Chinese New Year 2017: Traditional recipes to celebrate year of the rooster

2017 is the year of the fire rooster. To celebrate, cook up some classic Chinese dishes of your own

These Chinese dumplings with a shiitake and chive filling take just five minutes to cook through

Shiitake chive dumplings by Jeremy Pang

Want to have a go at making your own Chinese dim sum? Jeremy's recipe includes a useful guide to making these wonderfully crispy shiitake and chive dumplings, with tips on how to perfectly wrap and shape them.

Most Chinese dumplings can either be deep-fried, pan-fried, steamed or blanched, though there is something incredibly moreish about deep-fried ones with their crunchy exterior and hot, steamy filling. Much like fresh pasta, when made from scratch, dumplings should not be overcooked – whichever way you choose to cook them, the cooking process itself should not take any longer than five minutes. The goal is to cook the pastry and filling through, while keeping that ‘al dente’ bite. Served with noodles for a great alternative to a Sunday lunch.

(

Makes 25

Dumpling wrappers

225g of plain flour
​130ml of hot water, plus extra if required
vegetable oil, for frying

Filling

50g of rice noodles
1 handful of coriander
1 spring onion
1 inch piece ginger
1 garlic clove
5 shiitake mushrooms, soaked and drained
​200g of chives, Chinese chives preferably or garlic shoots
1 pak choi, 5 leaves only
1 head of Chinese leaf, 1 leaf only

Marinade

1 tbsp of light soy sauce
¼ tsp black pepper
¼ tsp granulated sugar
2 tsp sesame oil
½ tbsp of cornflour

Dipping sauce

4 tbsp of light soy sauce
4 tbsp of black rice vinegar
1 inch piece ginger, finely slice

Sieve the flour into a bowl. Gradually add the water, mixing with a fork to form a dough, then knead it on a lightly dusted surface for five minutes until slightly elastic. Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 1–2mm, then use a 70mm diameter circular cutter to cut out as many pastries as possible. Set the pastries aside on a baking sheet or tray and cover with a tea towel until needed.

For the filling, put the noodles in a bowl, cover with hot water and soak for 3 minutes. Drain and dry the noodles on a clean kitchen towel, then finely chop them along with all the other filling ingredients. Put the chopped filling ingredients in a bowl along with the marinade ingredients and mix together well. Combine the dipping sauce ingredients in a small bowl or ramekin and wrap the dumplings. Place one teaspoon of the filling in the centre of each circle of dough. Fold the bottom centre over the filling to form a semicircle and pinch the top tight.

Pinch the two corners of the semicircle together leaving two symmetrical 'Mickey Mouse ear' shapes between your centre fold and the corner folds. Now pinch the 'ears' in towards you to make four layered folds.

Tidy up to create a 'half-moon' shape and arrange on a plate. Half-fill a large pot, wok or deep-fryer with vegetable oil and heat to 180°C, or until the tip of a wooden chopstick or skewer starts to fizz after a second or so in the oil. Carefully add the dumplings in batches of no more than 10 and deep-fry for three minutes, until golden brown. Remove the dumplings carefully with a slotted spoon and drain well on a plate covered with kitchen paper. Serve immediately with the dipping sauce

Recipe from Chinese Unchopped by Jeremy Pang (Quadrille, £20) Photography by Martin Poole

(

Aromatic duck with asparagus and cucumber salad by Paul Ainsworth

Duck coated in a range of piquant flavours is served up with a cooling cucumber and asparagus salad.

Aromatic duck

1 duck crown, 900g
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 red chillies, halved
85g of root ginger, peeled, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, halved
2 cinnamon sticks
3 star anise
1 large orange, halved
2 2/3 handfuls of coriander, stalks only
​250ml of port
4 tbsp of Hoi Sin sauce
2 tbsp of soy sauce
2 tbsp of clear honey
2l chicken stock
2 celery sticks, halved
1 leek, halved
2 carrots, quartered

Asparagus and cucumber salad

6 asparagus, stems removed, halved lengthways
1 cucumber
3 spring onions, sliced lengthways
4 French breakfast radishes, sliced lengthways
1 tsp chives, chopped
1 tbsp of chervil, chopped
1 dash of lemon juice
salt
ground black pepper
olive oil

For the aromatic duck, place the onion, celery, leek, carrots, chillies, ginger and garlic into a large bowl. Rub the duck all over with a little salt and place on top of the vegetables. Cover with cling film and leave to marinate for 15-30 minutes, or, for best results - leave overnight in the fridge. Preheat the oven to 230˚C/gas mark 8. Heat a large frying pan until hot and add the duck breast, skin-side down. Fry for four or five minutes, turning the breast frequently until browned all over. Remove the duck from the pan and set aside to rest on a cooling rack. Remove some fat from the frying pan, leaving about two tablespoons. Add the vegetables from the bowl, the cinnamon sticks, star anise, orange and coriander stalks and fry for five minutes.

Add the port to the vegetables and cook for a further five minutes, or until the volume of the liquid has reduced by half. Stir in the hoisin sauce, soy sauce and honey, then add the chicken stock. Place the duck, skin side up, into the frying pan, cover with greaseproof paper and cook for 20 minutes. Turn the duck over and cook for a further 15 minutes. Remove the duck from the frying pan and place onto a cooling rack set over a roasting tray. Strain the liquid in the frying pan through a sieve into a large saucepan and cook until the liquid has reduced to the consistency of a syrup

Reduce the oven to 200˚C/gas mark 6. Brush the duck all over with the reduced liquid and roast for 10-12 minutes, or until golden-brown. For the salad, mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve the whole crown at the table to carve. Best served with traditional Chinese pancakes or steamed rice.

This recipe by Paul Ainsworth first appeared on Great British Chefs