Preparing for Chinese New Year Snacks - Using the Rotisserie Basket with the Toyomi Air Fryer Oven

Chinese New Year is just round the corner, starting to prepare snacks for Chinese New Year. Although the number of guests will be reduced and some not coming at all. It still need the festive mood to celebrate Chinese New Year whether guests coming or not due to the Covid Pandemic.

I started by roasting some cashew nuts using my new Toyomi Air Fryer and using the Rotisserie Basket for the first time. It was fun watching the basket turning in the oven.

For the step to step tutorials on how to roast the cashew nuts with the air fryer oven, please watch my video in my You Tube Channel. If you like the video, please like, subscribe and share the video. Thank you for visiting my blog. Hope to post more recipe videos.

Chinese New Year 2016 - Lunch

On 2nd day of Chinese New Year, we had a family gathering at my brother's house and to pray respect to our late parents.

We help to contribute to the food pot luck. I prepare some deep fried ready bought spring roll.

Fried some sotong balls and prawn balls too.

This is how the spring home prawn spring roll looked like.

Each packet consists of 6 mini spring rolls, I bought 4 packets of the prawn flavour spring rolls.

I also baked some char siew (BBQ pork). I marinated the char siew the night before and in the morning I just popped them in the oven.

Took me about 1 hour to prepare and cooked my contribution.

I also made some chendol agar agar the night before.

Abalone yusheng (see the below video of us tossing the yusheng (no fish but abalone cause of the food poisoning cases of raw fish, we are boycotting raw fish at the moment.)

So much food, most cooked by my eldest sister and my sister in law.

A family friend of my brother gave him some chocolate in the shape of chinese chess. Oooo so beautiful.

Hahaha I choose the king chocolate.

Video of us tossing yusheng, noisy but the fun is there. Chinese New Year must have lots of food, noises, laughter and fun.

Nian Gao (Chinese New Year Cake)

This is Nian Gao (after cutting them into slices). You can view the original nian gao in my previous post in here. Have you fried yours yet?

Cut the nian gao into thin slices. Make a batter of plain flour, beaten egg and some water (not dilute). Dip the nian gao into the batter and deep fry them.

The finished product .... yummy. Best eaten when hot.

Pineapple tarts from chilli padi

These pineapple tarts from chilli padi tasted so good. It just melts in your mouth....yummy.

Ren Ri - Toss of Yusheng

Yusheng meaning "raw fish" is a Chinese New Year dish, served traditionally on the seventh day of Chinese New Year or Ren Ri ("Everyman's Birthday"). It is a salad dish made of thin slices of raw fish and various spices, mixed with tossing actions by diners.

In Chinese legends, nuwa is the goddess who created the world. She created the animals on different days, and human beings on the seventh day after the creation of the world. For more information on the origins you can read from wikipedia.

Arranged on a large serving plate, the colourful array of ingredients include raw fish, shredded green and white radish drained of liquid, shredded carrots adding a bright orange tinge to the dish, pickled ginger, crushed nuts and pomelo. The ingredients are topped with various condiments including deep-fried flour crisps, crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, cinnamon, pepper and other spices. All at the table would then jointly toss the salad with a generous portion of plum sauce and cooking oil to add sweetness and taste.




Now we toss the yusheng as high as possible for luck and as we toss, we need to chant "Lo Hei" which is cantonese toss for luck.

For more information on yusheng, you can view source from Infopedia.

Dried Melon Seeds

During chinese new year, dried melon seeds are a must. Melon seeds or gua zi can imply not only "many sons" but also "multiple coins". (Source: infopedia)

Da Zhong Guo in Chinatown Singapore

Da Zhong Guo pastry shop is famous for their nian gao during Chinese New Year and moon cake during moon cake festival. During these two festivals, queues can be expected at the shop. Da Zhong Guo has a very long history of selling pastry in chinatown.

I love the old fashioned cabinets and the shop was run by eldery boss and workers. Noticed those baskets on top of the cabinets. They are used during festivals or chinese festival. My mom had one of those traditional 3 tier baskets which was inherited by my brother.

These are the famous nian gao. I bought some too, and I will cook it after the chinese new year. These nian gao (chinese new year cakes) can be kept for a long time in the fridge.

