Char Siew Pau Woes

A couple of weeks back, I attended a char siew pau making class.

I had paid SGD80 per head for the class and taken a day off from work just to learn the art of char siew pau making. I was really looking forward to it.

There are generally 2 kinds of char siew pau- the fluffy melt in the mouth ones which you typically find at cha chan tengs and the inferior tough ones which you grab off a convenience store when you are too hard-pressed for time.

To my disappointment, the teacher started the class by explaining that she wasn't going to teach the fluffy version (since it requires a few days prior preparation). She then proceeded to introduce us to 2 "essential ingredients" which she would be using for the class- a bottle of Lee Kum Kee Char Siew Marinade and a packet of pau flour from Sheng Siong (kind of like a readymix flour with straightforward instructions written at the back). This was starting to sound like a quick fix recipe to me.

the pau flour

The next 3 hours just comprised of marinating the pork, simmering it in a wok, cutting it into small cubes and encasing it in the pau dough before steaming it.

diced char siew with minced garlic..a little too salty for my liking

The fun part was learning how to fold the dough nicely around the meat to form a nice "pau "shape.

Before...

After steaming for 15 mins...

Some participants in the class were Caucasian. Being new to Asian cooking, they were easily enthralled by every little step. I felt a little tickled when the teacher proudly pierced a toothpick through a piece of char siew and green apple and introduced it as an "pre-dinner snack" which they could serve to guests.

it didn't taste particularly nice...

Don't get me wrong. I love this teacher. Some of her dishes are downright delicious and her funny little antecodes can really crack me up at times.

In this instance however, I felt that that the amount of research spent developing this relatively straightforward recipe did not quite justify the hefty price tag.