In fact, one need only take a little extra concern and preparation, and a vegetarian New Year's dinner can be nutritious and delicious, and have all the character of a celebratory banquet to boot. The vegetarian recipes described in this issue have been specially requested from wellknown chefs, and they are well worth trying out for New Year's dinner. In addition, famous chefs have told us some principles and special tricks for preparing vegetarian food, so that you will be wellprepared to do everything to give your family a healthy vegetarian surprise.
Fine cuisine and holidays go together. And with the popularity of vegetarian cooking, meatfree cuisine can also be one of your options for the New Year.
In recent years, many vegetarian restaurants have offered special banquets to customers at New Year's. However, it has always been hard to find a table at the better restaurants, and anyway a highclass vegetarian feast can run to a lot of money. Thus many wellknown chefs have begun offering instruction in New Year's vegetarian dishes to teach housewives how to set a delicious and festive meatfree New Year's table.
"In fact, Taiwan has an excellent environment for vegetarian cooking. Even in winter, there is a large supply of many kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables," says cookbook author Liang Chiungpai. Moreover, modern food technology can produce vegetarian foods with exactly the same appearance, texture and flavor as meat and fish. Vegetable substitutes for poultry, red meat, and all kinds of seafood can in fact taste even better than the real thing.
Chinese have always set great store by selecting holiday foods that symbolize high hopes for the coming year. Thus over time many dishes have acquired auspicious sounding names designed to add to the festive atmosphere.
For example, the word for "fish" (yu) has the same sound as that for "surplus" or "bounty." So fish is inevitably part of the New Year meal, inspiring such sayings as nian nian you yu (may there be "bounty"-or "fish"-year in and year out), or fu gui you yu (may there be good fortune and wealth in "surplus"). The word for chicken (ji), meanwhile, is homophonous with that for "auspiciousness," giving rise to chicken dishes described by phrases like da ji da li (big auspiciousness and big fortune).
Given the enormous variety of vegetable dishes, one can find equally edifying plays onwords to go with any meatless meal. Thus there is a seaweed whose Chinese name is facai, which has the same sound as the words for "to strike it rich." The word for cauliflower-huacai-fits right into a slogan referring to "blossoming wealth." Chinese chives (jiu) sounds like "longevity," and turnip (caitou) shares pronunciation with "good omen." Alternatively, the shapes of vegetables may be auspicious. Thus, bean sprouts are shaped like Chinese ruyi sticks, and the term ruyi means "whatever you wish."
A perfect ten
Based on this principle, there have always been some auspicioussounding vegetable dishes on the Chinese New Year's table.
For example, in many parts of mainland China, suicai is an indispensable entry on the holiday menu. Sui means "year," and sounds like the word for "chopped" or "diced." The dish is made of ten different types of vegetables chopped up into small bits and cooked together, with the word for "chop" (sui) thus serving to remind eaters of such auspicious sayings as sui sui ping an (tranquillity year after year). This dish is sometimes also called "Ten Fragrant Vegetables" or "A Perfect Ten."
The specific ingredients may vary, but the bean sprout (with its allusion to the expression "as you wish," as noted above) is essential. Ideally, this dish will also include water chestnuts and winter bamboo shoots, two vegetables that only ripen in winter. Besides these, other commonly used ingredients include carrot, mu'er edible fungus, day lily, preserved mustard, celery, mushroom, dried bean curd, oily bean curd, pickled cabbage, and tender ginger. These are all high in fiber and low in calories; they can help relieve that bloated feeling from eating too much fat and assist in digestion.
The secret to good suicai is to put each vegetable into the wok at just the right time depending on its hardness. In the end they are all mixed together and cooked evenly, allowing each ingredient to taste its best. Because this dish can be served either hot or cold, Liang Chiungpai suggests making a big batch all at once and storing some in the fridge to be eaten at various times later on. Suicai can also be wrapped into spring rolls or dough to make a tasty snack. Or, the vegetables can be further chopped up and fried, then eaten wrapped in fresh lettuce leaves, which is known as the "shredded pigeon meat" preparation.
Another traditional veggie offering is the "Arhat Dish" (arhats are disciples of Buddha), which is made up of a number of ingredients blended together. These may include sliced mushroom, miniature corn, carrots, gingko and gingko nuts, lily bulbs, or facai seaweed. These are fried up separately, then combined and cooked again evenly, and seasoned. Soup stock is added, and the dish is cooked until the water nearly evaporates, after which the mix is thickened with corn starch.
