lunar new year dumpling party

Making Dumplings, Fire Horse Cocktails and Butter Mochi, Photos by Leighann Kowalsky

Celebrating the Lunar New Year is all about honoring family, good times with friends, manifesting good luck and of course, the FOOD. This year of the Fire Horse, I was lucky to enjoy the day with wonderful local peeps and have my Mother visit to ensure the food was up to par.

The main event was a group dumpling-making session. I based the meat option on a NY Times recipe for pork and garlic chive dumplings by Sue Li. My mother, however, quickly took over, drawing on her experience to put her spin on an already solid recipe. Tips I did not see anywhere else included adding water to your meat filling so when they cook, they create a soupy broth inside. Also, she tripled the salt in the filling to help the soup dumpling effect. This is also good if you're not the type who likes to rely on a dipping sauce for flavor.

For my vegan option, I was inspired by the pumpkin and mushroom recipe by Kathryn Vanderminten. Mom's tips included adding extra tapioca starch so the filling wouldn't be so runny, and adding more salt and chili oil. This was a decidedly new fusion recipe, not traditionally Chinese.

I had a guest who could not eat gluten. I attempted to make dumpling wrappers with a tortilla press using non gluten flours, but it did not work out well. Luckily my friend brought back up rice paper wrappers. These worked, but they are very thin. After wetting them, prepare to wrap your filling several times like a package.

For a signature "Fire Horse" cocktail, I mixed together pineapple juice, lychee syrup, and ginger beer with vodka. If you prefer a mocktail, leave out the vodka. I filled up a cocktail shaker with ice and gave all of the ingredients a good shake. This cocktail was inspired by fruits I encountered on my travels to Asia.

For dessert, I went with a modern fusion again. Hawaii's favorite "Butter Mochi" uses sweet rice flour, coconut milk, eggs, sugar, butter and toasted coconut. It shares similarities with Chinese "Nian Gao" sweets, which is also a rice flour based chewy dessert. The treat is simple, addictive, and very hard to screw up as a recipe. This is a good one to make ahead, or throw together quickly for a party or potluck. I used Gemma Stafford's recipe for Butter Mochi.

What good fortunes are you trying to manifest this year? Whatever your wishes, make them tasty!