KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — More and more of us are eating out during the first couple days of Chinese New Year. Restaurants, in response, have opted to remain open to welcome eager customers. Certainly saves the trouble of cooking at home during the festive period.

Still, for many families, tradition requires raucous bouts of manoeuvring around one another in the kitchen. It’s time for loved ones to gather, after all, and what better way to catch up than around the stove and sink?

(Yes, someone has to be on dishwashing duties; there’s no escaping that, not even during Chinese New Year.)

There will be the classics: Steamed fish and fresh large prawns. Ambrosial abalone with bright green florets of broccoli and fat heads of mushrooms. A whole chicken, for that sense of completeness. Oodles of noodles, for longevity.

Someone had the foresight to order a roasted suckling pig for the whole family to feast on. And everyone loves lap mei fan, that staple dish (at least during Chinese New Year) of fragrant rice with preserved meats.

And so on.

Why not switch things up a little this year? Time for something new to appear on the usual rotation of tried and tested dishes.

Instead of hot wings, try these auspicious huat wings for Chinese New Year. Crunchy from double frying and delectably sticky from a tangy-sweet glaze, who can resist these?

The secret lies in the use of mandarin oranges for their citrusy juice and zest. Their name in Cantonese, kam, sounds like "gold” and symbolises bountiful wealth in the year to come.

Other fortune-bringing ingredients include a generous amount of garlic (its name in Cantonese, shun, sounds like "counting” as in "counting lots of money”) and a dash of dried sardine powder (fish is yu in Cantonese and denotes having extra every year).

Now that’s good taste and good meaning, all in one flavourful bundle!

‘HUAT’ WINGS

One could certainly make more straightforward versions of these huat wings. For something akin to American style hot wings, one could add a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a hot sauce of choice (remember, the higher the S.H.U. or Scoville Heat Units, the fierier that bottle; use sparingly).

Maybe you prefer spicy Korean fried chicken or yangnyeom chikin. If so, try a spoonful or two of gochujang, a spicy-sweet red chilli paste made from gochu-garu (Korean chilli powder), glutinous rice and fermented soybeans.

But those can wait for other times. It’s Chinese New Year now; mandarin oranges are at their best. Their juice and zest will transform these from ordinary fried chicken to truly huat wings!

Red hot chillies give these huat wings a fiery kick while tomatoes in the form of purée or ketchup give the dish its distinctive tanginess. Don’t forget pungent garlic, which ensures these chicken wings are absolutely flavourful.

Everything combines to create a beautiful glaze that is equal parts spicy, sweet and tangy.

Ingredients: Auspicious Sambal