For Fat Noodle Executive Chef, Luke Nguyen, Lunar New Year is a special time of year to connect with family, food and his community.
“Lunar New Year has always been about getting together with my extended family and cooking up traditional dishes to offer to my ancestors.”
“We start celebrations at midnight at the temple, paying respects to those who have passed, and praying for a joyous and prosperous new year. Then it’s time to pass on our thanks to the community by helping the temple prepare thousands of meals for those in needs before heading home to enjoy the array of dishes we’d pre-prepared for ourselves.”
“Growing up in Vietnam, we’d usually take the whole week off to visit family across the country – gathering together to continue celebrations and feast.”
It’s this time-honoured tradition of communal feasting that Luke has brought to the Fat Noodle kitchen to celebrate Lunar New Year – the Salmon Lucky Yu Sheng with a signature beetroot dressing. Design to be enjoyed with loved ones, it’s a traditional Lunar New Year dish hailing from Malaysia & Singapore.
To enjoy the dish, everyone at the table stands up and proceeds to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying various auspicious wishes out loud.
To give you a taste of what’s being dished up at Fat Noodle, Luke has shared his recipe for the Salmon Lucky Yu Sheng. It is believed that the height of the toss reflects the height of the diners’ growth in fortunes, so feel free to go wild!
Salmon Lucky Yu Sheng, Signature Beet Root Dressing
Ingredients
- 120g salmon, skinned and deboned
- 80g mango
- 80 sweet, preserved melon
- 50g pomelo
- 50g radish, shredded
- 50g carrot, shredded
- 50g cucumber, sliced thinly
- 1tbsp coriander
- 1 lime cheek
- 1tsp red chilli, sliced thinly
- 1tsp kaffir lime leaves, sliced thinly
- 2tsbp peanuts, crushed
Beetroot Dressing
- 500g beetroot
- 30g ginger
- 500ml plum sauce
- 1tsp salt
- 100g white sugar
Method
- To make the beetroot dressing, peel, cut and blend the beetroot down to a juice. Then chop the ginger finely and sauté in a pan. Add the sugar and stir until ginger has caramelised. Then add the beetroot juice and plum sauce. Season with salt and stir until thickened. Remove from heat.
- Thinly slice the salmon and the mango, then fold the slices into a flower shape.
- Place all ingredients around the salmon and mango in the middle of the place neatly, ready to be tossed.
