Bacon Loaf and Coffee & Almond Bread Rolls @ ABC Cooking Studio

Bacon Loaf

Judy, Fei and I have signed up for a total of 6 bread and cake-making lessons at ABC Cooking Studio (SWFC branch) so we were there before Christmas to make a Bacon Loaf and Coffee & Almond Bread Rolls. We have been having the same instructor from the last session whom we are pretty fond of, for she's an expat housewife like us (Taiwanese married to a Malaysian) only she has no kids so she had loads of time to kill. Otherwise I suppose one wouldn't want to work for peanuts.

Coffee and almond rolls

I realise that the members of my family prefer savoury breads to the sweet ones. The kids still rave about the bacon loaf and ham rolls, but refused to touch the coffee ones. I am unfortunately not much capable of sitting through the proofing periods required for making bread, so they haven't been seeing much of it at home.

The proofing and baking ovens at ABC cooking studio

We are still left with 2 cake-making sessions and should be going for them in March, in between mosaic and Chinese calligraphy workshops.

Bacon Loaf :

A

125g high gluten bread flour

1½ tsp dried yeast

1 tbsp sugar

165ml water

B

125g high gluten bread flour

⅔ tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

C

1 tsp dried basil leaves

⅓ tsp garlic powder

Garnishing

2 tbsp parmesan cheese (grated)

2 bacon slices

Method :

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Combine ingredients A in a bowl taking care to place the yeast next to the sugar.

Combine ingredients B in another bowl.

Our Taiwanese instructor and my 2 neighbours

Combine doughs A and B. Knead till smooth. Roll the dough into a rectangle.

Sprinkle ingredients C onto it and roll it into a log bottom up. Fold the log into 2 and knead it to mix everything well together.

Form a ball, cover with clingwrap and proof in a warm environment (e.g. 41°C) for 25 minutes.

Poke a floured finger into the middle of the dough. It should come out clean. Gently punch the dough 3 times to remove the air in it, form it into a ball, cover with a wet cloth and proof it on the table for 10 minutes.

Using a rolling pin gently press the shape of a cross on the surface of the dough.

Roll out a 24cm by 15cm dough. Garnish with the cheese and bacon. Roll into a log bottom up.

Slice ⅔ of the roll into 2. Holding on to both strips, plait the dough, overlapping each strip alternatively.

Gently put it into a loaf tin. Cover with the wet cloth and proof for 20 minutes.

Bake in the hot oven for 25 minutes.

If planning to store the loaf, let it cool completely first.

Xiaolongbao小笼包Class at the Chinese Cooking Workshop, Pudong

My 小笼包

Xiaolongbao小笼包 is a famous Shanghainese delicacy that, in my humble opinion, is only edible when it's good. I say that because I have tried it at so many restaurants in my one year here, including at the famous Nanxiang Xiaolongbao chain of restaurants (with long queues everywhere), and I have arrived at the conclusion that I would only bother to eat those served at Din Tai Fung鼎泰丰 - very expensive they may be.

Needless to say I wanted to know how it was made so when JW came to visit I arranged for us to attend a private cooking class at the Chinese Cooking Workshop - a cooking school mainly attended by expats in Shanghai. They have opened a branch here in Pudong which saved us the trouble of going all the way to Puxi for the lesson.

JW all geared out for the lesson

Every Shanghainese, when I mentioned that I would be attending the class, laughed in my face. "It's too much trouble, just buy it from a shop!" was the usual advice. My driver told me that he has not eaten them for a long time, "They don't taste as good as they used to..."

Pudong branch of the Chinese Cooking Workshop (also premises of the Bakery Kitchen)

We did make xiaolongpao that morning, albeit pretty ugly ones. The difficulty lies in making a wrapper thin yet flexible and strong enough to wrap the meat in, in making the jello for the meat filling, and especially in wrapping the dumpling.

We were given a recipe for making the meat filling but did not get to see how the jello was made. The jello provides the broth in the dumpling when it is steamed. It is derived from boiling animal parts that provide the gelatine, left to cool then cut into tiny cubes to be mixed with the meat.

