Feasts of Good Fortune

Description

75 recipes for a full year of celebrations with family and friends the Chinese American way in this deeply personal intergenerational cookbook, cowritten by mother and daughter.

Covering everything from traditional Lunar New Year menus with recipes passed down generations to Thanksgiving get-togethers celebrated with tantalizing side dishes, Feasts of Good Fortune invites you to take a seat at the Chou’s warm family dinner table.

Author and former James Beard Foundation cookbook committee chair Hsiao-Ching Chou (Chinese Soul Food) brings her on-ramp approach to Chinese cooking full circle with fresh, uncomplicated home cooking for celebrations typical of the Chinese American experience. Master dumplings, scallion pancakes, and more, to contribute to “tuan yuan” (the act of coming together) that define family meals in these 75 tried-and-true recipes anyone can tackle. 

Cowritten with Hsiao-Ching’s 17-year-old daughter, Meilee, on reconnecting with her Chinese American heritage as a young adult, this deeply meaningful cookbook is an exploration of what it means to grow up in a “forever hyphenated culture” and celebrates the joy of the mother-daughter bond in cooking together.

Organized chronologically with menus that’ll take out the guesswork, including:

• Lunar New Year (Sticky Rice with Chicken and Chinese Sausage)
• Lantern Festival (Glutinous Rice Balls with Black Sesame Paste)
• Honoring the Dead/Qing Ming (Steamed Spinach Dumplings)
• Dragon Boat Festival (Zong Zi) 
• Mid-Autumn Festival (Mooncakes)
• Birthdays & Party Bites (Stir-Fried Long-Life Noodles)
• Side Dishes for East-meets-West Menus (Braised Kale with Dried Cranberries)
• Hot Pot Parties

RECIPE LIST
v = vegetarian vn = vegan
 
Lunar New Year
Crispy Spring Rolls vn
Boiled Pork and Cabbage Dumplings
Vegetable Potstickers vn
Scallion Pancakes vn
Stir-Fried Romaine vn
Lucky Mixed Vegetables vn
Stir-Fried Rice Cake with Chicken and Vegetables
Rice Cooker Sticky Rice with Chicken and Chinese Sausage
Meilee’s Chicken
Garlic Shrimp with Gai Lan
Steamed Ginger-Scallion Branzino
Hoisin Beef with Snow Peas
Winter Melon Soup
 
Lantern Festival
Tang Yuan Dough vn
Red Bean Tang Yuan vn
Black Sesame Tang Yuan vn
Chicken and Mushroom Tang Yuan
Pork and Chinese Chives Tang Yuan
 
Qingming Festival
Fruit Platter vn
Scallion Pancake Rolls with Chinese BBQ Duck
Steamed Spinach Dumplings v
Braised Tofu with Vegetables
Stir-Fried Asparagus with Shiitake Mushrooms vn
Rice Vermicelli with Vegetables vn
Mini Lion’s Head Meatballs
Stir-Fried Edamame with Shrimp
Easy Salt and Pepper Shrimp
Everything Fried Rice
West Lake Beef Soup
Stir-Fried Fish Balls and Vegetables
 
Dragon Boat Festival
Plain Zongzi vn
Red Bean Zongzi vn
Vegetable Zongzi vn
Chicken and Chinese Sausage Zongzi
Red-Braised Pork Belly Zongzi

Mid-Autumn Festival
Flaky Red Bean Mooncakes
Asian Pear and Pomelo Salad with Chili Crisp Vinaigrette  vn
BBQ Duck Soup with Pickled Mustard Greens
Chicken with Carrots and Mushrooms
Beef with Pickled Jalapeños and Spiced Tofu
Sweet Potato Fritters v
Clams with Aromatics and Chinese Black Beans
Savory Dungeness Crab
Egg Drop Soup with Dungeness Crab
 
Birthdays: Long-Life Noodles or Chocolate Cake?
Stir-Fried Long-Life Noodles with Chicken and Vegetables
Long-Life Noodles in Broth
Tofu Poppers with Chili Crisp
Wok-Charred Garlic Broccoli vn
Super Garlicky Baby Bok Choy vn
Popcorn Chicken
Saucy Chicken Wings
Sweet and Sour Baby Back Ribs
Pork and Shrimp Fried Wontons
Cream Cheese Wontons with Crab
Chinese Bakery-Inspired Cupcakes with Fruit
 
Stir-Fries Make Great Holiday Side Dishes
Easter Ham
●      Dry-Fried Green Beans
●      Stir-Fried Escarole with Shiitake
●      Chinese Chives with Mushrooms
 
July 4 BBQ
●      Stir-Fried Shoestring Potatoes
●      Dry-Fried Okra with Chilies and Goji
●      Hot-and-Sour Taiwanese Cabbage
 
