Chinese new year feast

It is Chinese new year on Sunday, and I usually like to cultivate good fortune for the year ahead by celebrating in kind.

In the year of the rooster, I decided to cook crisp-skin chicken. In the year of the sheep, I cooked Mongolian lamb. In the years of the ox, the rooster and the rabbit, the culinary choices were fairly obvious.

This, however, is the year of the dog, so I will be cooking — erm, let me see — scallops and black beans, chicken and mushrooms, and beef and noodles.

The year of the dog is considered a time of transition and change; time to assess one’s values and stay true to the doglike traits of loyalty and honesty. It is the perfect opportunity to get together with friends over a Chinese meal, exploring the rich heritage of Chinese cuisine while at the same time updating it to 2006.

That means starting with spicy steamed scallops on the shell, strewn with salted black beans and chilli; and going on to a rich, heart-warming stew of chicken and shiitake mushrooms with plenty of rice on the side, or a more family-style dish of beef with slippery rice noodles and beansprouts.

It is a meal full of hidden meaning. The scallop shells look like golden coins, foretelling good fortune, while the length of the rice noodles signifies long life — all of which augurs well for the year ahead.

Finish the meal with a healthy bowlful of mandarins, clementines and lychees and a large pot of fragrant chrysanthemum tea (available from South-East Asian food shops), and count yourself lucky.

Scallops with black beans and chilli

Prep: 15 min
Cook: 5 min

Serves 4 as first course

Salted black beans are a great pantry staple, available vacuum-packed or in tins from Chinese food stores. Throw a spoonful into stir-fries and noodle dishes, or strew over steamed oysters or scallops, as here.

3 tbsp salted black beans
2cm thumb fresh ginger
1 long red chilli
Half tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
8 fresh sea scallops on the shell, cleaned

METHOD

Rinse the black beans and crush half of them lightly. Slice the ginger finely and cut into very fine matchsticks.

Cut the chilli lengthwise as finely as you can into very long, thin matchsticks, discarding the seeds.

Mix the beans with the ginger, salt, sugar, rice wine, soy and sesame oil.

Spoon the mixture over the scallops and scatter with the chilli. Steam over simmering water for 4 to 5 minutes and serve hot.