Today is the second day of the second month in the lunar calender, a traditional Chinese Festival. It is literally referred to as “Dragon rises its head” (lóng tái tóu, 龙抬头). Starting on this day, everything is waking up, Spring is here and the weather gets warmer.

My father told me when he was small, in the morning of this day, people would fill up a kettle of water from their water tank, trickle the water all the way from their house to the river, saying: “lazy dragon get out, lazy dragon get out”. When they get to the river, the kettle should be empty, then they will fill the kettle with fresh river water, trickle it all the way back to the house, saying: “new dragon come in, new dragon come in”. People believed that through this method, they could stop laziness and get the hard working spirit back to the family.

The other thing people will do on this day, is make Spring Wraps.Wrapping spring up and bringing it into the tummy.

Spring Wrap

Ingredients: (serves 2)

flour tortillas
1-2 carrots
1 sweetheart cabbage
150g bean sprouts
1 potato
3-4 spring onions
light soy sauce
sweet bean paste
salt
cooking oil

Perpetration:

1. Cut carrots, sweetheart cabbage into thin shreds.
2. Cut the potato into thin shreds, cover the shreds with cold water with few drops of white vinegar to wash off the extra starch.
3. Cut two springs into slices, divide into three portions for three stir-fries.
4. Wash the bean sprouts.
5. Cut two spring onions into thin shreds, place in a plate with sweet bean paste for later use.

Method:

Stir-fried Sweetheart Cabbage

1. Heat up a pan with 2 tbsp of cooking oil over strong heat, when the oil is hot, put the spring onion in. Stir briefly until the flavour is released.
2. Put the cabbage shreds in, stir until the shreds soften. Keep stirring for another minute. Add 1 tbsp of light soy sauce and 1/2 tsp of salt, mix well and take out.

Stir-fried Carrot and Bean Sprouts

1. Heat up a pan with 2 tbsp of cooking oil over strong heat, when the oil is hot, put the spring onion in. Stir briefly until the flavour is released.
2. Put the carrot shreds in, stir until they soften. Put the bean sprouts in, stir for another minute. Add 1 tbsp of light soy sauce and 1/2 tsp of salt, mix well and take out.

Stir-fried Potato Shreds

1. Heat up a pan with 2 tbsp of cooking oil over strong heat, when the oil is hot, put the spring onion in. Stir briefly until the flavour is released.
2. Put the potato shreds in, stir for about 2 minutes. Add 1 tbsp of light soy sauce and 1/2 tsp of salt, stir for 2 more minutes. Take out.

Making Wrap

1. Heat up the tortillas
2. Put one tortilla on a plate, put some stir-fries, some spring onion shreds and about 1 tsp of sweet bean paste on the tortilla, wrap up.