Photo: Bonnie Savage / Styling: Jacqui Erskine
Brought to you by Aurum Poultry Co.
Lunar New Year — the beginning of a new year according to the lunisolar calendar — is fast approaching. It’s a significant time to reunite with family and friends, honour ancestors, and dine on banquet-style feasts.
To celebrate the festivities, renowned chef Victor Liong (Lee Ho Fook) has created four delicious Lunar New Year recipes that promise to bring luck and prosperity to any feast.
Rich in flavour and tradition, Liong’s auspicious dishes use the finest produce from Aurum Poultry Co.’s specialty poultry range, including slow-grown cockerel, slow-grown pullet, and Moorabool Valley corn-fed ducks.
Below, explore Liong’s top recipes to ring in the Year of the Dragon this Lunar New Year.
Lacquered cockerel with eight-spice salt
Lacquered cockerel with eight-spice salt
Featuring slow grown Fook Wong cockerel
“A whole chicken is a festive way to start the [Lunar] New Year, as this dish symbolises wealth and prosperity,” Liong says. It also packs a flavour punch, as the bones, skin, and connective tissues release collagen and marrow when cooked, adding depth and richness to the meat.
Here he slathers slow-grown Fook Wong cockerel with an eight-spice salt that takes the dish to the next level. To finish, garnish with lemon, Japanese Worcestershire sauce, coriander, and julienned spring onion.
Shredded pullet, jellyfish and pomelo salad
Shredded pullet, jellyfish and pomelo salad
Featuring ready-to-cook salt baked Fook Wong pullet
Bursting with bright pomelo and salty jellyfish coated in a rice vinegar dressing, this light salad is perfect for summer. Liong’s star ingredient is shredded slow-grown salt-baked Fook Wong pullet, a tender and succulent meat with a delicate flavour profile. “There is no better way to enjoy the flavour of pullet hen than in this festive salad,” says Liong. “It’s textural, flavourful and auspicious.”
Roast duck with angelica root and red date sauce
Featuring Moorabool Valley corn-fed duck
You can’t host Lunar New Year celebrations without serving a glossy roast duck. This Moorabool Valley corn-fed duck is plump and juicy, with a subtle sweetness that can be attributed to its corn-based diet.
“This flavour profile is traditional and authentic, and a happy pairing with the amazing quality and flavour of Aurum Poultry Co.’s slow-raised duck,” Liong explains. Keep in mind, the delicious angelica root sauce can be made seven days ahead of time and stored in the fridge.
Salted egg yolk sablé, cheese custard ice cream and botrytis
Featuring Moorabool Valley Salted Duck Eggs
Salted egg yolk cookies are a staple Lunar New Year treat for the yolk’s symbolic, golden hue. In Liong’s delicate dessert, a single salted egg yolk sablé (made with Moorabool Valley salted duck eggs) sits atop an elegant scoop of cheese custard ice-cream. “This is a creative use of salted duck egg, as the rich savouriness makes the sablé irresistible,” Liong says.
Luxurious, elegant, and sweetened by a splash of dessert wine Botrytis Semillon, this is the perfect dish to round out your Lunar New Year feast with joy and good fortune.
Brought to you by specialty poultry Aurum Poultry Co.
Recipes: Victor Liong / Photos: Bonnie Savage / Styling: Jacqui Erskine
