Cooking lessons, Day One: Sweet and savory at Black Sesame Kitchen

My first set of cooking lessons will take place at Black Sesame Kitchen. It is so named because it is on Black Sesame Hutong (Heizhima Hutong) in north central Beijing. Hutongs are little alleyways that fill in the enormous blocks between major thoroughfares. The entrance to the place is down an alley, right on to a smaller alley, then duck into a courtyard and take a quick series of four turns to arrive at a small house with an airy kitchen. It is a delightful space.

There, I learn that the Kitchen was set-up by a Chinese-American woman, Jen Lin-Liu, who recruited two older chefs she trained with to teach the very basics of Chinese cooking to foreigners. The two chefs we'll be working with are Chairman Wang and Chef Zhang. (The Chairman is a woman; the name comes from a former position she held at a cooking school.) I join my seven classmates and the lesson begins.

Candice, our guide and interpreter, begins by sharing with us the basics of the Chinese pantry.

The main aromatics are leek, garlic, and ginger. They are joined by salt, white pepper (for its milder flavor), light soy (rich and salty), dark soy (lightly flavored but richly colored), vinegar, and rice wine. There are also a broad bean paste and some finely ground chillies. Plain sugar, dried red chillies, and Sichuan peppercorns round out the selection. Sichuan peppercorns are fascinating - they are actually a citrus and they produce a numbing but not spicy sensation that is called "ma" in Chinese. And, they are delicious.

The theme for our class today is Sweet and Savory. We set to work on the first dish, red-braised eggplant. The work space is simple, just a cutting board and a very large knife.

An interesting thing I've learned about Chinese cooking is that only one knife, a large cleaver, is used. This large, apparently blunt instrument can be finessed into producing all sorts of meticulous results with food. Knife skills are a tremendously important part of the cuisine - everything must get down to bite-size, as there are never knives on dining tables. With these cleavers we peel eggplant halves completely. We use a basic technique, but also get a glimpse of a more advanced technique whereby the eggplant (or apple, or pear, etc.) is rolled over the knife on the cutting board and the skin is sheared off in a couple of quick motions. Once peeled, the eggplant is cut into irregular triangular shapes, with a diagonal slice and then a 90 degree rotation of the vegetable. This yields medium size pieces with lots of surface area, perfect for frying.

Once prepped, the cooking happens oh-so-fast. In a large amount of oil heated to between 140 and 160 degrees Celsius, the eggplant, lightly battered in corn starch, is fried until done.

Then, in a couple of tablespoons of oil, the aromatic trinity is made fragrant, the soys and some vinegar are added, as well as some sugar, salt, and white pepper. Finally, the eggplant, mixed with some raw green pepper, is added back to the hot wok and its saucy mixture for a final heating and coating. Within 60 seconds, this is done and on a plate.

And it is tasty! The green pepper adds a delightful crunch and some needed coloration to the dish. The eggplant, meanwhile, is meaty, with no seeds and absolutely none of the bitterness so often found in eggplant dishes in the states. It has a slight sweetness from the sugar, but is still quite savory.

The second dish we attempt is homestyle tofu. This dish starts with a block of firm tofu, looking fantastic on the cutting board.

To prepare the cuts of tofu, we make one long diagonal cut, rotate the tofu 90 degrees, and slice through, ending with right triangles about 1 cm thick. These require no cornstarch batter and find their way into the wok of hot oil. Putting these into the oil, it is highly encouraged to do it one at a time, sliding into the wok, to avoid splashes of hot oil from decorating our skin.

Once it is fried so crunchy on the outside (though still chewy inside), it is removed from oil. Similarly to the first dish, a couple of tablespoons of oil are brought to heat. Then, a heaping tablespoon of the broad bean paste, as much crushed chilli as you care to add, and a large pinch of minced leek, garlic, and ginger is added. Some light and dark soy and some vinegar add their flavors and colors. Sugar and white pepper and a touch of cornstarch slurry round out the sauce. The tofu, mixed now with green pepper and wood ear fungus, is thrown back into the mix. A couple of flips of the tofu to coat it and, voila, ready to eat.

This is similarly quite tasty. I cannot get enough of the wood ear fungus on this trip, and so gobble up some of that. The broad bean paste adds plenty of its own unique flavor, a salty, fermented mash that is now the main taste. The tofu's texture is delightful, chewy with a crust, not unlike a good bagel. It has soaked up enough flavor from the sauce and is a delightful bite.

The third and final dish of this session is sweet and sour pork. Here, there is some battering required. The pork tenderloin is sliced carefully into strips. It is then coated in cornstarch and that mixture bathed in a bit of water, to create fully coated individual strips of pork. These get dropped one by one into the hot oil. They require a bit of help in staying separated as they fry to a crispy brown. A similar approach to the sauce is employed here. Oil, leek, garlic, ginger, light and dark soy, vinegar, and a healthy amount of sugar make the sauce. The pork is added to the mix, tossed in the sauce, and plated with a little bit of freshly minced garlic used to freshen the dish.

It is really good, as well. It is not too sweet, not too sauced. The pork itself is definitely cooked but not dry. It has a thin layer of batter. This dish is easy to eat, if a bit monotonous. A good version of a dish that has made it across the Pacific to the US.

Finally, we get a hands-on chance to do even more cooking. I opt for the tofu, thinking that is most likely a dish I would try to make again. It goes fairly well, though comes out a bit salty. I added more chilli than the first version of the dish, and would add even more the next time. My biggest surprise comes at how fast, hurried almost, it feels behind the stove. I really had to be ready to go once the oil hit the wok!

All in all, a good intro to some good dishes. The technique for all was quite similar, which has pros and cons. On the pro side, hopefully it will be stickier in my memory as I've seen three variants. On the con side, it is only one technique. Regardless of that, however, I was surprised how different the three dishes tasted coming out at the end. Little tweaks here and there in the ingredients made a big difference.