Thanksgiving Turkey
●      Wok-Charred Brussels Sprouts with Smoked Soy Sauce
●      Stir-Fried Kale with Dried Cranberries
●      Dry-Fried Green Beans
 
Vegan Thanksgiving
●      Braised Daikon
●      Garlic Eggplant
●      Stir-Fried Kale with Dried Cranberries
 
Christmas Roast
●      Chinese Chives with Mushrooms
●      Stir-Fried Escarole with Shiitake
●      Dry-Fried Green Beans
 
Christmas Duck
●      Braised Chinese Cabbage
●      Garlic Eggplant
●      Chinese Chives with Mushrooms
 
Hot Pot is a Melting Pot
Chicken Broth
Spicy Broth
Mushroom-Tomato Broth vn
Yin-Yang Hot Pot
Meat-Lover’s Hot Pot
Seafood Hot Pot
Vegetarian Hot Pot vnHsiao-Ching Chou is an award-winning food journalist and author of three cookbooks on Chinese home cooking. Known for her potsticker classes, she has taught hundreds of students over the years. She is the past chair of the James Beard Foundation’s Book Awards Committee and serves on the board of directors for the Ballard Food Bank. When she’s not wearing her culinary hat, she makes a living as an editorial director in the tech industry. Chou lives with her family in Seattle.

Meilee Chou Riddle is a student of filmmaking, writing, and music. She comes from a family of storytellers, including her TV producer dad, Eric Riddle; cookbook author mom, Hsiao-Ching Chou; and lifestyle blogger grandma, Ellen Chou. Meilee is always looking for ways to express her creativity. Her award-winning films have been featured in regional and national film festivals. She lives in Seattle with her family.WHY THIS BOOK
 
Mom Says: “When can we get together with the cousins again?” My daughter’s voice was filled with longing for a family dinner we wouldn’t be able to host for an unknowable period of time. Lunar New Year, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, all the celebrations that mark the passing of the year suddenly changed shape when a virus shut down the world. What we valued about the togetherness of a shared meal sharpened when the ability to gather evaporated.
 
As a parent, I never know what practices and traditions stick with my two kids and their five cousins. Teenagers are especially inscrutable. So Meilee’s wish for dinner with our extended family broke my heart, because I didn’t know how long the pandemic would restrict our lives. And it also signaled that all the past dinners had imprinted their memories in her consciousness. In a painful moment, I found hope—and the seed for this book. I can share recipes and their stories through headnotes. But passing on traditions requires someone to receive them with intention. It’s also the responsibility of the bearer to invite the next generation into the narrative, to make space for the perspectives of those who will carry on our histories.
 
Conversations with Meilee taught me that she and her Asian peers constantly grapple with bias in subtle and blatant ways, struggle with their mixed-race identities, and are figuring out their social justice voices. In the midst of the fight, food is where they meet to find joy and deliciousness. Co-creating this book with Meilee means she can find herself in the story and explore future evolutions of herself without fear of losing her way. Meilee, her brother, Shen, and all of their cousins are mixed-race. The experiences of this generation of young people and how they bond through food are important to how we talk about celebrations.
 
The phrase in Mandarin 團圓, or “tuan yuan” (tuan = together and yuan = round or circle), signifies the act of coming together for a family meal, especially around the holidays. Feasts of Good Fortune is about tuan yuan meals and the roundness they bring to families and friends. I’ve featured Lunar New Year menus in both Chinese Soul Food and Vegetarian Chinese Soul Food but haven’t gone beyond that to share the symbolic foods and traditions of other holidays. If my first two books were “on-ramps” to everyday Chinese home cooking, this book on celebrations completes the story.
 
We also want to acknowledge that how we honor traditional holidays is very much influenced by where we live. I was born in Taipei, Taiwan, but I grew up in the United States in the Midwest, and I’ve now lived more than twenty years in Seattle, Washington. Meilee was born in Seattle and has grown up in this place known for wild salmon, Dungeness crab, and roadside blackberry brambles. She can dispatch a Dungeness crab with stunning swiftness! Our culture and family are forever hyphenated and so are many of the ingredients we use to make the foods we like.
 
The older I get, the farther away I feel from the place where I was born. That distance morphed my relationship to traditions my parents used to practice when my brothers and I were kids. I have to reach deep into my memory banks to connect with moments where we honored our ancestors or picked through our favorite mooncake flavors. Lunar New Year has always been the main holiday, filled with pomp. Without intention, holidays can become afterthoughts, and I don’t want that to be the case. So, here we are. I hope Feasts of Good Fortune is a reminder of the moments we have throughout the year to come together. And that it bridges the nostalgia with the futures that live in my kids and their peers.
 
