FOOD, Friends, Uncategorized CHINESE COOKING WORKSHOP! 26 May 2009

10 of us girls decided to organise a cooking night, held by the Chinese Cooking Workshop. It’s a large industrial kitchen with bilingual chefs and assistants – basically catered for expats to get together and learn how to cook Chinese food. IT’S HELLA FUN!

Chef Huang was our star of the evening – a very very sweet guy that joked along with the rest of us. He handled 10 women wanting to marry him for his culinary skills very well 😉 Man, the guy can cook! He makes it all look so easy, though we were struggling and looking so uncoordinated. It made me realise that Chinese cooking isn’t so hard, but it’s all in the preparation – which takes ages chop chop chopping stuff. Other than that, it’s all actually quite straightforward.

We whipped up 10 courses (!!!!!!!!!!!) and got to sample our hard work. The food was all, surprisingly, delicious! Impressive considering we were first-timers, but I chalk it up to Chef Huang’s great instructions and patience.. especially since we were all drinking wine and laughing whilst trying to cook 😉

It was a fabulous evening with girl friends, and a great way to get together and have fun, whilst being productive. The only thing I would suggest to them would be to also serve free-flow cocktails through the night (at an extra flat-rate price), which will make it a lot more fun. And perhaps to have a CD player with some great music. But all in all, it was brilliant fun. Plus, it was only US$20 per person!!!! To learn and eat 10 courses!!!! CRAZINESS. I love China.

Couldn’t recommend it more!


Walking down this lil alleyway in the rain, trying to find the place

And then up a dingy corridor, before I finally found it, totally hidden away!

Perched in the windowsill, with the rainy night sky behind us

The big kitchen classroom

Our mega menu

Ingredients

Us girls get to work chop chop chopping

Delicious beancurd and mushroom dish. Never had it before
but apparently it’s a very common dish here!

Cold cucumber appetiser – marinated in sugar, salt, sesame oil and garlic

The chef shows us how to cook up the pork

Double-fried pork with salt & pepper

Mushrooms and bokchoy in oyster sauce. Sooo easy to make!

Fried rice

Kung Po chicken – a cinch to cook!

Flash fried green beans in garlic, and a bit of salt/sugar

‘Saliva Chicken’ – what a name eh? It’s cold chicken in a spicy chilli oil. Awesome!

Our adorable chef holds up the filleted fish

Amazing, amazing, amazing fried fish with sweet & sour sauce

Tucking in

Making up the sticky dough for the dessert dumplings

Showing us how it’s done

Shaping the bits of dough..

Filling the dough with some red bean, then rolling it up

Our oddly-sized dumplings. ROFL!!!!

Another dessert we made, rice wine dumplings (plain, custard and red bean)

Domestic goddesses… bwahaha

All of us!


Let’s Chat!




Let's Chat!

glad that you gals all enjoyed

Dear all, this is Aga, the founder of the chinese cooking workshop. chef huang and Celian are my colleagues, I was so touched that I found your article on my regular online research about the cooking program we offer, and it felt so happy that you all enjoyed and my colleagues did a great job. nice photos and you all welcome to get back to us whenever you like.

Aga, from shanghai
http://www.chinesecookingworkshop.com

glad that you gals all enjoyed

Dear all, this is Aga, the founder of the chinese cooking workshop. chef huang and Celian are my colleagues, I was so touched that I found your article on my regular online research about the cooking program we offer, and it felt so happy that you all enjoyed and my colleagues did a great job. nice photos and you all welcome to get back to us whenever you like.

Aga, from shanghai
http://www.chinesecookingworkshop.com

I love the bean curd dish! I always forget what it’s called so when I go to Shanghai I always struggle explaining what it is that I want to my relatives! I’m extremely picky with it too! It has to have the perfect sweetness!

I love the bean curd dish! I always forget what it’s called so when I go to Shanghai I always struggle explaining what it is that I want to my relatives! I’m extremely picky with it too! It has to have the perfect sweetness!

