Cooking Class

Last week in Beijing, my friends and I attempted a cooking class. I couldn't quite keep up with Kung Pao Chicken recipe, but I managed to somewhat keep up with the dumplings.

SHRIMP AND CHICKEN DUMPLINGS

Here is the recipe:

4 boneless medium sized chicken breasts
1 pound of peeled shrimp
1 large red onion
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of flour
1 egg
dash of pepper
dash of soy sauce
1 package of wonton wrappers


-Finely chop the chicken breasts, shrimp and onion
We did it by hand. But I realized that I food proccessor would work just as well. But if you want to be authentic, I suppose you might want to finely chop it by hand.
Put it all in large mixing bowl.

-Add the rest of the ingredients and mix

-Put one spoonful of the mixture in in each wrapper

-Now this is where it gets complicted. I tried to learn how to fold them authentically, but it was pretty difficult. You can look at the pictures and see if you catch on. But honestly, I'm not really sure. Our cooking teacher tried to explain it to me, but it was in Chinese, so...

-I learned quickly, however, my own strategy.
Dab a little bit of water along the edge of the wonton wrapper to help it seal shut. Fold the wonton wrapper in half and seal it any way you can. It works just as well.







-Now you have a few options. You can deep fry them, boil them or pan fry.

-If you deep fry, that is unhealthy and very American, so let's skip that one.

-If you boil them, which is the healthiest, boil them in a pot of lighlty salted, boiling water until they float to the top (5ish minutes). Only boil about 4-5 at a time.

-If you pan fry them, which is tasiest, add a few tablespoons of cooking oil to the pan. Add 3-4 dumplings to the oil at a time and fry until light brown on both sides. Soak up the excess oil with a paper towel.

Mixing Sauce:
Mix 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of white vinegar, 1 teaspoon chili oil, dash of sugar and salt and mix for a delicious dipping sauce.

***BONUS: If you have left over mixture, add it to beated eggs and fry it up as a frittata! Sautee some carrots or zucchini to add on top. This is what we did and it was delicious.

Bon Apetit!!!


I gaurantee your meal will end up looking like this.


Here is a picture of our cooking group.