Rolling out the wrapper

There is a technique for rolling out the skin, another for wrapping it around the meat. Not at all easy for first timers like us.

Freshly wrapped

The instructor was an experienced cook but I felt that she must have simplified her recipe for her students because the wrapper was yellower and thicker than they should be. She also made us use a lot of the filling - and I do not like my dumplings too meaty or big.

Xiaolongbao - steamed

Still, it was satisfying making my own dumplings and I hope to find the time to try out the recipe on my own in the near future.

Flower rolls - freshly rolled out

At my request we also learnt how to make Steamed Flower Rolls. I was told that mine were very pretty though I have no idea what I did to make them so.

Flower rolls - steamed

I may consider attending other classes organised by the Chinese Cooking Workshop when I have friends visiting because they provide a fun introduction to Shanghai and give us something interesting to do together. Other than that do not expect value-added instructions that more experienced cooks may need and unless you speak Mandarin the young lady they provided as interpreter was only good for simple instruction.

Chinese Cooking Workshop

Room 418, Bldg 1

3611 Zhangyang Lu by Jinqiao Lu

Tel : 139 1732 6055

www.chinesecookingworkshop.com

Cooking/Baking with JW in Shanghai

JW making cheese scones (watched by my 2 pretty neighbours)

The cooking club I had helped found in Modena lives on in my absence. I miss my friends cooking, eating and gossiping without me, but I haven't found the energy nor the motivation to start another one here in Shanghai. Unless you consider the one or 2 private cooking sessions I've been having with my neighbours here, 2 ladies who are fond of la bonne bouffe like myself.

When JW came to stay with me, I took the opportunity to relive old times by organising a pasta-making session with J and F. Especially when LY so generously sent a jar of the precious squid ink over with JW.

And while waiting to start the hard work kneading, JW made us a batch of her famous cheese scones - a hit with the girls. Lovely with a glass of kir.

Risotto ai funghi porcini

I then demonstrated cooking a simple risotto ai funghi porcini followed by seafood pasta, and we ate everything up for lunch after that.

Seafood pasta

That was probably the beginning of a series of private cooking sessions that I would be doing with the girls. I am starting small as I have to do my own housework at the moment added to demands on my time at the children's school. I've also signed up for a mosaics workshop as well as a Chinese calligraphy class - all to start in a week or 2.

I am going to be busy - again.

Ham Flower Rolls @ ABC Cooking Studio, Shanghai SWFC

Flower bread Rolls with Ham

I came across the ABC Cooking Studio the last few times I lunched at the SWFC and had always wanted to try it out. However it's not fun doing things like that on one's own so when my 2 neighbours Judy and Fei invited me to join them to try out bread making at said studio I didn't hesitate.

I was not surprised to discover that the cooking studio's a Japanese outfit. Apparently a wildly popular women-only import. It was bright, colourful and functional, with an all-glass shop front that would allow passers-by to watch what's going on inside. You are invited to use the free lockers to the right of the entrance to keep your handbag and shoes in exchange for an apron and a pair of slippers. They do not wash the aprons too often, by the way.

The hands-on classes have to be reserved in advance and class sizes are small. The instructors have been reasonably well-trained and would conduct the lessons only in Mandarin (except for one or 2 who could speak Japanese - mainly for communicating with the Japanese Manager). They are paid very local rates though - 50rmb for 5 hours and 100rmb for 8 hours (according to a recruitment poster in the shop).

You need to be a member before you are allowed to join the classes. They offer 3 trial lessons to choose from i.e. cake making, bread making or cooking and once you become a member you are expected to complete, say, all the classes under basic bread making before you are allowed to proceed to classes under advanced bread making.

Since we are not total beginners, we found the rule a little ridiculous. But the Japanese didn't become successful because they are given to one's whims and fancies so they would tell you that their's a tried and tested industrial learning process, not to be tampered with by a few bored housewives.

Since we just wanted to find something interesting yet educational to do together, the 3 of us decided to sign up for 6 more classes, which would add to our current list of activities which include badminton, lunches and visiting food/plant markets.

