar 1 tsp sesame oil
|
Pan fry
|
|
| BROCCOLI | Cut into florets, blanch + cool
Make topping: cashews, chilli oil + panko breadcrumbs
|
Griddle broccoli in oil, sprinkle flaked sea salt and topping |
Towards the end of January I had no inkling that the beginning of February would pan out this way, with so many visitors, communal meals, days out and a trip to Kuala Lumpur brought forward by two weeks. I hope to sleep a lot on the flight to Malaysia this week. Time to pack my eye shades and ear plugs.