Chinese New Year Tea: Crunchy Noodle Salad

This beautiful salad is an Ina Garten recipe. She's my favorite Food Network chef. This recipe can be served at room temperature or cold.

Kosher salt
1/2 pound thin spaghetti
1 pound sugar snap peas
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon honey
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons white sesame seeds, toasted
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded, and thinly sliced
4 scallions (with and green parts), sliced diagonally
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, toasted
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, bring another large pot of salted water to a boil, add the sugar snap peas, return to a boil, and cook for 3 minutes, until crisp tender. Lift the sugar snap peas from the water with a slotted spoon and immerse them in a bowl of ice water. Drain.

For the dressing, whisk together the vegetable oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, garlic, ginger, 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, peanut butter, salt, to taste, and the pepper, in a medium bowl.

Combine the spaghetti, sugar snap peas, peppers and scallions in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the spaghetti mixture. Add the scallions and the parsley and mix again.

Chinese New Year Tea Party: The Menu

This menu relies on both purchased items and homemade. Don’t panic if you see something unfamiliar. Recipes start tomorrow!

Cold Noodle Salad

Hot and Sour Soup

Chinese Chicken
Tea Eggs
Jiaozi

Ginger Ice Cream
Almond Cookies
Tangerines
Fortune Cookies

Thousand Days Red Jasmine (Xian Tao), a display tea with a Litchi nut shape, opening to a red clover blossom, Jasmine scented. Find it at Silk Road Teas on the sidebar.

Chinese New Year Tea Party

Photo originally uploaded to Flickr by Weegolo.

Since tea was discovered in China, what better time for an afternoon tea party than Chinese New Year. This year the New Year comes in on February 7, 2008. According to the Chinese zodiac, it will be the year of the rat.

Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year and he named a year after each of the twelve that came. People born in each animal's year are said to have some of that animal's personality. Those born in rat years tend to be leaders, pioneers, and conquerors. They are charming, passionate, charismatic, practical and hardworking. Welllll, let’s forget about rats when it comes to this tea.

Red and gold are the colors of Chinese New Year. Red symbolizes fire which can scare away bad luck and gold stands for prosperity. Use these colors on your tea table and around your room. To make things extra festive, hang spring couplets, squares engraved with blessings, around the house. Paper lanterns make great decorations too. Entwine red paper or ribbon around indoor plants and trees for a simple festive touch.

Flowers play a big role in Chinese New Year. Fill the house with fresh blooms and flowering plants. Narcissus and chrysanthemum are both said to bring good fortune.

Invite your tea party guests using red paper invitations, of course. Set the party for 2:00 in the afternoon. Chinese New Year is celebrated for 14 days so afternoon tea any time during those two weeks is appropriate. You might ask your friends to dress in red and gold in order to get into the spirit of the holiday. This isn’t a particularly feminine tea so be sure to invite male guests too.

A Chinese New Year Tea definitely requires music. Chinese consider that sound influences the harmony of the universe. Confucius thought of music as the highest and ultimate means of calming the unrest and dispelling conflict. Buy or download some Chinese music. There is a lot of it around. It will add much to the atmosphere of your party.

One of the popular activities on Chinese New Year is the custom of Hong Bao. This involves giving small red envelopes filled with lucky money. The number 4 is considered especially lucky so if you can afford it, give each of your tea guests a red envelope containing $4. If this is an expense you don’t want to have, you can fill the envelope with four foil-wrapped chocolate coins.

Another custom is to give oranges and tangerines. These are symbols of abundant happiness. Along with the Hong Bao, hand each tea guest an orange or tangerine as they leave the party.

Naturally there are traditional foods served for New Year. For anyone who didn’t grow up in a Chinese kitchen, they are complicated to make and require great skill. But there are many Chinese-inspired dishes to serve at this afternoon tea and there is nothing wrong too with buying some things from your favorite Chinese restaurant.

My Chinese New Year Tea menu and recipes begin tomorrow. Why not order your Chinese decorations online today!