Besides the effect of each ingredient having its own flavor, the highlight of this dish is the festive coloring. Carrots or lily flowers bring red to the mix; there are green vegetables, peas or green beans; yellow comes from potatoes and gingko; turnip, cabbage, and lily bulbs contribute white; and mu'er edible fungus and laver add black. If you really want to go all the way, the number of ingredients can be increased to 18, making the socalled "Eighteen Arhat"-eighteen being the number of arhat disciples appointed by Buddha to save the world-a most impressive dish indeed! Interestingly, the same ingredients, when cooked until the juice evaporates, are called "stew" (hui); if soup stock or water is added, they become "thick soup" (geng).
Fight fat with pickles and dried fruit
The core ingredient of this dish is facai, which flourishes in shallow water. It is said to resemble the hair of an arhat, thus accounting for its name in Chinese-"hair vegetable." Facai is rich in protein, iron, and phosphorus. It goes well with either meat or other veggies. Moreover, the hardy facai does not wilt when simmered for a long time, and leaves soup with a red tint, just the right festive color for the holiday.
Perhaps because multipleingredient selections like the Arhat Dish can really add variety in both color and taste to a New Year's feast, their origins go back a long way. In the Han dynasty, on the seventh day of the new year it was the custom to have "Seven Grass Stew." This was made of seven plant ingredients: celery, water chestnut, spinach, green onion, fennel (or aniseed), sweet violet, and garlic. It is said that, with the new year falling just at the beginning of spring, the newly sprouted veggies were at their most fresh and tender, providing a delicious and healthy meal.
In the Tang dynasty, meanwhile, the new year was greeted with the "Five Acrids Plate," which was associated with the saying for "welcoming the new." It was composed of five peppery or hot vegetables, finely sliced and then mixed together. Typically the five ingredients were spring onion, garlic, Chinese chives, smartweed, and mugwort. This dish kills bacteria and makes an excellent appetizer. Even today, these ingredients are often used in northern Chinese "hot pots."
Cold veggie platters are also a common sight at feasts, and they are not difficult to prepare, so it is customary at the New Year to put out some dried fruit or nuts like peanuts, cashews, walnuts, or pine seeds. There are also Chinese pastries, like fagao (a sticky rice cake), turnip in sticky rice, and taro cake. These are complemented by pickled or salted vegetables, often mixed. There may also be dried bean curd, seaweed, vegetarian meat substitutes, or fried gluten, which can be bought readymade for cold platters. These are sure to be welcome at any New Year's meal.
In Taiwan, many households have a tradition of observing vegetarian strictures on the first and 15th days of every lunar month. Many people are in the habit of having soaked pickled vegetables with rice congee for their morning meal on New Year's Day. Thus a Chinese table is not complete without several platters of pickled cucumber, pickled cabbage, fermented tofu, pickled ginger, sweetened garlic, and other side dishes. Liang Chiungpai notes that not only do pickled veggies keep well for a long time, they come in many flavors, covering the gamut from sour and salty to sweet and hot; they also help relieve that bloated feeling. Available to both rich and poor alike, and appropriate for both holidays and ordinary meals, these little appetizers are eminently suited to accompany fine cuisine.
The secret's in the sugar cane
At most New Year's dinners chicken or pork is cooked into soup stock, and vegetables like mustard plant and turnip are added to make "Big Pot Dish." The leaves of the mustard plant are long and green, and are known as the "longevity vegetable," while the name for turnips (caitou) is homophonous with "good omen," so both these veggies are auspicious.
If the ingredients for the soup stock are vegetarian, then a vegetable soup can be produced. Usually, to make vegetarian soup stock, a pound or so of bean sprouts is combined with a quarter pound of mushrooms, then cooked for at least one hour. If one is seeking a fresh and sweet flavor to the soup, a small segment of sugar cane may be added. Those in the know buy the discarded heads of sugar cane stalks from fruit vendors in the market; these are not only cheaper, they stand up well to long cooking times. In place of bean sprouts, one can use turnip, Chinese cabbage, or other ingredients. Of course, the more abundant the ingredients and the longer the cooking time, the richer and heavier the soup gets and the better it tastes.
Vegetarian soup stock is not only good for soups alone. In Chinese cuisine, soup stock can be used at any time as a seasoning. For vegetables, which by nature sit lightly on the palate, a little soup stock can bring out their flavors, thus substituting for MSG. So, when preparing the New Year's meal, don't forget to make a pot of soup stock beforehand to be available as a seasoning when you need it.
Besides these vegetarian dishes which are made from ingredients straight from nature, in recent years, with advances in vegetarian food preparation, a number of processed vegetarian foods have been developed which nearly duplicate-and can substitute for-meat and fish.
Something fishy about this meat. . . .
These meat substitutes are prepared in much the same way as the originals, and many of these vegetarian dishes simply follow existing meat recipes, with the main ingredient being the only difference.
