Cooking School!

Do you remember that for my birthday last year my friends gave me a voucher for a cooking school? In March this year when the timetable was released I ummed and ahhed over which class I should take. I narrowed the field down to two courses... dumplings or brioche. In the end, time was the decider. The dumplings course was in June, whereas the brioche course wasn't until December. How could I possible wait over a year to use my birthday present!?

So, on Saturday, I learnt how to make dumplings.

I was really nervous before the class thinking that I my skills wouldn't be good enough. That I wouldn't chop things finely enough. That I might chop my finger off. That the class would be full of Toorak Mums and I wouldn't be dressed in this season's fashion. That everyone would laugh at my cute 50s style floral apron. It was just like starting school all over again. In the end only one of these nearly happened. I had my knives sharpened the day before the class and I cut myself. It would not stop bleeding and I had to get a bandaid from the first aid kit. I felt like a bit of a loser, but surprisingly no-one pointed and laughed.

So onto the cooking. Our teacher was Anthony Ross from the Langham. He gave us a demonstration of how to make the first dumpling - Har Gow Prawn Dumplings. He made it look like a breeze. We were all thinking why do I need a class to learn this?? Oh how wrong we were! When it was our turn, we split up into groups of four. We made the filling first and it was great to get that hands on feel of how to pull the ingredients together to make them sticky enough to stick together, but still solid so the prawns crunch when you bite into the dumpling.

Then we made the wrapper. Mixing the ingredients and kneading was easy. Rolling them so they form the paper thin wrapper, not so much. But it was fun trying. Then shaping the dumpling itself was super hard. Pleating them correctly is going to take a fair bit of practice, but I'm pretty sure I have enough friends who are keen to be dumpling testers.

So after we'd made a number of the first type of dumpling, we loaded them into a bamboo steamer tray and they were popped in the fridge. We then sat down to watch Anthony demonstrate the next type of dumpling, pan-fried pork dumplings. This was a different type of wrapper that used a different technique to roll them out. They didn't have to be as thin this time and they weren't as sticky. I thought this made it a little easier to make them. I was really starting to get the hang of rolling them by the time we finished up. 

At the same time as making this dumpling, we also made the filling and pastry for a wonton, but we didn't put this one together as there wasn't enough time to let the pastry rest and apparently it was the easiest so it was better to master the others.

Our wonton filling was popped in the fridge and our pork dumplings were placed on a tray while the staff cleaned up and set the tables for our tastings.

While we had a glass of wine, Anthony demonstrated how to cook each of the dumplings using the ones that we had made and then we got to try them all. They were so delicious!! I was really impressed with how they turned out and I can't wait to make them again all by myself and experiment with different fillings.

It was such an awesome day and I was so full of ideas and inspiration by the end of it, so on the way out the door I booked myself into the brioche class. 

Har Gow Prawn Dumplings

Pan-fried Pork Dumplings

Wonton Soup