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February 21, 2019

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Special dishes as everything comes back to life

SPRING is the best season for fresh produce, and days to enjoy the precious flavors nature has to offer are fleeting.

The Chinese New Year has just celebrated the Beginning of Spring, the first of the 24 Chinese solar terms. In China, there’s also a folk custom called yaochun, which is translated as “taking a bite of the spring.”

Spring is a season of great importance in China, a country with a long agricultural tradition, and eating fresh vegetables is a popular way to welcome the season.

The essence of the yaochun custom is the biting action, so seasonal foods that one can take a hearty bite of are prepared to celebrate spring, such as chunjuan, spring rolls, and chunbing, spring pancakes, both dishes that highlight a filling of fresh ingredients.

In some places, there’s also the tradition of taking a bite of white radish to celebrate spring.

Although the tradition of celebrating spring with certain dishes is more commonly seen in northern Chinese provinces, seasonal ingredients are remedies to help the body transition from the bold and rich flavors of winter, and eating fresh is especially beneficial after the non-stop feasts during the Chinese New Year holidays.

A bite of spring

Spring is a time when everything starts to come back to life, and some dishes are prepared as a ceremonial gesture to greet the season. It doesn’t have to be on the first day of spring, many families will pick a day during the first lunar month to enjoy the delicacies.

Chunbing is a super-thin flour pancake that’s either steamed or baked in a pan, paired with a diverse selection of fresh vegetables and meats in thin shredded form — cucumber, carrot, leek, chicken, pork plus rich sauces such as sweet fermented flour sauce or chili oil sauce.

An assorted vegetable stir-fry composed of bean sprouts, Chinese chives, egg, meat and vermicelli is often a must-have dish for a spring-themed meal.

The dish emphasizes the craftsmanship of making thin pancakes, which should be able to wrap all kinds of ingredients without tearing or breaking apart. Steamed pancakes are softer and lighter, while the baked ones are chewier.

Because it’s not easy to roll out super-thin pancakes, there’s a trick to roll three to four layers at the same time, separating them with oil and flour in between like a sandwich. The stack of pancakes is then baked in a pan, and when fully cooked, each layer can be torn apart as individual pancakes.

For a balanced meal, spring pancakes are usually served with light and delicious congee or soup.

Spring roll are of a similar concept: shredded vegetables and meats wrapped in thin flour wrappers, only that they are completely sealed and deep-fried.

In Shanghai, there are two popular fillings: savory white cabbage and pork and sweet red bean paste. The savory spring rolls can be dipped in vinegar to reduce greasiness.

Spring rolls are also served alongside glutinous rice balls at the Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner in southern China.

The fresh produces you can’t miss

Taking a bite of spring is also about sampling fresh, newly grown vegetables. In this season, it’s beneficial to consume more green vegetables and foods with slight acidic, pungent flavors to boost the appetite.

Leeks, a vegetable with a slight pungent fragrance, are very popular in the spring season. In traditional Chinese medicine, the fiber-rich leek is regarded as having properties to boost the digestive system.

Though it’s available year-round, the best leeks are only available in spring because the overwintering cultivar has fattier leaves, hence strong flavors.

Leek stir-fry is an easy recipe to enjoy the original flavors of the vegetable, the leaves would soften when lightly sautéed with a little bit of cooking oil, and only salt is needed to season the dish.

To enrich the flavor, the leeks can be stir-fried with scrambled egg, squid, pork, bean sprouts and more.

For both nutritional and food safety reasons, leeks are better eaten cooked than raw.

Shepherd’s purse is a seasonal green vegetable that’s especially popular in local cuisine. It’s one of the most common wild herbs and has versatile uses in cooking.

Shepherd’s purse and tofu soup is an all-time classic. With its bright green and white color, the soup highlights a light and refreshing flavor that’s perfect for the season. The dish is preferably made with soft silken tofu for a smooth texture.

The green vegetable is also used to make fillings for wontons with minced pork. You can also make a shepherd’s purse salad by blanching the leaves quickly and season with salt, sesame oil, chili oil and sesame seeds, or stir-fry the chopped shepherd’s purse leaves with rice cake.

Chinese toon, known as xiangchun in Chinese, has started to appear in markets. The fresh leaves of the Toona sinensis tree is a treat exclusively available in spring time, although some people would describe its unique aroma as smelly.

The really smelly toon is called chouchun (Ailanthus altissima), an inedible species with a distinctive odor.

The freshly picked leaves are best enjoyed when stir-fried with scrambled eggs or mixed in flour batter for Chinese-style pancakes. Those who are really fond of the fragrance of xiangchun would also mix boiled tofu with scalded toon and season with salt and sesame oil.

The early batches of Chinese toon are very expensive, the retail price can be as high as 50 yuan (US$7.4) per 500 grams.

As xiangchun is only sold for a very short time, it can be pickled and serve with congee or steamed buns for breakfast.

In Shanghai and its neighboring provinces, fresh broad beans are among the most popular spring delicacies. The beans grown in southern provinces such as Yunnan and Hainan will be available near the end of this month, while the locally grown ones will arrive later near the end of the season.

Known as candou, or silkworm beans, broad beans are a fiber-rich, nutritious food that provides protein, vitamins, folate and minerals.

Spring broad beans are best prepared in the simple way of stir-frying with scallions, which allows the tender and soft beans to fully absorb the flavors.




 

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