Chinese Food - Tim Sum Workshop

My ex-baking buddy, Doris, has been hooked and organising chinese cooking workshops lately. She is a good baking/cooking virus which infects most of us. She really knows what she wanted, liaised with the chef trainer, and gathered us for the workshop. From buying ingredients to coordination, to preparation, she did it all single-handedly. I really take my hats off her! On top of it, the workshop was held at her place again. Not only did we use her utensils, we also used her utilities and dirtied her place! She had to do all the cleaning herself (Sharon, did you help her?) after we left (as she has no domestic helper). Isn't she such a fantastic buddy to have? And the best part which I like was, she has all the props that chef trainer needs! Her place is a like a minimart! Heehee...

I hesitated for a while before deciding to join them in the workshop last Sunday. (Sharon said I was very wishy washy.) I only confirmed my attendance last Wednesday where all of them had confirmed weeks before! Hahaha... Anyway, these were what we learnt.

1.  炸酱面 (zha jiang mian)

"Freshly made noodles cooked to perfection and a good sauce made with fermented beans, minced pork and chilies and the addition of simple topping of finely shredded cucumber made it a perfect meal!"

Even though we didn't make the noodles from scratch, the noodles that were purchased by Doris was really nice to go with the sauce. The sauce was cooked from scratch. And it took quite a while to cook it to perfection. Chef did it once to show us, then we did the noodles ourselves. It was really good, and filling too!

2. 生煎包 (shen jian bao)
"A tender meat filling, an explosion of juices which is absorbed by the soft skin and lastly a crispy caramelised skin to tease your palate."

From the filling of the bao, to the skin, to the pan fried and steaming, we went through each step carefully. We also had hands-on wrapping the bao. Dip the baos with vinegar and shredded ginger was simply tantalising! Give me five, I could finish them all!

Guess which bao was wrapped by me? [answer at the end]

3. 豆沙鍋餅 (Red bean pancakes)
"Shanghainese red bean pancakes. Generously filled with sweetened red bean paste, this dessert is meant to be served hot to savor its crispiness!"

This was the main reason I attended the workshop! Haha... Even though we didn't make the red bean paste ourselves, the pancake tasted really good! The thought of it made me salivate (*greedy*). Chef showed us how to mix the dough, prepare the pancake and fried it. Then each of us took our turn to do it hands-on. Chef is really good. He always encourage us to try. He always tells us that "if you don't try, you won't know how to do it when you are home." and "if you can do it as well as a me, the you don't need to attend my workshops anymore." A very humorous, but attentive chef trainer he is. No wonder all the "aunties" like him! *grin*

Bao #5 was made by me. Compared to Chef's #2 & 3, mine have less than half the pleats of his. However, I thought it's still not too bad for a starter like me, yah?