I’m SO glad Ijoined.. really opened my eyes to cooking some of the dishes I love . I reckon AU should have em too! 🙂

Looks like so much fun! So THAT’s how they put the filling into the sticky dough dumpling *blushes* I was wondering how do they always put that in 🙂

I was pretty fascinated too! You stuff the red bean in the middle and wrap the dough around it, then boil, and voila!

Here’s the recipe the chef gave us!

gongbaojiding宫保鸡丁chicken with peanuts (kongpao chicken)
Yuanliao 原料 Ingredients
Jixiongrou 鸡胸肉 chicken breast
Shuhuasheng 熟花生 cooked peanuts
Ganlajiao 干辣椒 dry chili
Tiaoliao 调料 seasoning
Congbai 葱白 green onion, white part
Layout 辣油 chili oil
Shengchou 生抽 light soy sauce
Cu 醋 vinegar
Tang 糖 sugar
Danqing 蛋清 egg white
Zhizuo fangfa 制作方法 Cooking methods
1.鸡胸切丁,加盐,蛋清,生粉拌匀,备用.

Chop the chicken breast and marinate with salt, egg white, starch and set aside.
2.干辣椒炸香倒出,炒锅置旺火上,放油烧热,下鸡肉丁炒散,倒出.

Sauté the pepper corn, dry chili and set aside. Heat the wok and add oil, put the chopped chicken into the wok and quickly stir fry and till well cooked and set aside.
3.锅留底油放入姜片、花椒,葱白,干辣椒炒出香味,再放入水,老抽,醋,糖,倒入鸡丁花生,醋,淋上红油即可.

Leave the oil in the wok and add sliced ginger, peppercorn, green onion and dry chili. Sauté all those ingredients. Add water, dark soy sauce, sugar and add chicken and peanuts, vinegar. Add chili oil. Serve.

Bev, thanks!!! No specific amount eh. But I still want to try. It’s so hard to find good Kung Po, you can’t imagine!

The beancurd thing is called kao fu I believe. It’s the only Shanghainese cuisine I know 😛

The cooking looks like amazing fun though!! I love those cucumber appetisers and the cold chicken. *drool*

I’m SO glad Ijoined.. really opened my eyes to cooking some of the dishes I love . I reckon AU should have em too! 🙂

Looks like so much fun! So THAT’s how they put the filling into the sticky dough dumpling *blushes* I was wondering how do they always put that in 🙂

I was pretty fascinated too! You stuff the red bean in the middle and wrap the dough around it, then boil, and voila!

Here’s the recipe the chef gave us!

gongbaojiding宫保鸡丁chicken with peanuts (kongpao chicken)
Yuanliao 原料 Ingredients
Jixiongrou 鸡胸肉 chicken breast
Shuhuasheng 熟花生 cooked peanuts
Ganlajiao 干辣椒 dry chili
Tiaoliao 调料 seasoning
Congbai 葱白 green onion, white part
Layout 辣油 chili oil
Shengchou 生抽 light soy sauce
Cu 醋 vinegar
Tang 糖 sugar
Danqing 蛋清 egg white
Zhizuo fangfa 制作方法 Cooking methods
1.鸡胸切丁,加盐,蛋清,生粉拌匀,备用.

Chop the chicken breast and marinate with salt, egg white, starch and set aside.
2.干辣椒炸香倒出,炒锅置旺火上,放油烧热,下鸡肉丁炒散,倒出.

Sauté the pepper corn, dry chili and set aside. Heat the wok and add oil, put the chopped chicken into the wok and quickly stir fry and till well cooked and set aside.
3.锅留底油放入姜片、花椒,葱白,干辣椒炒出香味,再放入水,老抽,醋,糖,倒入鸡丁花生,醋,淋上红油即可.

Leave the oil in the wok and add sliced ginger, peppercorn, green onion and dry chili. Sauté all those ingredients. Add water, dark soy sauce, sugar and add chicken and peanuts, vinegar. Add chili oil. Serve.

Bev, thanks!!! No specific amount eh. But I still want to try. It’s so hard to find good Kung Po, you can’t imagine!

The beancurd thing is called kao fu I believe. It’s the only Shanghainese cuisine I know 😛

The cooking looks like amazing fun though!! I love those cucumber appetisers and the cold chicken. *drool*