Yusheng

Last night, we had another round of yusheng in addition to our seafood dinner. I was enjoying the fun so much, I forgot to take photo of the seafood...lol.

Food Stalls at Singapore River Hong Bao 2008

At the Singapore River HongBao at Esplanade Park, there were many different types of food stalls from different countries too.

The satay man.

Stall selling mee rebus and mee siam and other food too.

I saw these meat balls look a like, I wondered if they tasted good but I dont like the look of it...lol.

Something unusual from the normal sweet potato.

They are not french fries but fried sweet potato fries and sweet potato balls. I bought some but I dont really like it.

Sweet Potatoes

Herbal Tea Egg, it smelled so good as well as tasted good.

This is one stall, I am staying away....lol

Ren Ri

Today is the seventh day of the first chinese lunar month, - the day of man (ren ri). This meant it is everybody's birthday today. In Singapore and Malaysia, it is common to celebrate this day by tossing the colourful salad and wished for wealth and prosperity.So it's on this day of the year that all Chinese change their age at the same time, rather than on their birthday. In China when a child is born it is already one year old and if it is born during the twelfth month, it will be two years old on the seventh day of the first month - even though it has only been in the world for a month!

Before adding the above, there are some chants to make.
Step 1: All at the table offers New Year greetings.Words: Gong xi fa cai meaning "Congratulations for your wealth" or Wan shi ru yi meaning "May all your wishes be fulfilled".
Step 2: Fish, symbolising abundance or excess through the year, is added. Words: Nian nian you yu and You yu you sheng.
Step 3: The pomelo is added over the fish, adding both luck and auspicious value.Words: Da ji da li.Pepper is then dashed over the ingredients in the hope of attracting more money and valuables.Words: Zhao cai jin bao.Then oil is poured out, circling the ingredients to increase all profits 10,000 times and encouraging money to flow in from all directionsWords: Yi ben wan li and Cai yuan guang jin.
Step 4: Carrots are added to the fish indicating blessings of good luck.Words: Hong yun dang tou.Then the shredded green radish is placed on the fish symbolising eternal youth.Words: Qing chun chang zhu.After which the shredded white radish is added - prosperity in business and promotion at work.Words: Feng sheng shui qi and Bu bu gao sheng.
Step 5: The condiments are finally added. First, peanut crumbs are dusted on the dish symbolising a household filled with gold and silver. As an icon of longevity, peanuts also symbolise eternal youth.Words: Jin yin man wu.Sesame seeds quickly follow symbolising a flourishing business.Words: Sheng yi xing long. Deep-fried flour crisps in the shape of golden pillows is then added with wishes that literally the whole floor would be filled with gold.Words: Pian di huang jin.
Step 6: All toss the salad an auspicious 7 times with loud shouts of lo hei and other auspicious New Year wishes.Words: Lo hei which is Cantonese for "tossing luck".The ingredients mixed by pushing them toward the centre, an encouragement to push on the good luck of all at the table.(Source: http://infopedia.nlb.gov.sg/articles/SIP_177_2004-12-30.html)

Now it is attacking time...hahaha

It will be real messy as we all tossed the salad as high as possible.

Chinese New Year Goodies

Just a little introduction of some of the cookies served to guests during Chinese New Year. Hope they are helpful to my friends and fellow bloggers who do not celebrate chinese new year.

These are baked by my sister in law. They are called peanut puff or kok chai

These are mini shrimp rolls also made by my sister in law.

Mini pineapple tarts-pineapple are favourite during chinese new year because pineapple in hokkien is "ong lai" which meant good fortune coming.

Pineapple tarts

Love letters or egg rolls. Not sure if this is true but it was believed that lovers used to hide love letters in the egg rolls and they are now known as love letters.

Cashew Nuts Cookies

Almond Cookies

Green bean cookies

Kueh Bangkit - Kueh in Malay means cake, biscuits or cookies. Kueh Bangkit are made from rice flour or tapioca flour. These were originally used for offerings for ancestors. Then they were made in the shape of money. Today they are made in various animal or flower shapes.

These cookies were baked by me.