Actually Judy is already a good baker so between copying her movements and listening to the instructor I baked my bread and forgot to take notes. We had to do own washing during the lesson which probably helped keep costs reasonable. There were 2 types of ovens in the studio : one set at 45°C and used mainly for proofing bread dough and the Toshiba ones for baking and even steaming.

Ham Flower Rolls :

Bowl A :

75g bread flour (high gluten)

1 tbsp sugar

2/3 tsp dry yeast

1 egg (beaten, about 26g)

70ml water

Bowl B :

75g bread flour

1/3 tsp salt

15g unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)

6 round pieces of cooked ham

egg wash

mayonnaise (optional)

Add flour into bowl A. Followed by the sugar on one side and the yeast next to the sugar. On the other side of the bowl (with the flour in between), add the egg. Pour the water onto the yeast.

Add flour into bowl B. Followed by the salt and butter.

Mix the ingredients in bowl A with a wooden spoon. When you start to see holes in the dough, add the content of bowl B into it. Continue to mix with the wooden spoon till you get a dough.

Turn the dough out on a clean and dry working surface, using a scraper to scrap out any dough/flour in the bowl. Knead the dough till it doesn't stick to the working surface any more, using the scraper if necessary to help pick up the dough stuck to the table.

Form a ball with the dough and place it in a bowl smooth side up. Cover with cling wrap and proof it in a 45°C oven for 25 minutes.

Flour a finger and poke it into the dough. If the hole doesn't close up, the dough is ready for shaping. Gently press out the air and form the dough into a ball again, tucking in the sides at the bottom. Divide into 6 portions. Shape each portion into a ball and place them in a baking tray always smooth side up. Cover with cling wrap and a wet cloth. Proof in the 45°C oven for 10 minutes.

Using your fingers flatten and smooth out each ball till it's big enough to hold a slice of the ham. Roll up from the bottom and pinch the edges close. Fold the roll into half (using a finger in the middle of the roll to help sustain it) and slice it into 2 about 2/3 of the way (at the part that is folded). Open up the dough and you'll get a flower roll with visible layers.

Gently brush with egg wash and drizzle mayonnaise over the roll (if you wish). I didn't use any mayonnaise as I do not like it. Return to the baking tray and cover with the cling wrap and wet towel. Proof in the slightly warm oven for 20 minutes.

Bake in a hot 185°C oven for 13 minutes. Best eaten hot.

I've also made a version with pork floss at home, worked out just as well.

ABC Cooking Studio, SWFC Shanghai

浦东世纪大道100号上海环球金融中心2楼, 近东泰路

Cooking with Chef Wang

Chef Wang at work

They started this series of cookery lessons with Chef Wang the week before I moved in. I have therefore missed the fried fish with sweet and sour sauce - a tragedy. Have no idea how to slice fish to make it look like the fish they serve in good restaurants.

Fried Fish Cutlets

But I haven't missed any of the remaining 11 lessons since. Even through my unpacking I would make time to attend the class. In fact, my movers arrived on a Thursday morning - the day we usually have our cooking class. The service centre sent one of their staff to my house (to keep an eye on the movers) so that I could attend lessons that morning. Hub was pissed off with me for that...

Crab Roe Tofu

Chef Wang works for the "model" Chinese restaurant in our hotel. He has learnt from famous Chinese masters and has served many very important Chinese politicians in his career. But learning is 2-way as we know, after 12 lessons with us he finally learnt not to add msg and/or too much oil in his cooking demonstrations.

Curry Crabs

If you had seen the amount of oil and/or msg being used in Chinese restaurant cooking you probably would stop eating out. My most memorable was the fried vegetarian goose that Chef Wang made - literally steeped in oil and more oil even before it was fried. Of course it tasted heavenly - but think of the oil and I lose some of my blood pressure.

Making the egg dumpling wrapper in a ladle!

