When I host people I’ve always got a little too much on my mind. Did I remember to chill the glasses? How am I going to chop this whole head of garlic in the next seven minutes? Did I scrub the toilet well enough? I’ve learned not to put myself through the flurry of hosting AND trying to expand my cooking muscles in front of others. It’s become a personal rule of mine: never try a brand new main course recipe or take huge risks for the first time in front of a crowd on a big day.
Except there’s gotta be room for fun too, right? Like this past Thursday, when Danielle and I put together a Lunar New Year Dinner just two days before the holiday. “Won’t most Chinese restaurants be closed?” I said to her over the phone, which she used to make plans with me like we were 70-year-olds.
“Let’s just go over to your place then,” she responded nonchalantly. “Cool, yeah, sounds good,” I must have responded. We assembled a plan, hung up. No problem, I thought. Me, the person who has definitely threaded my way up and down the streets of Chinatown for hours looking for my preferred brand of fried gluten puffs went from having no plans to committing myself to cooking dinner for five in two days.
But I’m getting smarter. I didn’t try to wrangle the moon. I didn’t even try to fit in the usual compulsory elements of a Chinese Lunar New Year dinner. No noodles. No whole fish. No dumplings. Just get a tasty Chinese dinner on the table, I told myself. And I think I did. I even managed not to make the big schlep to Sunset Park. (The Coop on the other hand…)
The menu was simple: poached chicken which is really just a vehicle for scalded ginger scallion oil, zucchini stir-fried with dried shrimp, and vegetarian mapo tofu. I’ve made all those so many times that getting them on the table at the same time was more about logistics than anything else. But for the last dish I wanted to stretch myself a little, and tried a riff on a recipe from Irene Kuo’s cookbook: stir-fried velveted shrimp, edamame, and lap cherng.
I love shrimp–sweet, crunchy, juicy shrimp. But I’ve had terrible results cooking it at home. Too often it comes out overcooked, and I chew it like I’m making my way through a roast. Definitely not Lunar New Year dinner material. With her velveting process the shrimp would be cooked AND light and crunchy, Kuo assured. Classic recipes for velveting require an off-putting amount of oil though, and I was ready to move on to something else until I read Kuo’s side suggestion to velvet with water! (Serious Eats writer Shao Z. has covered the technique nicely.) We were in business.
Velveting with water turned out fantastic. The process was straightforward. I pressed ahead through my uncertainties. And in the end the subtle nuttiness of edamame and the sweetness of the sausage against the savory, undoubtedly crispy shrimp were all so tasty.
And best of all, dinner was happy. Kevin and Danielle brought homemade mango sticky rice and enough green beans to feed the whole floor. Ali and RJ came through was drinks and also oranges, a LNY must. We sat around and laughed about fitness subcultures and theater and obscene wealth and late stage capitalism and Chinese people’s favorite pastime–getting a good discount. It was extra special to be with family from home on the holiday. And don’t tell my mom but it was my first Lunar New Year dinner where I felt like I had a glimpse of what New York City could be for me. Home.