Fresh Start Tea: Grilled Pineapple

No real recipe here. Grill fresh pineapple slices, either outdoors on a grill or on your indoor grill pan. Top with a small scoop of ice cream or sherbet, any flavor or fat/carb content. And sprinkle on some berries, blueberries, sliced strawberries, red raspberries. This is a very simple, light dessert with a huge taste.

Fresh Start Tea: Cobb Salad

Add extra or different veggies, use skinless chicken breast instead of shrimp or use regular for the nonfat ingredients--whatever you prefer.

1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons nonfat sour cream
¼ cup plain nonfat yogurt
2 tablespoons minced shallots
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 cups baby spinach leaves
8 ounces cooked shrimp
12 grape tomatoes, halved
4 ounces pared avocado, cut into chunks
3 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
4 slices crisp-cooked lean turkey bacon
1 hard cooked egg, very finely chopped

To prepare dressing, in small bowl, combine sour cream, yogurt, shallots, vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons water; blend with a wire whisk.

To prepare salad, combine spinach and 2 tablespoons of the dressing, tossing until well coated.

Transfer spinach mixture to large serving platter; top with remaining ingredients, keeping each separate in its own row.

Fresh Start Tea: Carrot Dill Soup

2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, diced
2 1/2 lbs. carrots, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, leaves included, diced
8 cups chicken stock (homemade or canned)
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 tsp. salt (or to taste)
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Pinch of cayenne

Melt butter in soup pot. Add onion and cook over low heat until wilted, about 10 minutes. Add carrots, celery, stock, 1/4 cup dill, salt, black pepper and cayenne. Bring to boil, reduce heat and cover. Simmer until carrots are tender, 40 minutes. Allow to cool slightly. Puree soup with immersion blender in the soup pot OR, in batches, puree in blender or food processor. Return it to the pot, stir in remaining 2 T. dill and adjust seasonings. Heat through.

Fresh Start Tea Party

Ahhhh, the holidays are behind us. All the energy that we put into them can now be turned to other things. We can start or renew a hobby, organize and declutter our homes or reconnect and spend more time with our friends. I can’t help you with the first two but I’ll give you an idea for a way to enjoy a fun evening with friends, tea included. Have a Fresh Start Tea!

After all the holiday party food, decorations and outfits, the Fresh Start Tea is simple and basic. Invite two or three really good friends, friends that you don’t need to impress. Now don’t get me wrong, not needing to impress doesn’t mean not making an effort. But the effort is toward your guests not to external “things.”

Set up your tea table in front of your fireplace if you live in a cold area or on your patio if it’s warm where you are. You don’t need to decorate for this tea but fresh flowers on the table are never wrong. And glowing candles around the room always create an intimate feeling. Use your most simple dishes, the ones with clean lines and not a lot of fussy decoration. A tablecloth and cloth napkins are necessary even with this casual tea though.

You don’t need to send invitations for this tea. Call up your good friends and invite them over. This tea works best in the evening, after a day at work and in place of a regular evening meal. Make sure to tell your guests to wear whatever makes them comfortable. Good conversation is the main event for this tea. Everyone should have a story to tell about their holidays, the best things, the disasters, their in-laws. Play music very low in the background if you like but with all the talking going on, music won’t be a big feature.

I don’t think anyone wants to eat scones with clotted cream and several high calorie desserts right now. In order to keep things light, I’ll start with a soup. Next I’ve combined the salad and savory courses and then I’ll offer only one fresh fruit for the sweets course. A dessert tea will round out this tea party.

Start the tea with a cup of Carrot Dill Soup, made with a chicken stock base, it doesn’t use any heavy cream. It is fresh and delicious. Next serve a Cobb Salad, a light version that still has great taste and looks so pretty on the plate. Pineapple grilled to bring out its sweetness, topped with a tiny scoop of sherbet is a refreshing end to the tea. And the tea itself, a dessert tea that should be enjoyed all throughout the evening. The recipes for all begin tomorrow.