Celebrate the approaching of the Chinese New Year

To celebrate the approaching of the Chinese New Year (Feb 18 Feb 24), BICC held two cooking classes weeks where BICC students and friends of BICC had the chance to cook a few Chinese dishes popular at this time of the year. 

During the first class, BICC students prepared Chinese pickles made from garlic cloves and vinegar (pinyin: LaBa Suan), traditional Chinese Spring Rolls (pinyin: Chun Juan) and Sesame Paste Pancakes (pinyin: Ma Jiang Bing). 

Pickled Garlic

The pickled garlic recipe (Laba Suan) is usually prepared on the 8th (LaBa) day of the month in Chinese Lunar Calendar, which is considered the coldest day in Northern China. The Chinese Spring Rolls (Chun Juan) is also a very popular dish around Chinese New Year. BICC students made this dish with shredded chicken breast, carrots and bean sprouts as the main ingredients, then prepared the thin pancake to wrap the meat and vegetable mix. 

Making Chinese Spring rolls

The class finished with the famous Chinese Porridge, made from a combination of nuts (pine nuts, walnuts, peanuts), beans (mung beans, red kidney beans, red beans) and grains (glutinous rice, white rice, millet). 

Chinese Porridge boiling

Chinese Porridge

The filling for the Chinese Sprig Rolls

The second class had BICC students trying the pickled garlic prepared the week before. The students also had the opportunity to learn how to cook Steamed Turnip (pinyin: Zheng LuoBo) and Chinese Porridge (PinYin: LaBa Zhou). 

The Steamed Turnip is a dish very common during winter which helps alleviate cold symptoms and coughing. Combined with goji seeds and honey, it is the perfect remedy on a cold winter’s day. 

BICC would like to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year!