Friday, January 27, 2023

Lunar New Year Noodles @MaddieDayAuthor

MADDIE DAY here. I am squarely from Celtic stock, and I don't have any Asian relatives, either. But I love cooking food from other cultures, and Lunar New Year was celebrated the world over this week.

According to several cooking articles I've read recently, noodles are one of the traditional foods eaten for the New Year. Their long shape helps ensure long life. 

When the Boston Globe's food section last week included a Chinese noodle recipe, I was sold. As I always do, I've adapted it somewhat. It was a delicious dinner on a snowy and chilly night.



Thus begins the Year of the Rabbit. According to one site, "The rabbit is the fourth animal in the Chinese zodiac and symbolizes grace, beauty, mercy, and good luck." *

I wish you each a long, lucky life and a great Year of the Rabbit filled with grace, beauty, and mercy!

Lunar New Year Shrimp Lo Mein with Spaghetti

Note: Recipe adapted from the Boston Globe Food section, January 18, 2023, which presented the recipe from Dumpling Daughter Heirloom Recipes by Nadia Liu Spellman.



Ingredients

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 pinch salt

8 ounces uncooked thin spaghetti

2 tablespoons oyster sauce

4 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

2 cups broccoli cut into very small florets and stems

3 scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths

2 carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks

½ red onion, thinly sliced

4 cups shredded cabbage or Napa cabbage (not shown in photo)

1 tablespoon sherry or rice wine

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Juice of half a lime (not shown in photo)

 

Directions

Rinse shrimp and pat dry.

 


Bring a large saucepan of water to boil and add a generous pinch of salt. Add spaghetti and cook, stirring several times, for eight minutes or until tender but till has some bite. Drain into a colander, shake well, and return to pan with 1 tablespoon oil and the oyster sauce. Mix and cover.

 


Assemble all prepared vegetables in one place. 


Heat a wok or large, deep skillet over medium heat. Add remaining 3 tablespoons of oil. When it shimmers, add onions and stir fry until wilted. Add rest of vegetables and stir fry about three minutes until softened. 



Add shrimp.



Continue to stir fty until the shrimp begins to turn pink. Add spaghetti and stir to warm and incorporate until all is integrated. Serve and enjoy hot. 



*We are a food-and-books blog, not a political one, but I don't want to ignore recent events connected to this recipe. Sadly, the rabbit didn't bring much good luck this week to innocent people celebrating the new year by dancing in Monterey Park, which is only a few towns away from where I grew up. I hold the victims' families in my heart.

Readers: What's your favorite Chinese food? Do you celebrate the lunar new year?

🥕🧅🐇

My most recent release is Four Leaf Cleaver, which came out in January, 2023.



The next book out will be Murder at a Cape Bookstore, releasing in August, 2023.




Murder in a Cape Cottage is the fourth Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery, which came out in September, 2022.


"Scarfed Down," my Country Store novella in the collection Christmas Scarf Murder also released 2022.

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We hope you'll visit Maddie and her Agatha Award-winning alter ego Edith Maxwell on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau and sweet cat Martin north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.



13 comments:

  1. This looks wonderful Edith. I'm glad you mentioned the tragedies in California. I too am holding those sad people in my heart.

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  2. Thank you for the recipe which looks and sounds delicious!

    Love the Sweet and Sour dishes and always enjoy the varieties of rice.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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  3. I make something similar using soba noodles instead of spaghetti with lots of vegies. It's an easy way to use up whatever vegies are in the fridge. Instead of oyster sauce, I use a combination of soy and hoisin sauces. Always a hit!

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  4. My favorite Chinese food is Black Pepper Chicken and Beef Fried Rice. I don't celebrate Lunar Chinese New Year specifically but have seen it at many places.

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  5. This looks simple and tasty.
    Obviously, you could use other proteins in place of the shrimp and it would still be yummy.

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  6. This looks yummy. I love stir fries, but these days I usually make them only when my son is around. He worked in a restaurant and chops veggies really fast

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  7. My favorite was my Mom's wonton soup. Lunar New Year is one of the few times I make dishes I learned from her. Cooking time is quick - the prep involved is time consuming.

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  8. I love egg rolls but also felling deeply sorry for those in Ca including my home town Half Moon Bay 7 innocent people so I agree with you. peggy clayton

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