New Year’s Eve is when families gather around the dinner table, and every dish on the menu represents happiness and blessings. Pauline D Loh shares the meanings behind the food

For the Chinese, a fish on the table during the Spring Festival signifies a bountiful time in the coming year. The Chinese character for fish is “yu”, phonetically identical to the word representing “abundance” or “surplus”.

Fish is also a popular symbol on the spring couplets that decorate doorways and lintels at this time of year. Traditional Spring Festival papercuttings also use fish as a motif, especially the carp, considered an auspicious creature in mythology. In fact, legend has it that the carp is the previous reincarnation of the mighty dragon, and it makes the magic transformation after it swims upstream and leaps over the Dragon Gate.

These myths are probably based on the carp’s intense will to live. Anyone who has tried to dress a carp will have noticed how hard it is to extinguish its life. Long after it is scaled and cleaned, the carp’s body will twitch, mostly due to strong muscular contractions and reflexes.

In the West, the carp is not valued for the dinner table. But the Chinese have mastered the art of cooking carp, whether it is red-cooked or braised on a bed of scallions and ginger. The only disadvantage is that the carp has plenty of slender, barbed bones.

More popular fishes during the Chinese New Year are those that are less bony, such as the pomfret or snapper. These saltwater fishes are fat and fleshy – suitable for both young and old at the reunion table.

While there are many ways to cook fish, the best way to retain their natural sweetness is to steam them. The secret is to get the cooking time just right. High heat – with water at a rolling boil – and about 15 minutes later, you have a platter of perfectly steamed fish flaking off the bone. Simple garnishes, such as finely shredded spring onions, ginger, chilies and a hot bath of sizzling aromatic oil, are the finishing touches.

While southern chefs favor delicate steaming, Sichuan and northern chefs prefer bolder flavors for their fish.

A popular way to cook fish is to add salty, tangy pickled vegetables – suan cai. These pickled mustards are finely shredded and added to the wok with sour pickled plums, a handful of dried chilies and Sichuan peppercorns. A whole fish, or a large fishhead, is added and then brought to the boil. The final dish is a large bowl of broth and meat that is powerfully aromatic and a great stimulant for both nose and palate.

Another popular dish on the table during the Spring Festival celebrations is a platter of juicy pink prawns. They are enough to make anyone smile, but especially since their name in Chinese sounds like “laughter”, in some southern dialects.

In the winter months, the prawns are fat from feeding on plankton in the icy cold waters, and they are at their tastiest. They will not need much cooking, just a simple searing with a few slices of ginger and perhaps some scallions, and then a sizzle of the best quality soy sauce.

Some families prefer blanching or steaming these prawns and serving them with a soy and sesame dip, with perhaps a few slices of red chili added.

For the coming festivities this weekend, try these simple but delicious fish and prawn dishes, and may your family be blessed with much abundance and laughter in the Year of the Tiger.