It's worth noting that there has been an important change in these vegetarian meat substitutes. In the past these were mainly made from things like flour gluten, bean curd skin, mushroom heads, and konjak. Though they looked real enough, they were a far cry from the real thing in terms of texture. Though vegetarian restaurants had colorful meat substitutes labeled as chicken, duck, fish, and pork, in fact these often tasted all the same.
In recent years, however, processed vegetarian "meat" products have been manufactured using protein and fiber extracted from soybean. In terms of texture, the proportions of protein and fiber can be adjusted to produce different sensations. Thus, chicken is relatively coarse, so the substitute is made with a higher proportion of fiber. Fish is more tender, so the protein content is raised. Add to this that the dishes are processed using the same cooking techniques as for meat-frying in oil, roasting-and the result is that you can hardly tell the veggies from the real things.
For those who want still more, Fa Hua Vegetarian Restaurant chairman Hung Yinlung suggests cooking with Chinese medicinal tonic foods like medlar, legusticum, cnidium officinale, ginseng, and so on. All these are commonly used ingredients. He especially recommends a dish called "Returning Fully Loaded." The preparation is very similar to that of the traditional "Perfect Ten Great Tonic Soup." It employs legusticum, cnidium officinale, medlar, cinnamon, ginger, a root called rehmannia glutinosa, and ginseng, made in a soup with vegetarian chicken and taro. This soup is hearty and rich, and a bowl on a cold winter's day will recharge the spirit.
Layout and decoration of vegetarian dishes can be the same as for traditional meatbased New Year's offerings. Take for example the "Overturned Bowl" effect: Two or three different ingredients are layered into a roundbottomed bowl one after the other; the ingredients are then all steamed together, still in the bowl. The bowl is then overturned onto a plate, producing a semispherical shape. The round shape is an allusion to completeness and togetherness for the holiday. The different ingredients percolate into each other, mixing the flavors. This technique is frequently employed by professional chefs.
Then there's the use of pineapple, which in Taiwanese is homophonous for "wealth arriving." "Yoga vegetarian"-style cooking teacher Wu Wenchu uses it to make a dish called "A Hall Filled with Gold and Jade." The preparation is similar to that for pineapple rice. Red, white, and green vegetables (carrots, green beans, corn kernels, white konjak, pine seeds) are fried up to make the "stuffing." This is then inserted into a golden pineapple, making a delicious and festive dish that fits in well with the celebration of the new year.
Fun with fungi
Because vegetables have a less robust flavor, vegetarian cuisine often employs edible fungi, which have a stronger taste, to help out.
For the New Year's vegetarian banquet laid out by the Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Taichung, of the nine main courses, virtually every one included some sort of edible fungus. Chen Chienchun, chief chef for vegetarian dishes, points out that not only do fungi have a fresh and distinct taste, they are very nutritious, and many rare types effectively promote longevity. That's why he likes to design resplendent main courses using exotic edible fungi: "That's what it takes to fit the bill at a firstclass hotel," he says.
Most ordinary folk need not go to so much trouble. But still, at the holiday there's no harm in being a little extravagant: Put out a few rare mushrooms instead of seafood to raise the stature of your holiday meal. For example, Chef Chen reveals a dish called "Fresh Mushroom Treasure Chest" (made from mushrooms deep fried in oil to a golden color and then wokfried with lily bulbs and the tender stalks and leaves of peas) and another called "Splendid Jade Flute" (made with zhusheng edible fungus, vegetarian chicken, cane shoots, and green beans). Neither is difficult to prepare at home.
One thing about vegetarian cooking is that, because plants are naturally low in fat, people are worried that they will not feel full. Experts recommend adding some starchy veggies to the meal, like potatoes, taro, or pumpkin. All can be whipped into a variety of dishes, and are especially good kneaded into round balls. Moreover, their golden or glossy coloring symbolizes good fortune, while the round shape alludes to completeness. A few of these in the stomach and everyone will feel full and satisfied.
With cold veggie platters, four to six hot main courses of various ingredients, plus soup and dessert, the New Year's table is complete. With the further addition of feelings of love and gratitude for one's blessings, this vegetarian meal will leave a good taste-of happiness and satisfaction-in the mouths of friends and family.
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If your daily routine is fish and meat, chefs suggest changing things with a tasty and robust vegetarian New Year's feast.
p.8
Bean sprouts, mushrooms, turnip, or cabbage can all be used for soup stock; the soup stock can bring out the flavor of vegetables, so don't forget to keep some on hand as a seasoning.
p.9
To prepare vegetarian food, it is best to thoroughly understand the nature of the ingredients in order to combine and season them correctly.
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The lunar new year is the most important holiday for Chinese. While doing your spring shopping, don't forget: waste not, and count your blessings. (photo by Diago Chiu)
The lunar new year is the most important holiday for Chinese. While doing your spring shopping, don't forget: waste not, and count your blessings. （photo by Diago Chiu）
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