February 13, 2021
Lunar New Year is finally here. We’ve been preparing for the new year by doing a deep cleaning of our home and prepping as much as we could (whenever we have some time set aside) to get ready for the new year. I have even been making a few of my favorite foods including dumplings over the last few days as a way to help bring more luck to the new year. Eating dumplings during the lunar new year is considered good luck as dumplings are associated with wealth. Dumplings are also one of my favorite foods in the world, so it was only natural for me to make as much of them as I could ahead of time. In our family, pork and cabbage dumplings and soup dumplings are two of our favorites. I prefer the former. Kevin prefers the latter. If I want a more colorful take, I sometimes make a rainbow veggie version or a colorful wrapper version. Other lucky foods we like to enjoy during Lunar New Year include whole fish, whole chicken, noodles, and tons of Asian vegetables. For dessert, fruits and simple desserts are preferred over more elaborate ones. My family loves to enjoy my mom’s tang yuan early in the morning as a sweet start to a new year or in the evening right after a savory meal. I recreated my mom’s tang yuan for breakfast on New Year’s Day. Tang yuan is super simple to make and just requires a few simple ingredients to pull together. Right after enjoying tang yuan for breakfast, I got started on preparing fortune cookies for added luck. While fortune cookies may not be traditional Chinese dessert fare, I still like to enjoy it once in a while after a meal at a Chinese restaurant. In fact, the only time I’ve enjoyed fortune cookies is when I order takeout from a Chinese restaurant or after a sit-down meal at a Chinese restaurant. It has been quite a while since I’ve eaten in at a Chinese restaurant. Thus, a few weeks back, when I had a somewhat odd craving for fortune cookies, I decided to learn to make fortune cookies at home myself. I started by studying the composition of a fortune cookie. Most fortune cookies had just several ingredients – sugar, shortening or oil, and some sort of wheat flour. With this as a starting point, I began testing out different ratios of sugar, shortening/oil/butter, and all-purpose flour/cake flour/pastry flour in my hopes of getting a good fortune cookie. I also had to test out different baking temperatures and baking times in hopes of finding the right combination to yield a crispy yet still malleable cookie. A fortune cookie is only a fortune cookie if it is shaped into a folded crescent shape straight out of the oven. My first few trials resulted in some fails – either too crumbly, not malleable enough, or not crispy enough. After multiple trials and errors, I came pretty close to a good fortune cookie. The final test was to ensure the cookie snaps when cracked into. I know this testing probably sounds a bit excessive, but I had to make sure the cookie turned out just right. If nothing else, the process would be a good learning experience in determining what works and doesn’t work when it comes to understanding the composition of a good fortune cookie through trial and error. When I got the combination just right, I had to share my findings below.
For the Fortune Cookies:
(makes 6 cookies)
· 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
· 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
· 2 tablespoons water
· ¼ cup all-purpose flour
· ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
(Optional)
· strips of paper fortunes for filling into the cookies
Directions:
1) Measure out all of the ingredients prior to starting. In a bowl, combine the sugar and vegetable oil. Gradually add the water and stir to combine. Fold in the all-purpose flour and vanilla extract. Stir until all ingredients are well combined. The batter should very loose.
2) Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a half baking sheet with a baking mat. Use a tablespoon measuring spoon to scoop up the batter and pour the batter onto one quadrant of the baking sheet. Use the bottom part of the measuring spoon to spread the batter out into a large circle. Repeat with the measuring spoon three more times until there are four large circles on the baking sheet.
3) When the oven is done heating, transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookies are ready when the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown.
4) Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Work quickly to fill each fortune cookie with a fortune. Fold each cookie in half and use one edge of the baking sheet to help fold the cookie into a crescent shape. Set the cookie aside to one corner of the baking sheet. This will help the cookie maintain its folded crescent shape. Continue with the remaining cookies and use the other corners of the baking sheet to help the cookies hold their shape.
5) Set the baking sheet aside and let the cookies cool for an hour before enjoying.
Takeaways: I found using a baking mat was essential in baking uniform flat cookies. When I used a sheet of parchment paper, the moisture from the cookies caused the parchment paper to wrinkle up and led to uneven fragile cookies. After experimenting with different ingredients and ratios of ingredients, I found these four ingredients – vegetable oil, granulated sugar, water, and all-purpose flour were essentially all I needed to achieve a good all-around crispy fortune cookie. I did add a hint of vanilla extract for just a touch of fragrant sweetness. The cookies are very hot straight out of the oven and harden fairly quickly. I found baking and folding three or four cookies at a time worked the best for me. Any more than four would lead to the cookies hardening before I get a chance to fold them. These fortune cookies are super simple, quick, and tasty. Enjoy!
With the fortune cookies done, I got started on the main dish – a whole citrus roasted trussed chicken served over a bed of charred Asian greens. In my mind, I had envisioned a meal filled with some of our favorite Asian greens tossed in some oil, sprinkled with some coarse salt, and charred to perfection on a stovetop grill. I roasted the whole chicken separately with some oranges and lemons pre-sliced before New Year’s Day. Chinese superstition says I shouldn’t be using any sharp tools on New Year’s Day, so I avoided having to use the sharp tools by preparing the sliced citrus ahead of time. I also sprinkled some coarse salt onto a whole chicken the night before and left it in the refrigerator overnight until New Year’s Day. On the day of Lunar New Year, I just assembled everything in a baking dish and roasted the whole chicken and citrus until cooked through and golden brown. When ready for serving, I arranged the charred greens on a platter, transferred the roasted chicken to the center, snapped a few pics, and enjoyed it whole for the spring festival celebration.
Here is how Kevin and I spent the rest of our spring festival weekend — lounging around in our pajamas enjoying more food:
See link above for my mom’s tang yuan recipe.
We had enough leftovers of the citrus roasted chicken over a bed of charred Asian greens for the next few days.