The Art of Chinese Cooking

After a month of enjoying the food in China (with the exception of excessive grease), Eric and I decided to enroll in an afternoon cooking class in Yang Shuo so we could bring home a couple specialties to share.

Our cooking guide picked us and a few others from the group up from our hotel at 3PM and walked us to the local Chinese market. Unlike the groceries stores we'd been to thus far, this market is where the locals shop and was filled with local farmers and their goods spread out on sheets, in baskets, buckets and mini swimming pools. We browsed first through the vegetables and paid close attention as our guide pointed out both familiar and strange veges - eggplant, ginger root, carrots, garlic stalk, bok choy, tomatoes, mushrooms of every shape and size, seaweed, broccoli, and an assortments of leafy greens.

Then we moved on to the spices and grains. The Chinese love their chili and we found whole chilies, chili powder, chili seeds, black bean chili paste and more. Rice - lots and lots of rice.

Then we strolled through the meat section. With the exception of pork and beef, which are butchered and sold in the form of major body chunks, the rest of the meat is sold live. There were cages of squawking chickens, cooing pigeons, and quacking ducks...pools of

flopping fish, slithering eels, sucking leeches...mesh nets of frogs, snails, oysters and clams...pretty much every kind of meat you could imagine was sold at this market. You could see people riding away on their bicycles with their bags of veges, rice and spices and with a half live duck dangling from the handle bars quietly saying it's last quack. Quite an experience! We didn't actually buy anything at the market...it was more for us to see where the food is purchased and what kinds of ingredients we'd be using.

After a 20-minute mini-van ride out of town and into a smaller village, we arrived at the cooking school. It was a small collection of buildings set in a lovely garden against the backdrop of limestone mountains and rice paddies. Very picturesque indeed! Many of the herbs and vegetables we used in our dishes were grown locally right there. Another couple from Holland joined our group - making us a total of 8. It didn't take us long to cork the couple bottles of wine we had brought to mix good cooking with Chinese wine tasting, and add to the ambiance of what we imagined a cooking class should be.

Our kitchen consisted of several tables arranged in a half circle so we could easily observe the pro chef at the front. Each person had their own burner and supplies - a chopping block, a mega knife (if only I knew the proper term), a couple wok pans, small canisters and bottles of salt, pepper, oyster sauce, soy sauce, oil and water. And of course plates and chopsticks for the most important part - the eating!

We were first given a plate full of our vegetable ingredients which consisted of eggplant, tomatoes, a carrot, garlic, garlic stalks, red and green peppers, leafy greens, ginger, spring onion, chives, a tofu ball, a pumpkin flower and a mushroom. Our instructor told us we would be making 5 dishes - steamed stuffed vegetables, beer fish, chicken with cashew nuts, eggplant Yangshuo style and green vegetables with garlic. Our favorites turned out to be the eggplant and the chicken with cashew nuts (see recipes for these two below!). After a quick demonstration of our cooking utensils and how to and not to chop, mash and mince properly, we were on our way to becoming fabulous chefs (well maybe that's pushing it just a bit). For each dish, our instructor would give a demonstration, we'd get a quick taste of her creation and then we were at our little stations doing it for ourselves.

At first, we thought - no problem...I mean really, how hard could it be?! However, after stir fying our first dish Chinese style and having to adjust the burner temp at the right time, add the oil, water and seasonings on cue and swishing it all around so it came out just perfect...well, we worked up quite a sweat. It was actually a little stressful. Each dish got a little easier, but we were thankful for the "helpers" that came around to give you an extra set of hands if you were looking too frantic. Thank God for the wine! Despite the rushes of cooking frenzy, the class was great fun and the heated moments added to the thrill of learning how to chop and mix the ingredients to create our culinary delights.

After it was all finished, we carried our dishes outside to the patio just beyond the kitchen and enjoyed our starters and mains in the tranquility of the garden. The Dutch couple had brought snails for the instructor prepare in addition, so we even tried a bit of escargot. Our fellow student chefs made the experience all that more enjoyable and we had lots of good laughs, toasts and photos during the experience. If you haven't tried taking a cooking class before, we definitely recommend it! We are looking forward to more cooking classes in Thailand and other countries - and to cooking for friends and family on our return!

And just in case you'd like to try our favorite dishes...

Chicken with Cashew Nuts

Ingredients:

150g chicken breast thinly sliced

1/2 cup roasted cashew nuts (if raw, fry them in a little oil - be careful not to burn)

2 tablespoons peanut oil

4 cloves garlic- crushed

1 carrot - sliced

6 spring onions or garlic tops

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions: Heat the wok and once it's smoking slightly add half the oil. Add chicken and garlic and fry until the chicken turns white and feels firm. Add soy sauce then remove the chicken from the wok. Add the rest of the oil, a pinch of salt and stir fry the carrot (or red pepper) for 1 minute. Return the chicken to the wok. Add the water and cook until only a little sauce remains. Add the oyster sauce, spring onions and cashew nuts. Heat through and serve.

Eggplant Yangshuo Style

Ingredients:

250g eggplant sliced (lengthwise)

4 tablespoons peanut oil

1 red pepper - sliced

25g ginger - sliced very thin

4 cloves of garlic - crushed then minced

3 spring onions - sliced (about 1/4-1/2" long)

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon water

Directions: Heat the wok and once it's smoking slightly add oil. Cook eggplant until it turns a caramel brown color. Move eggplant to side of wok. Reduce heat and fry garlic, ginger, pepper for 1 minute. Mix eggplant with vegetables, salt, water and oyster sauce. Add spring onions and serve.