Chinese New Year dinner: the recipes

The Menu:

Spring Rolls
King Prawn Cheung Fun
Glistening Orange Duck
Pak Choi with oyster sauce

Spring Rolls
Makes around 8

Ingredients:
1 carrots, in thin batons
Handful thin rice noodles
Handful beansprouts
Handful sliced peppers, thawed
Handful peas, thawed
Small handful frozen prawns
Third of a packet spring roll pastry, thawed
Groundnut oil

Instructions:
1.Place noodles into a heat-proof bowl. Cover with boiling water. Stand for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain. Rinse under cold water. Drain well
2.Combine noodles and vegetables in a bowl. Mix well.
3. Place 1 pastry sheet onto a plate/chopping board with 1 corner facing you so it looks like a diamond.
3. Imagine a line running horizontally across the middle of the sheet. Place a tablespoonful of mixture in a line on the pastry a cm or so below this.
4. Fold the left hand corner in over the filling. Do the same with the right hand one.
5. Fold the closest corner to you over the pastry. Brush opposite corner with cold water and roll up away from you. Press to seal. Repeat with remaining filling and pastry.
6. Pour oil into a saucepan or wok so it is one-third full, or enough to float the rolls. Heat over medium-high heat until a piece of bread dropped into oil sizzles. Deep-fry spring rolls, 3 at a time, for 3 to 4 minutes or until golden. Drain on paper towel.
7. Serve with a dipping sauce, I used sweet chilli.

King Prawn Cheung Fun
Makes 8

Ingredients:
16 Raw king prawns, defrosted if frozen.
One packet cheung fun pastry
Hoi sin sauce
Spring onions, thinly sliced

Sauce-
1 tbsp hoi sin
1 tbsp soy sauce
Sugar
Water
Toasted sesame seeds

Instructions:
1. Carefully unroll a cheung fun wrapper
2. Smear a line on hoi sin sauce ~3 cm from one end
3. Add a few slices spring onion
4. Place king prawns onto hoi sin and roll up
5. Repeat x 7
6. Place rolls in a bamboo steamer or in a metal steamer on a saucer to stop them sticking
7. Set pan of water to boil (with lid on) if you are serving rice, you can cook this in the water
8. Make the dipping sauce while water boils. I used equal parts soy sauce and hoi sin, with a tsp of sugar and watered down to taste as it was too salty.
9. Place steamer on top of pan of boiling water. Steam for 5/6 mins until prawns are pink and pastry moist and slightly transparent.
10. Remove from steamer and slide carefully onto serving plate. Pour on sauce and top with toasted sesame seeds

Glistening Chinese Duck in Orange Sauce
taken from Not Quite Nigella
Serves 4

Ingredients:
Duck
2kg duck
4 star anise
Salt and pepper
Chinese five spice (optional)

Sauce
1 cup orange juice
1/4 cup white sugar
1/8 cup light soy sauce
3 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
3 slices fresh ginger
3 tablespoons shaoxing cooking wine /rice wine vinegar/ white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey

Insructions:
1. Wash the duck and remove the extra fatty pieces
2. Put a pot large enough to fit the duck onto boil and add the star anise in it. Simmer the duck for 10 minutes and then remove it from the water. Pat dry with paper towels and season with salt, pepper and Chinese five sice, if using. Place the duck on a rack in a baking dish and refrigerate for at least 24 hours (or hang in cool dry place), turning halfway so that both sides get a waxy coat to them.
3. Preheat oven to 220C/428F. Place the duck in a baking dish with a deep rack - there is a lot of fat in the duck and you want this to drain off. Add about an inch of water to the bottom of the pan to prevent the oil from splashing (but make sure that the duck isn't touching the water).
4. Roast breast side up for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 190C/374F and bake for a further 15 minutes. Then turn the duck over and bake for 30 minutes. Then turn it again breast side up and roast for 20 minutes until done.
5. While the duck is roasting make the sauce. Place all of the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer uncovered for 7-10 minutes until it thickens.
6. When duck is ready, carve the duck and pour the sauce over the pieces and serve

Pak Choi in oyster sauce
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 heads pak choi
Oyster sauce
Rice wine/white wine vinegar

Instructions:
1. Separate the leaves of the pak choi and wash well. Discard the core.
2. Still wet, place into steamer and steam for 3-4 mins until wilted with translucent stems. Alternatively, place wet into non-metal colander on a plae and microwave 2 mins. Take out and turn and give 1 min more if needed.
3. While steaming, mix 1 tbsp oyster sace with ~2 tsp wine vinegar, to taste.
4. Remove from steamer and dress with sauce on serving plate.