2013 - January 26, Cooking Workshop

From ATS Wiki

Contents

Event Details

This event was intended to teach people how to cook some simple dishes that we love to eat and make. We chose 5 recipes to prepare and allow people to make during the event. The event takes place in McCormick Dining Hall, since during IAP there was no dining in McCormick.

We lined up the tables on either side of the dining hall, living the middle for people to sit and eat. On the left side of McCormick, we had dumplings, hua juan, and cong you bing. On the other side, we had boba, fan tuan, and gua bao.

We used hot plates to boil water for the hua juan, griddles for the cong you bing and a skillet for the dumplings. Unfortunately, having all of these appliances running at the same time blew a circuit, so we had to move the dumplings to the corner near the cash register, and steaming hua juan in the country kitchen. While the hua juan were steaming, some exec members began cleaning up the kitchen as well. This setup works much better, so in future cooking workshop I would advise having only one electrical appliance dependent recipe per circuit.

There was a continuous stream of people that came, so a total number was probably around ~40-50.

Link to google spreadsheet of planningness

Menu

Gua Bao

Used this recipe
Ingredients

  • Gua Bao 5 bags (10 in each)
  • Pork Belly 6 lbs
  • Five Spice Powder 1 pkg
  • Preserved mustard greens 2 lbs
  • Shallots 3 T
  • Cilantro 1.5 cups

Prep materials

  • wok/deep pan for meat/stewing
  • Steamer/pot for gua bao

Event materials

  • Bowls to hold everything in

Comments
Not enough meat! These went really fast, like in the first 30-40 minutes of the event. We could have cooked more/made more gua bao. Cooking the meat required prep the day before, however, to have sufficient stewing. Nomnom.


Scallion Pancakes

Makes about 72 scallion pancakes
Ingredients

  • 21 cups flour
  • 7 cup hot water
  • 7/3 cup cold water
  • Salt
  • Scallions 3 bunches
  • Oil

Prep materials

  • Mixing bowl
  • Plastic Wrap
  • Knife
  • Cutting board
  • Plastic Bowls

Event materials

  • griddle
  • rolling pins
  • knife or scissors for portioning
  • tongs

Comments
We had two giant balls of dough left over, so I think we can cut the recipe in half...lol


Hua Juan

We used this recipe
Recipe makes about 72
Ingredients

  • Flour 16 cups
  • Dry Yeast 12 tsp
  • Oil
  • Salt
  • Baking Powder 4 tsp
  • Scallions (3 scallions for every 9) 24 individual scallions

Prep Materials

  • Mixing Bowl

Event Materials

  • Pot Steamer
  • Water boiler
  • rolling pins
  • knife or scissors for portioning
  • pot holders

Comments
Don't use a hotplate in the dining hall, you'll blow a fuse. Instead steam them in the country kitchen and bring them out when done. This recipe made about 1.5 batches too many, can cut down.


Fan Tuan

Ingredients

  • Furikake Flakes 3 bottles
  • Seaweed sheets 2 packets
  • Rou song 2 large jars
  • 2 pots of rice

Prep Materials

  • Rice cooker

Event Materials

  • Plastic wrap

Comments Went well enough.


Boba

In this recipe we just pre made the tea, and then had people come up and add boba/condensed milk as they liked.
Ingredients

  • Boba 4 bags
  • Black tea 45 bags
  • Condensed milk 2 cans
  • Honey

Prep Materials

  • Pot for tea
  • Pot for boba

Event Materials

  • Serving spoon
  • Boba straws
  • Cups
  • Squeezy bottles for condensed milk

Comments
Could probably just make do with one can of condensed milk, though 2 was good to be safe. Didn't make enough tea, only cooked 2 bags of boba which was too much for the amount of tea we made. I would make another pot of tea next time. Squeezy bottles are a very good idea.

Guo Tie

Ingredients

  • soy sauce
  • sesame oil
  • salt
  • sugar
  • rice wine
  • fen3 si1 (pink netted bag!) 2 bags (for vegetarian)
  • Cabbage 2 heads
  • Ground pork 3 lbs
  • Garlic 2 heads
  • chives (for vegetarian) 3 lb
  • Dumpling wrappers 320 wrappers
  • eggs(for vegetarian) 1 dozen
  • tofu (for vegetarian) 2 boxes

Required Materials for Prep

  • Mixing bowls (2)

Required Materials for Event

  • Electric skillet (whatever we used for s2t)
  • spoons, bowls for water
  • spatula and chopsticks or tongs

Comments Too many vegetarian dumplings @_@ We had about enough material leftover to make about 30 meat dumplings, and maybe like 100 vegetarian dumplings. We forgot to buy the fen3 si1 and tofu during the shopping trip, so someone went to Lotto market on Mass Ave and was able to find them there :D
We also put soy sauce in squeezy bottles, but they didn't really get used too much.

Other Comments

Next time, it might help to put more liquid in the boba to keep it suspended so it doesn't turn into a boba blob and is easier to scoop out later. We could just add some tea to the mix, although this might dilute the honey.