Chinese New Year resolve!

We’ve just passed Chinese New Year so a second Happy New Year to you!  Like so many people I made resolutions and am struggling to stick with them.  They aren’t anything particularly exciting and mainly go along the lines of eating more healthily, drinking less alcohol, exercising more and getting further than reading the plot summary of interesting looking books. Yes, I’m trying and, in a hesitant fashion, I’m succeeding.  The problem is that just as I'm starting to work on these resolutions, the season tends to get greyer and colder.  Three weeks in and I hope I can be forgiven for starting to feel a creeping sense of despondency, will it always be this hard? Am I making any progress?  I find that the hardest thing is trying to boost my energy in order to give myself the resolve to keep on track.  I must admit that completing my tax return on time did give me a relief filled boost but that was a pretty short lived high.

When I realised that it was Chinese New year I did get a sense of it being the opportunity for a second ‘fresh start’. It’s all immaterial really, any day can warrant a fresh start but there’s something about an ‘official’ beginning which gets me­­­­­ motivated.  There are a couple of new things on my horizon to feel encouraged by, most immediately will be starting to attend a couple of my local farmers markets.  This is exciting because, for the first time, I’ll be seeing my customers across a market stall rather than via the internet.  I’m happy but a little bit scared because it’s a very new experience. That in itself is the perfect impetus to adopt a new resolution; stepping out of my comfort zone when I can.  For me, that’s a hard thing to do and has probably been the single biggest challenge since becoming self employed a little over a year ago. I’ve moved from the security of working for somebody else to having only me to answer to. In my naivety I thought it would be all about working hard at what I’m good at and reaping the rewards. I hadn’t banked on the fact that I had to become good at things I’d never even done before.  I’ve learned quite a lot over time, especially about talking to people to whom I would previously have worried about sounding like a complete idiot, now I take my idiot status for granted and just get on with it.  The need to relentlessly plug away at things in order to succeed is a lesson well learned.  I’ve realised that nothing happens just because you deserve it.  Chinese New Year has come at a time when I’m finally starting to get a clearer idea of the road ahead.

I love Chinese food and particularly like this recipe because it tastes great, makes me feel virtuously healthy and fresh and appeals to the part of me which loves food in edible packages!  Every culture has them; be it pasta, potato or pastry based. Wantons are wonderful, flexible little packages of tasty flavours and very easy. The wrappers are usually in the freezer section of Asian supermarkets.  This recipe captures the flavours of a Chinese wanton but there’s no reason to stick with that.  The simple broth is wonderfully invigorating, especially when you add the zingy punch of chilli and ginger and the fragrance of fresh herbs.    It’s perfect New Year kick start fuel.

This particular recipe appears on www.allrecipes.com, an American site (which does have a British equivalent).

Ingredients

1/2 lb/200g boneless pork loin, coarsely chopped

2 oz/50g defrosted small prawns, finely chopped

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 teaspoon finely chopped spring onion

1 teaspoon of fresh ginger root

Wonton wrappers (about 25)

Chicken stock (quantity to suit the amount of soup you want to make)

Finely chopped spring onion

In a large bowl, combine pork, shrimp, sugar, wine, soy sauce, 1 teaspoon chopped spring green onion and ginger. Blend well, and let stand for 25 to 30 minutes.

Place about one teaspoon of the filling at the center of each wonton skin. Moisten all 4 edges of wonton wrapper with water, then pull the top corner down to the bottom, folding the wrapper over the filling to make a triangle. Press edges firmly to make a seal making sure you don’t leave any air inside the parcel. Bring left and right corners together above the filling. Overlap the tips of these corners, moisten with water and press together. Continue until all wrappers are used.

FOR SOUP

Bring the chicken stock to a rolling boil. Drop wontons in, and cook for 5 minutes.

I like to add flavourings such as chopped chilli, ginger and garlic to the broth and then sprinkle on a little sliced spring onion (or chives) and fresh coriander before serving.

The alternative (and most frequently seen) way to assemble wantons is to place the filling in the centre of the square wrapper before scrunching up the edges to form a pouch.  Chinese cooks tend to steam their wantons before serving and you can also deep fry them and serve with a dipping sauce.