Chinese Cooking Class

If you read this blog while I was in China last year, you probably noticed that I was dumpling obsessed. I ate dozens of them over the course of the six weeks I was there. Some of them were meat-filled, some veggie-filled, some were even soup-filled! I came home determined to learn to make them myself. Last night, I did that. My friend, Karen, contacted me and our friend, Wanda, a few months back about taking a one-night cooking class at a local college--dim sum delights from Hong Kong. The class was held at the local community college which has a culinary arts program and all of the kitchen classrooms that go with that.

Our chef for the evening was the head chef of a local Chinese restaurant, and he led us through the creation of four dim sum dishes: shrimp toast, spring rolls, spare ribs in black bean sauce, and pot stickers--or fried dumplings. Here are a couple of our spring rolls. We made these! Somehow, that seems like magic to me.



The dumplings were filled with ground pork, green onions and lots of seasoning, and we did a pretty good job of mastering the folding of the dumpling. You take a ball of dough, you snake it out, and cut it into small bits which you flatten into a circle with a rolling pin. You put some filling on half of the circle, fold the dough over, and start crimping the edges. Honestly, the crimping is trickier than you'd think.


Since these were pot stickers, we fried them in a little oil until browned, then added water and let them steam a bit. Sadly, we over watered them, so our dumplings were soggy. Still, it would be easy to make them at home.


We spent a good portion of our time eating our creations. I have to say that the spring rolls were my favorite. All in all, it was a fun evening. Thanks to Karen for my new thing for March!

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