Most of the recipes he shared with us were meant to familiarise us with basic Chinese cooking techniques so that we would be able to cook most simple dishes at home. Marinating meat, chopping, slicing, boiling tofu before cooking with it, how to decorate a plate etc. Measures were always approximative as taste is personal and his favourite word during his classes probably was "gu ji" or estimate.

Meat-filled Egg Dumplings

I haven't taken many pictures of the dishes as half of the classes fell during my unpacking period and I barely had time to rush to and back from the lessons forget remembering to bring along the camera. We have done dishes as varied as cantonese oyster sauce beef, fried vegetarian goose, shanghainese shaomai, hot and sour soup, seafood soup, black pepper beef, mapo tofu, cold noodles with peanut sauce, yuxiang egg plant, curry crabs, fried fish cutlets, sanbei chicken, salt and pepper prawns, egg dumplings, gongbao chicken...

Prawn & Egg Dumpling Soup

Most of the other tenants who turned up were Chinese or of Chinese origins e.g. from USA, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia...We actually have quite a fun group and have taken to doing things together outside the cookery classes.

Mapo Tofu

Chef Wang said that he would probably start another series of cookery lessons at the end of summer when we return for the new school year. In the meantime I better try cooking some of the dishes myself before I forget everything.

Last Cookery Club Lesson at LY's

Pièce Montée

I am going to sound like a broken record, but I am really fortunate to have made a few wonderful friends here in Modena and it breaks my heart to leave them behind. My only consolation is that there is email and Skype, and since they all have husbands who travel alot for business, maybe they'll have enough miles to get themselves on a plane soon to visit me in Shanghai.

Stuffing choux pastry

LY held her cookery class last Wednesday - though we didn't get to see much cooking, she has prepared almost everything in advance and singlehandedly - and we were busy chatting away anyway to be working much.

Foie gras and champagne - potent combination

It was a feast. We had champagne, foie gras, smoked salmon, bread from France, baked lamb, home-made mashed potatoes, chocolate swiss roll...and a pièce montée! The kind you usually get at weddings. I felt so honoured...

It was lovely seeing everyone again (probably for the last time in Modena) and be able to hug them goodbye one last time. They've also offered me a nice parting gift, something to remember our common love for cooking/baking by.

Very tasty lamb with garlic sauce and mashed potatoes

JW has cooked me a farewell lunch (photos pending as not all turned out), JoW and LS have brought me out to lunch and last Friday I was surprised with a lovely trilogy of presents from MB, CB and JoW...These ladies are really not making it easy for me to leave, preferably without breaking down. But I will be strong - because if you see the casino that is my house at the moment, and just a few days from the move, you know that I cannot spend my day weeping and feeling sorry for leaving.

LY's famous chocolate swiss roll

But I will miss you all. Please promise to keep the club going after my departure.

My Last Cookery Lesson for the Club

A sampling of what I've cooked today

All good things have to come to an end, as you may have been told. Though it doesn't mean that you are any more comforted just because you are aware of that. This morning I did my last cooking lesson with my cooking club, and while I was (am) very sad, I also know that the group is now such a happy one that it will continue happily without me - to more good recipes!

I didn't have the time to hunt for special ingredients or to organise myself for a more complicated cookery class, so I've opted to demonstrate very simple dishes to my fellow club members :

Fried Pork and Prawn Won Tons

Spicy Coconut Shrimp Soup

Hainanese Chicken Rice (just the rice)

Ginger Chicken

Black Pepper Prawns

Mango Lassi

Tarte Tatin

Except for the Spicy Coconut Shrimp Soup, the recipes have already been blogged about - though as I was telling Mu, I do often tend to cook the same thing differently. And I forget ingredients when I am in a rush...

Voilà une bonne chose de faite. GA, I'm joining you soon in becoming the empty chair. Just to put it on record that we've missed you very much.

Christmas Before Christmas

JW's Roast Turkey

Our cookery club is sailing in full blast at the moment - as most of its members try to get their second lessons out before I leave. This is very kind, though it sometimes means pushing things a little schedule-wise, giving everybody barely time to breathe or get much of other things done. Still, I really do treasure the few sessions left to the group as we are now, knowing that the days are really numbered.

