Lunar New Year

A whole fish, representing abundance, is almost always included on the celebratory Chinese table. Ours is flavored only lightly, with ginger and scallions, so as not to overpower the fresh taste of the fish. We developed an oven-steaming method to free up space on your stovetop for soup and stir-fries.

Crisp and golden, these juicy pot stickers, stuffed with a classic Cantonese filling, are more than just delicious — they're also a symbol of prosperity for the coming year. Served browned sides up, these pot stickers make for a beautiful presentation.

A Chinese meal is incomplete without something leafy, and this dish features a wonderful green. The pleasant bite of gai lan, or Chinese broccoli, complements stir-fried shrimp beautifully; once you've tried it, you'll be eager to cook with it again.

Unlike most Western rice puddings, these desserts are chewy rather than creamy, with a delightful surprise inside. Some Chinese versions can be heavy and overly sweet, but our variation is a nicely balanced finish to the meal.

From the rich broth to the velvety cubes of winter melon — a gourd commonly used in Chinese cuisine for the wonderfully soft texture it takes on during cooking — this wholesome soup is immensely satisfying. Although the winter melon's delicate white flesh has no distinct taste of its own, it absorbs the broth's flavor. We recommend buying a good-quality organic free-range chicken to get the best results. Since Chinese ham is unavailable in the United States, we substitute Smithfield ham. But other cured hams, such as prosciutto, also work well.

It's traditional to serve a whole chicken, including the head and feet, for Chinese New Year. The white meat symbolizes purity, and serving the entire bird represents unity. Plunging the chicken into ice water after poaching ensures that the meat is perfectly juicy and tender. A very simple but powerful dipping sauce tops it off. Use only a tiny amount — it's quite strong.

Hold the cabbage! The takeout industry has given egg rolls a bad name, but in the 1940s, Gourmet readers clamored for a genuine version of the "Chinese delicacy." Our answer was fragrant with garlic, scallions, shiitakes, shrimp, and roast pork.

Chances are, your home stove isn't as powerful as the ones at your local Chinese restaurant, in which case a flat-bottomed wok will work best, as it has more contact with the heat than does a rounded one.

Garlic chives smell more pungent than they taste and are wonderful when cooked. (Keep them wrapped well in your refrigerator.)

This rich soup is hearty enough to serve as a main course. Dried tangerine peel and star anise impart an exotic note, and pickled mustard greens provide contrast to the beefy broth.

When my grandmother, Noi, came to America in 1975, banh trang—Vietnamese rice flour wrappers—weren't available, so the use of wheat wrappers from Singapore and China became widespread throughout the immigrant community. While it's easier to get banh trang these days, Noi still uses the wheat wrappers for this recipe.

This chilled noodle salad from Zygot Bookworks & Cafe is loaded with crisp vegetables.

This is a big-deal dish. But the numerous steps, all easy, transform the duck into a wonder of subtle spiciness. We had this dish in Xi'an, where five-spice powder in the rub and the dipping salt were lovely touches.

In classic Chinese cooking, noodles destined for soup are cooked separately and added at the last minute so that the starch from the pasta doesn't cloud the broth. Because we were aiming for a rib-sticking dish, we broke with tradition and cooked the noodles right in the stock, allowing the starch to thicken the soup slightly.

Active time: 30 min Start to finish: 30 min

Steaming, a method often used by Asian cooks, works well with delicately flavored red snapper, since the aromatics (ginger, scallion, chile) are easily absorbed by the fish.

Shao mai are classic Chinese steamed dumplings. They make a nice starter or an innovative addition to a buffet.

The secret to this Chinese favorite is not to let the noodles sit in the sauce very long — toss them together a few seconds before serving.

These hors d'oeuvres—a dressed-up version of shrimp toasts—are adapted from a recipe by Chinese cooking authority Nina Simonds, a longtime contributor to our pages.