December 30th on the lunar calendar is the Chinese New Year’s Eve. At this time of the year, everyone in the family gathers for dinner. We call it a reunion dinner. The dinner recipe varies according to the region. Some families pay more attention to the beauty of food, and some families pay more attention to the delicious food, but in any case, reunion and happiness are the most important.
This is my sister’s family reunion meal recipe, we are from Guangxi, we are Hakka family. Take a look at our recipes!
Our Reunion Dinner
We have goose meat, chicken and pork on our table, and some green vegetables. These dishes are cooked in a simple way. For example, the goose meat is fried. We start with a live goose. The goose is killed, plucked, cleaned, then cooked in hot water until its muscles become firm. Then we cut the goose meat, of course, you can cut the pieces you like, because my sister always has no rules to cut goose meat.
Stir-fried goose with garlic and celery
Cut the garlic leaves and celery into sections, add oil to the pot, put the goose meat in and fry. When you see the color of the meat change, add the garlic leaves and celery, then cover the pot and simmer. By the way, adding some cooking wine to remove the fishy smell of goose meat is a good choice. When the goose is cooked, put it on a plate and finish.
Guangxi golden braised pork
For the Recipe: Guangxi Braised Pork
Do you want to know how the pork in the picture is cooked? Oh, please don’t think it is not delicious, even if it looks casual in the picture, there is no exquisite display.
This is not an ordinary piece of pork, it is one of Guangxi’s specialties-golden braised pork. The pork in the picture is the second cooking, in fact, the first cooking is a big production.
The first step is to buy a perfect piece of pork: pork belly is the best. Cut the pork belly into pieces. What kind of lumps? If it were me, it would be the area of my two palms. If you have a big palm, then cut into the shape you like, but not too small. Let us prepare a boiling pot, add cooking wine, shallots, ginger, star anise, appropriate amount of water to cook the meat. To judge whether a large piece of meat is cooked, you can use chopsticks to insert its skin. If you insert it easily, then you have a large piece of cooked meat.
After it is cooked, remove it and let it stand for 3-5 minutes, then smear soy sauce on the skin. Then use absorbent paper to absorb excess water from the whole meat. Next, we need to use a deep wok for frying. Add enough oil to the wok to cover the meat. The temperature of the oil is very important. To check the oil temperature, we insert the end of a chopstick into the oil. When we see some small bubbles around the chopsticks, this is the right temperature.
Then, we gently put the meat into the hot oil. Note that the hot oil is likely to splash out at this step, so we need to cover the pot immediately. In addition, we need to turn the meat in the process. Turn it over properly and let it deep-fry evenly. When the meat turns golden brown, we take it out and put it in a clean container, so we got a golden pork! Oh, just kidding, it’s braised pork!
The fried pork can be stored for a long time, usually in the refrigerator or freezer, so that it does not spoil. When we are preparing for the reunion dinner, we take it out of the freezer, thaw it, cut it into thin pieces, and then stir-fry it with garlic leaves and basic seasonings. It’s very simple.
Chicken with sauce
The chicken is even simpler. We kill a live chicken, pluck it, clean it, and give it a bath in hot water. Then it appears on the plate on our table. We don’t need to fry chicken, nor do we need to add any seasoning to the chicken. You find it weird? Why don’t we just hold a live chicken and nibble? What is the significance of tasting chicken without any seasoning? Well, let me unravel the mystery. When we eat the chicken, each person makes individually-prepared sauces. I usually prepare them by myself. I use a small clean bowl. I like to add coriander, chili, soy sauce, and sesame oil and stir to mix. That’s my taste. You can make all kinds of flavors you like, just like my niece can’t eat chili, so she only uses soy sauce to eat chicken.
Beverages
In addition, the essential thing for reunion dinner is to drink. In my sister’s house, men drink alcohol, usually white wine and beer, women drink drinks or alcohol, usually some juice or red wine, and children can only drink juice or milk.
Warmth, affection, and family: Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner
If you come to China, you will find that every family has a different reunion dinner recipe. Now, people prepare reunion dinner according to their own preferences. My sister’s family reunion dinner recipe is also different every year. I think that the reunion dinner is more important for the people who eat the reunion dinner. A small family or a large family gathers for dinner. There is not only food on the table, but also the happiness and laughter of the family. This is the true meaning of the reunion dinner. Whether you are busy at work or struggling for study, on December 30th, we all have a yearning for home: where there is family, there is warmth, affection, and home.
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