My Lunar New Year's meal

I attended the Lunar New Year celebrations at Nan Tien Temple, and from their kitchen I brought home a cube of sticky rice, packaged in the most sustainable of ways.

I visited my local Asian supermarket, STK in Fairy Meadow, and bought a pack of frozen pork and coriander dumplings. They are made in Australia and much easier than making your own from scratch. I also bought some fresh vibrant gai lan for a nutritious side dish.

Dumplings

The pack gives a few ways of heating dumplings from frozen. My favourite is the pot sticker method. Heat a thin layer of oil in a frypan just big enough to hold your dumplings. When the base is golden, add ½ cup water and put on a tight-fitting lid. Bubble up until the water has evaporated and the dumplings are heated through. Remove the lid and let the dumplings sit in the dry pan until the base dries. Serve with a dipping sauce of soy sauce and black vinegar with optional chilli oil.

Gai Lan (Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce)

I can’t go past Nagi Maehashi’s recipe for tasty Chinese broccoli, which you can find here. Nagi is the founder of cooking website RecipeTin Eats and a cookbook author. I love Nagi’s recipes as she provides so much interesting information about the dish and photos of each stage in the process.