Cook

Steamed dumplings cooking class in Shanghai, China

One of the intriguing things I learned about Shanghai was that of the official 27 million population, 18 million are Chinese and 9 million are expats. That is a huge proportion of expats. And a lot of those expats are well off. This cooking school is definitely designed with the wealthy expat market in mind – it is a luxurious modern facility that would not look out of place in a glossy gourmet magazine, and it is priced accordingly. This is a one-on-one lesson with expert dumpling chef Yang Xiao-Yun. After years of enjoying yum cha’s and particularly the steamed prawn dumplings – so light, so tasty, so healthy - I am now going to learn to make them.

Enjoying the Crispy Golden Cups

This lesson also starts with a trip to the markets a couple of blocks away, but as we are only making one thing today, the shopping list is shorter than the other times. And this is the point at which it all goes wrong. I discover I am making a batch of filling for prawn dumplings with 1 kilo of raw prawns, handfuls of sliced bamboo shoots, and 1 kilo of pork fat. What?…No! My beloved prawn dumplings are all solid pork fat? This shakes me to the core and I don’t pay much attention as I knead the dough for the wrappings. Then I spend ten minutes massaging all that fat through the raw prawn meat and bamboo shoots until it is so well mixed in that no-one would ever know it is there. I perk up a bit as we start to fill the wrappers one by one and I learn the intricate art of folding the wrapper over the filling and doing a one handed pincer between thumb and forefinger to fold small pleats across the top to form the perfect symmetrical seashell shape and seal them to steam correctly. Apparently I have excellent finger origami skills and the chef tells me that if I make these every day for a couple of years I could become a master.
We gently steam then for a few minutes and then I am seated in luxury with a plate of thirty perfect steamed prawn dumplings in front of me. And they taste good, delicious even, but I am so conscious of the massive block of fat that I kneaded into these that I can feel my arteries clogging on each mouthful. But I eat many of them anyway as I know in my heart of hearts that these will be the last steamed prawn dumplings I will ever allow myself to eat.
Verdict – sometimes it is not a good idea to learn too much about your favourite things in life – you may just ruin it. This is a very professional and luxurious school, with a wide range of classes – just don’t book in for the dumplings if you ever want to eat them again.