—Hsiao-Ching Chou
 
Meilee’s Perspective: A Year in the Life of My Family
In our Chinese American family, every year holds countless celebrations big and small. These celebrations aren’t just dates on a calendar; they’re the moments that will stick with us forever. No matter the time of year, our home is filled with the flavors, sights, and sounds of both Chinese and American traditions. I’d like to tell you about a year in our house and just a few of our celebrations, from Lunar New Year’s vibrant red lanterns to Thanksgiving’s huge feast.
 
We begin every January ringing in the new year with our latest goals and resolutions, trying to start it off on the right track. My dad cleans up the house and makes sure we start things organized, while my brother and I grasp to our last few days off from school.
 
Lunar New Year typically falls between mid-January to mid-February. Lunar New Year is probably one of the biggest celebrations of the year. Preparation begins at least a week in advance. My mom begins planning a menu, making sure she hits everyone’s favorites. Then, she and my grandma head to the local Asian market. To paint a picture for those who are unfamiliar, imagine grocery stores around Thanksgiving or Christmas. It’s intense. Lots of the elderly Asian people are up bright and early to stock up on everything from meats to vegetables to red envelopes and decorations. Everyone is on their own mission to create a feast to make sure they start the new year off right. My mom has to start cooking a few days in advance to make sure everything can be done in time.
 
March and April mark the changing seasons. We celebrate the beauty of the Pacific Northwest as it transitions. I am very lucky to live in an area that is so surrounded by nature. I am able to look out my window every day and see the trees changing, hear birds chirping, and smell the salty bay.
 
In our extended family, we have at least three birthdays in May. My mom always marks her birthday with a classic chocolate cake. Whether I make it for her or we order it from a fancy bakery, she is content regardless. My brother likes to spend his birthday with his friends. Each year, the celebration gets more and more high-tech. He evolves with technology. The last birthday in May is my cousin Lucie’s. For most birthdays on my mom’s side of the family we default to a night out at Din Tai Fung. Our buzzing group of thirteen fills the restaurant to the brim with love, laughter, and memories.
 
June is the end of school! My brother and I are always excited and ready to embrace summertime and the freedom that comes along with it. On top of that, my Lau Lau’s (“lau lau” describes the maternal grandmother) birthday falls on a different day every year depending on the lunar calendar. I admire how she lives her life simply: Wake up, garden, take photos of plants, write her blog, watch Asian dramas on YouTube, sleep, repeat. She doesn’t mind the simplicity after a long life full of beautiful chaos.
 
Each Fourth of July, my dad’s side of the family comes together at my aunt Julene’s cozy Camano Island cabin. My uncle Joe, who’s married to Julene, guides us as we embark on our crabbing expedition to catch our feast for the night. We look out onto the waters, trying to find the buoys until, finally, the vibrant green and orange stripes catch our eye. After pulling on the rope for what feels like ages, our bounty of crab emerges. We boil the freshly caught crab alongside sizzling steaks, complete with plenty of sides. The meal sets the stage for a memorable Fourth of July tradition, complete with neighborhood fireworks to light up the night.
 
September is a busy month. My brother and I go back to school, which is always chaos. We are bombarded with back-to-school forms and the ache of getting up early in the morning. My parents celebrate their anniversary, and shortly after is my dad’s birthday (he hates getting older). It also marks the Mid-Autumn Festival. My mom and grandma will bring home mooncakes from our local Asian grocery store. We don’t eat a ton of them, or celebrate too extravagantly for that matter. But we do have our mooncakes and recognize being together and being thankful for the things we have brought into our lives.
 
October is the beginning of the American holiday season. My birthday is October third, so it is always nice to celebrate my day. In my family we always pick a restaurant to go to for birthday dinner and I typically pick Asian or Italian food. Halloween is always a fun celebration. No matter how old I am, I have a lot of fun dressing up and creating costumes. It’s something I have loved to do my whole life—not to mention, having candy all night is a treat for anyone.
 
November is known as a month to be thankful. Around Thanksgiving, my family and I head up to Whistler to meet with family friends. We aren’t big skiers, but playing in the snow is an infrequent activity in Seattle, so we do like to take advantage of Whistler’s slopes. For Thanksgiving dinner, each family brings their favorite dishes and we all cram into the Woodman Family’s hotel room for the potluck. We never stick to a specific kind of food: the past few years, it has been a mix of turkey and sides; or bo ssam (Korean-style pork shoulder), rice, and lettuce wraps. Not exactly traditional, but delicious.
 
The final celebrations wrap up in December. Christmas also happens to be my Yeh Yeh’s (grandpa Claude Riddle) birthday. He’s my dad’s dad and he has lived a very long and very full life. On Christmas 2023 he turns 100. Soon after, comes New Year’s Eve. It’s a time to reflect on the past year. I love being able to look back at all the memories I have made over the years. All celebrations big and small, they’re all meaningful for me.
 
—Meilee RiddleCN

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