The year of the dragon is off to a great start!

What a memorable meal we had on Saturday night! Our Dinner Club finally got together after having the month of December off for other holiday commitments and it sure seems like everyone was more than ready to get back! 

First off, our hostess went all-out on the decorating for our evening. Most of our Dinner Club’s are themed meals, but not all of them require “decorating”. Usually some thoughtful attention to the table setting is all that is required, but for this, a Chinese New Year celebration (2012 is the year of the dragon), some over-the-top color and flair was required for evoking the right festive mood. 

Mission accomplished. There were brightly colored paper lanterns, bamboo place mats, chopsticks and my favorite touch…each person’s place card with their name in Chinese! It really was perfect for a festive celebration of friends and good food. 

Hot and Sour Soup

For food, we began by mingling and having cocktails alongside our appetizer, the Jiaozi (Chinese pork dumplings). The friend who prepared them took the time and care on her dough for the dumpling and sealed each one just perfectly. They sliced open to a steaming and savory pork filling with just the right tang of flavor. A drizzle of sesame oil and soy sauce over the top made them just right. 

After a bowl of steaming and tangy hot and sour soup, we were presented with a gorgeous plated entrée that included our featured item for the night, a hazelnut-crusted duck breast with sundried cherry sauce. (More on this, my “best dish of the night”, next week, including the recipe for you to try out!) 

Alongside the duck were two sides that perfectly complemented the entrée. We had a stir fry noodle with a delicate seasoning and sautéed green beans featuring ginger, shallot and garlic. Both were well prepared and seasoned just right to complement, rather than overpower, our entrée. The green beans were bright green and perfectly crisp-cooked! 

Warm Egg Custard Tart with
Mandarin Orange Syrup

For dessert (my portion of the evening’s meal) we had warm egg custard tarts. Although we haven’t much adored Asian desserts in the past, this one was a definite winner and it exceeded my expectations in every way. I’m not much of a “custard person” in general and I was concerned that although this is a traditional Hong Kong specialty, it would feel boring and underwhelming. 

It was not! I added a drizzle of Mandarin orange syrup to the top of each tart which I felt brightened the flavor without overpowering. I also decorated the plate with chocolate syrup drizzle in the form of the Chinese symbol for “dragon”. The presentation upped the ante – remember, you eat first with your eyes – and all of the flavors (each in limited quantity) complemented one another and the dish. See below for links to the tart and orange syrup recipes and give it a try. This dessert would NOT have to be with an Asian meal. It would be a delicious finale to anything you prepare; plus it can be made ahead. 

I made a few adjustments to how I prepared both of the recipes as printed. I’ve put the links below to the original recipes. For the tarts, I simply skipped the pastry recipe that was printed with it. I tried it a couple of times and found it to be too heavy and greasy for me. Your own homemade pie crust recipe or a store bought crust will work just fine. For the orange sauce, I followed the recipe other than instead of incorporating the whole pieces of orange at the end, I pureed them in my food processor and simmered them with the other ingredients. After simmering, I strained out all of the pulp before refrigerating to make a smooth, orange syrup. 

This weekend offered a delicious meal and it was fantastic to reconnect with friends in this way. The continuity of meeting for our Dinner Club returns finally and we’re all looking forward already to next months unusual and offbeat theme! Keep reading and I’ll share, of course! 

Warm Golden Custard Tarts

From the February/March 2004 issue of Cooking Pleasures magazine, an official publication of the Cooking Club of America; http://www.cookingclub.com/Recipes/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/5503/categoryId/4018/Warm-Golden-Custard-Tarts

Mandarin Orange Sauce

http://homecooking.about.com/od/dessertrecipes/r/blsauce37.htm

We’re ringing in the New Year again! The Chinese New Year…

The Chinese New Year began this week on January 23^rd. We’ve chosen to include this celebration in our Dinner Club for 2012 because we all just happen to be dragons; Gretna Dragons, that is! (Our home town and school mascot here in Gretna, Nebraska). In addition, the year of the dragon happens to be considered the luckiest year in the Chinese zodiac (according to www.wikipedia.org). It had to be on this year’s foods-to-explore list, don’t you agree? 

From www.apples4theteacher.com: The Chinese New Year begins according to the Chinese calendar which consists of both Gregorian and lunar-solar calendar systems. Because the track of the new moon changes from year to year, the Chinese New Year can begin anytime between late January and mid-February. 

Our Dinner Club has had Japanese and Thai meals before, but we’ve never done Chinese, so this weekend is it! I apologize that I took a bit of a “vacation” on my blogging for awhile, but we do skip Dinner Club the month of December, so we only had one month under our belt this season before a long (and somewhat unwelcome) break from our monthly festivities! 

No matter. We’re back in cooking-action and I’m back to writing about it (belatedly)! Thanks for reading! I’ve always said that, audience or not, I enjoy cooking, eating and writing; I would do this whether anyone read or not. However, I’m happy to say that, including my friends and usual subscribers, I’ve had along the lines of 6,000 hits to my blog now. Not much in terms of cyberspace, but certainly enough to keep me writing for my own sake!  

The Dragon, (simplified Chinese: 龙; traditional Chinese: 龍), again according to Wikipedia, is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac and Mongolian zodiac related to the Chinese calendar and Mongolian calendar, and the only animal that is legendary. Our group spent some time researching the foods of China and the New Year specifically. I’ve posted our menu below for your review. 

We’re having some traditional favorites, such as hot and sour soup and Jiaozi (Chinese pork dumplings) blended with highlight items like the Hazelnut Crusted Duck Breast with Sundried Cherry Sauce that is to be our entrée. My assigned portion of the meal this time is dessert. Asian themes tend to be tricky when it comes to dessert, however. 

For our Japanese meal a few years ago we had a delicately flavorful green tea ice cream that was quite the hit. We also sampled the less popular “anmitsu”, made from agar jelly (somehow it includes seaweed, I don’t actually remember now) and bean paste (OK, pretty nasty, but fun to attempt and to try). The gent who prepared it was gracious enough to prepare the aforementioned ice cream in addition to this more experimental and more traditional Japanese dessert. We all still agree, we may not love everything we make, yet we’d rather live openly and try new things! 

For our Thai night back in October of 2008, we had another dessert with uncommon flavors here in the Midwest; a lemongrass sorbet with mango. We all really enjoyed that one… Maybe we should stick to ice creams or frozen treats, but this time we’re trying out a traditional Chinese item that I’ve added my own “kick” to! (Let’s hope it works out, or we may never have Asian dessert again! My dessert is individual warm egg custard tarts. 

According to the magazine I drew the recipe from, “These jewel-like tarts are edible treasures in Hong Kong, whether ordered in a bustling dim sum restaurant or at the counter of a tiny bakery. The glistening bright-yellow custard looks like a quivering fresh egg, neatly enveloped in a rich, flaky pastry.” (Cooking Pleasures February/March 2004)

I’m making the recipe as printed, but adding my own twist with a fresh Mandarin orange sauce. I thought it seemed like it could use a little something extra for our American taste buds. Although I’m sure the tarts are good on their own, we rarely eat as simply here as they do some other places in the world. I prefer flair and flavor, and it’s my dish so I can sauce if I want to!

I’ll let you know next week how it all works out and what my “Best Dish” is for the night! Maybe you could hang a paper lantern and haul out the chopsticks? It’s the New Year all over again…!

Here's our menu for the night: