Tim Sum Workshop

The event: Tim Sum Workshop
The date: 27 Mar 10
The time: 2.30pm
The venue: Chef Cooking Studio @ 30A Smith Street
The programme: Demonstration on Flaky Egg Tart, Water Chestnut Kueh & Char Siew Sow.

A couple of weeks ago, Doris asked if I'll be interested in learning flaky egg tarts. She said the flaky egg tart from this cooking school is really good. Actually, I'm not much of a “cooking” person, however, I like egg tarts and so do my eldest boy. She also added that there will be Char Siew Sow and Water Chestnut Kueh demo included. Hmm...Char Siew Sow was also my son's favourite! With that, she managed to convince me to sign up for this workshop.

The day came. I made my way to Chinatown. The studio wasn't that easy to find. It was located on the second floor of those Chinatown shophouse building. It is opposite the Chinatown Market. It wasn't a very big place, however, it was roomy enough to accommodate 14 of us. Unfortunately, my dear friend, Doris was ill and couldn't make it to this long-awaited workshop. Through Doris, I have made some acquaintances with her other baking friends, and they were also present for this workshop.

 Chef Soon was the instructor for this tim sum workshop. Together with Chef Keong, they were previously teaching at Creative Culinaire. Both Chefs are very friendly and humble. Chef Soon shared his experience and the know-how without reserves.

 We started with the marking of Water Chestnut Kueh. He taught us how to cook the flour and mix them so that the water chestnuts do not all sink to the bottom of the tray when steaming. We tried the kueh in cold, like dessert and pan-fried hot. Most of us preferred the kueh when it's pan-fried hot. The sweetness was just perfect.

Then we proceeded to make the sauce for our Char Siew Sow, followed by making of the dough for both the Char Siew Sow and Egg Tart. The dough is a mixture of the Oil dough and Water dough. Specific steps had to be followed in order to obtain a good dough that will layered upon baking. A lot of time were used for freezing and chilling the dough in order to achieve the right texture.

While we were waiting for the dough, Chef Soon made the egg mixture for the egg tarts. He also demonstrated to us on how to mould the dough in order to create depth for the egg mixture. Then we had hands-on to mould the dough. It didn't come naturally for me to do the moulding. It had to be corrected by chef as it wasn't deep enough. After that, it was placed in the oven to bake. We were given one tart each to try. The crust was very flaky, egg mixture was very soft and not sweet, the total taste was truly delicious!

Finally, he completed the Char Siew Sow. The Char Siew Sow required twice egg wash, and a final brush of golden syrup to give it a shine after baking, and sprinkled with some toasted sesame seeds. We tried the Char Siew Sow. The crust was flaky, coupled with the very moist sauce with Char Siew was truly perfect!

Chef Soon said, once we tried these tim sum from him, and learnt the steps on how to make them, we wouldn't want to buy them from outside anymore. I can't agree more! If I can achieve at least 70% of what was taught, I think it's really good enough! The Water Chestnut Kueh was the easiest among the three items. The other two involved a lot of preparation and work, which I am still wondering if I will ever try it! Everyone of us brought home two pieces of each item taught in class. It was a good learning experience! I've come to appreciate tim sum more, after  understanding the amount of work that goes into the preparation!