Fried Salmon Cakes

JW cooked us a Christmas lunch before Christmas. I've never cooked turkey before - unless you consider the one failed attempt I made when I was a student freshly arrived in Paris more than 15 years ago. I must admit that I was part-admiration and part-skeptical when I peeped at her turkey cooking away in the oven - which for the record turned out moist, succulent and very delicious.

JW preparing the salmon cakes

While we gossipped, JW not only cooked the turkey, but also made gravy, boiled carrots and brussel sprouts, baked potatoes, made bread sauce, prepared stuffing, fried salmon cakes...and churned out an English no-bake cheesecake. How's that?

The spread

I forgot to mention that we were also treated to hot spiced red wine and minced pies before the lesson begun and she ended the meal with Christmas pudding...Needless to say we were literally stuffed and all that before Christmas itself.

No-bake English Cheesecake

But it was wonderful. I may not have the time nor mood to cook anything special for Christmas this year - so this meal was special for me as such.

Margi cooks Thai

Squid and Mung Bean Vermicelli Salad

Do you know why I wouldn't return to my 20s even if it should be possible to do so? Because I wouldn't have met as many interesting people, people who themselves have lived through a number of decades, as I had through my 20s and 30s.

We all know that it wouldn't be possible to experience everything oneself. Though there is nothing to stop us from doing so through the people we've met.

Margi came the other day from Bologna. It has been a few weeks since we last saw each other and with me leaving Modena soon, who knows when the next time will be. She came loaded with groceries - because she had decided to cook me a Thai meal.

Minced Beef Salad topped with roasted ground Rice

I will not tell you her life story in my blog, but suffice to say that she has gone places, met people and enjoyed many interesting experiences. And one of those experiences included working with more than 20 famous Thai Chefs, stealing learning their recipes and working techniques in the process. Do you wish you were in my shoes now?

Chicken in Thai Green Curry

Margi should share/capitalise on her knowledge - and I hope that she will in the near future. You never know if you would soon hear about a petite Maggie Cheung-lookalike Asian girl offering Thai Cooking classes in Bologna. If you do, please do not hesitate to sign up for them. I promise that you will not regret it.

In the meantime, thank you, Margi, for the delicious lunch!

Cooking with CT Session 2

CT's Octopus, Prawn and Mussel Pasta

I will regret my friends from the cookery club when I leave. It's not easy finding a group of funny, interesting people who are intelligent and who can cook; Who come from different parts of the world yet speak the same language. I can go on, but I do not have much time sfortunatamente, there is still a mountain of sorting out to do...

Raw octopus

CT did his second cookery lesson for the club last Monday. He had been dying to show us how to prepare octopus, so after having to wait a few months for his turn to cook, we weren't about to deprive him of this opportunity to do so. Very kind of JW to let him "kill" and cook the octopus for the group since she had never eaten one before that. If my stomach were bigger (than it already is) I would have eaten up her share for her.

CT removing the teeth of the octopus

Do you know how easy it is to prepare octopus? If you don't, we may consider selling the recipe for something exciting that the group could do together. Anyway, CT's method produced an octopus that was amazingly tender and tasty, none of the chewy, rubbery stuff that you usually get from the shops and even some of the restaurants.

Cooked octopus

We also got to taste some of his famous Feijoada...And he kindly shared some delicious ricotta and parmesan cheese that he bought from a farm on the way to Pavullo - together with a few drops of a family-made (not his family) balsamic vinegar. That was my first taste of such balsamic vinegar, nobody has thought to offer me their family vinegar - boo hoo.

CT's famous Feijoada

Dessert was provided by JW and LY - sweet things not being CT's point fort. I'm sure that we manage to find balance this way in the group, as we have a few members who are strong bakers. Don't you just love how nicely the group manages to come together?

If we had more time, we would have remembered to leaf through CT's amazing collection of work that he'd done over the years (you may remember that he's a professional photographer) - while he plays some music on the harmonica. Sigh, please record that for me, girls, when it finally happens...