New Year Day Six: A Bite of Sour
Have you had enough of all the rich, heavy dishes this Spring Festival? If you’ve no idea what to eat next, try Yiyi Farm’s versatile Red sour soup. Boiled fish, blanched beef, noodle soups, stir-fried vegetables, or even a tossed cold salad – it lifts the flavour and whets the appetite in all of them. Want to make things more festive? Let it take centre stage as a pot of Sour soup hotpot. If you’re feeling a little weary of the New Year feast, let this tangy fragrance reawaken your appetite!
Ingredients:
Red sour soup, tomatoes, soybean sprouts, Chinese chives, celery, lard, spring onion, ginger, garlic, Litsea cubeba, fermented glutinous rice, salt
Method:
1. Heat lard and stir-fry ginger and garlic until fragrant.
2. Add the Red sour soup base, spring onion pieces, Litsea cubeba, fermented glutinous rice, and fresh tomatoes.
3. Add water and bring to the boil, then add a bed of soybean sprouts, Chinese chives, and celery.
4. Season with salt, then cook whichever meats, vegetables, or staples you like.
Note:
It is a common misconception that sour soup can simply be diluted with water – it needs to be stir-fried first. The vegetables in the base are essential for building savoury depth, while the fermented glutinous rice is optional.
How else can you enjoy sour soup? Click 👉🏻In Midsummer, Eat More Plain Sour Soup to find out more. For purchases, follow @Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market
Dinner is served! This New Year, enjoy good flavours that know where they come from.
Foodthink, together with farmers from the Beijing Organic Farmers’ Market, presents a New Year Recipe Collection built around their own produce.
This collection offers no recipes measured to the gram or the minute, no elaborate, fussy techniques.
What it does offer is a quiet conviction and confidence in the ingredients, and the plain, homely advice you would give your own family.
With well-tended ingredients, there is no need to overthink – a brisk, easy method, just the right heat, and that is all you need.
In this collection, behind every dish stands a real person –
the farmers know what makes their produce good, and they know how to cook it in a way that truly honours that goodness.
When a block of tofu can give you its name, a chicken can rattle off its résumé, a radish dares you not to peel it – good flavours follow naturally.
From Day Two to Day Seven of the New Year, six farmers’ New Year dishes, one each day.
New Year Day Two: Aromatic Steamed Free-range Mountain-raised Pig
New Year Day Three: Super Stir-fried Chicken
New Year Day Four: Braised Tofu in Sauce
New Year Day Five: Radish Sashimi
Grow with care, cook with ease, eat without worry.
