I know from experience that Chinese chefs never give up their secrets easily. With recipes, there may be just one ingredient missing but you can believe that that ingredient will alter a dish making a wonderful dish into a merely nice one and one that you say “It’s nice but it’s not quite as good as so and so’s.” The first time my mother gave me a recipe she left out a few important tips. Yes, they keep these secrets close to their heart.
That’s why I was particularly curious to try out the Cantonese BBQ cooking class held by Alvin Tan. Malaysian born Tan teaches classes at the Eastern Suburbs Community College and has owned restaurants here and in Malaysia and has appeared on Maeve O’Meara’s Food Safari. He now holds classes at his home in Matraville. He has a devoted group of followers with one woman travelling from Melbourne to attend the class (ok she works for Qantas so she gets a cheaper airfare but perhaps you get my drift right? 
).
For the Cantonese BBQ cooking class, we are learning how to make four dishes including one of my very favourite items in the world. Do you know how some people cannot keep chocolate or ice cream in their house for fear of polishing it all off? I’m fine with both and can sit in a bed full of chocolate without having to eat it all but if you change that to char siu, well let’s just say don’t get in my way because I am a bottomless char siu monster. I’m just warning you darlings
Alvin holds the classes in his kitchen – the same one where the episode of Food Safari was filmed. To the left, facing him, is the table of condiments because as you know Chinese food is all about condiments and myriad spices and flavours. We are making four dishes: char siu, crispy skin roast chicken, shantung chicken and soya sauce chicken with ginger and green onion sauce (a bonus for me as I adore this sauce!). I was curious to see whether the recipes and dishes tasted like restaurant ones.
Licorice root
It’s a four hour class and Alvin explains the various recipes to us and there are five of us in the class. The rest of the attendees have attended his classes at the evening college and have followed him here. A lot of the ingredients look familiar but there are some like licorice root which I haven’t come across before. We start off making the soya sauce chicken which is poached in a masterstock.
Ahhh yes the famous masterstock. He explains that with a masterstock, you are meant to keep using it and using it for years and the flavour of the stock only gets richer and more delicious as time goes on. There are stories told about mums leaving their master stock sin their will but the process is very simple. You make an aromatically flavoured broth in a large saucepan making sure to put the aromates in a little drawstring bag for easy removal and then cook the chicken. Then once the chicken is cooked, just boil the master stock once again for about 20-30 seconds to kill off any bacteria (it will go rancid otherwise) and place in the freezer or the fridge with the bag of aromates if you intend to use it soon after. Every 3-6 months change the bag or herbs.
Pounding the large pieces of rock sugar
We get to work pounding the large pieces of rock sugar and measuring all of the aromates down to the gram and Alvin sets a pot of water on to boil on a portable gas burner to show us. The bag of aromates are then placed inside to simmer with the chicken for 15 minutes, then the heat is turned off and the chicken poaches in the still hot water for an additional 25 minutes. He explains that he uses two soy sauces: a dark soy sauce for colour and the light soy sauce for flavour. We are doing this with chicken marylands but this can also be done with a whole #15 chicken.
Because a lot of these dishes require marinating and cooking time, he jumps ahead to seasoning the crispy skinned chicken. To make a salt and pepper rub and to increase flavour we dry fry the salt and Szechuan peppercorns so that the salt turns a very pale brown shade, almost like cinnamon sugar in colour. This is then pounded and sieved a few times so that only the smallest particles remain and then a small amount of five spice powder is added. We rub this on the underside or the skinless side of the chicken maryland.
We then make a liquid coating with maltose, a sweet, very thick sweetener similar to a very bland honey although much thicker in texture. He says that this is popular as it doesn’t impart much of a flavour and it is much more cost efficient than honey which is relatively expensive. To use maltose, you heat it in the microwave as it is very stiff otherwise.
First holding the maryland so that the skin side is facing upwards, we ladle over with some boiling water to make the skin contract and open up the pores. Then, we ladle over the maltose, vinegar and wine coating taking care not to wash the salt rub off underneath it. We also can’t touch the skin once the maltose liquid has been ladled over it as that part will not crisp up. We then leave it to dry overnight or in a 50C/122F oven for 3 hours to dry the skin out as much as possible which will help it crisp up much like you do to get a nice crackling on roast pork.
Pork neck
Next up is my favourite char siu! The key to this is to get the right cut and the one that you want is 1 kilo or 2 pounds of scotch fillet, also known as pork neck. He shows us how to slice off the end piece and then cut it into even shaped pieces. Meanwhile we get the marinade together which is a mixture of oyster sauce, hoi sin sauce, ground brown bean sauce, sesame paste, soy sauce, salt, sugar, rose wine and red food colouring powder.
You can also use sherry in place of rose wine (which is strong stuff!). Now I know that the red food colouring does look alarming at first! It gives it that distinctive red hue and without it, the char siu would look dark brown. Because this needs to marinate overnight he shows us one that he started marinating the evening before and this is the one that we will cook.
One more thing before we start grilling the char siu (and I was getting rather hungry from the smells and had to ask what time lunch was going to be!). We need to make the ginger and green shallot sauce for the soya sauce chicken. I know my mother will be positively dying to find out what is in it and I’m curious to see whether it tastes like the one you get at restaurants because we’ve tried experimenting at home to no avail. Alvin starts by peeling the young ginger which he prefers to use here as it is less stringy than old ginger. He whizzes this with some water in a food processor with some Shaoxing wine and a bit of water while the rest of us chop up a stalk of shallots and measure the salt.
Once the ginger and shallots and mixed together we heat up some vegetable oil and sesame oil until smoking hot and then pour this over the ginger mixture being careful as it does splatter a little. We stir and try it and by George, it’s just like the ones in a restaurant!
We get the grill heated up and take out the char siu pieces from the marinade draining them well and the pop them under the grill for 10 minutes. We have to be careful to watch them so that they don’t burn too much as they have quite a bit of sugar in them.
The char siu is busy grilling and the soy sauce chicken is busy poaching away so we jump to the crispy skinned chicken marylands which we will deep fry. You can also bake these in the oven but they won’t quite get as crispy and the best results are really had with deep frying. Alvin heats the oil until hot and places the maryland skin side down and fries it for a few minutes before turning it over and frying it for another 10 minutes-13 minutes which is ideal for the average 500g maryland. For very large marylands you would fry them for 15 minutes.
The char siu is ready and Alvin shows us how to test it for doneness. You snip into a piece and see that it is cooked through – the key is to make sure that it is cooked but not dry or overcooked. Then you brush it with a mixture of maltose and water to give it gloss and extra sweetness. He tells us that in restaurants and bbq shops, they use the maltose as a protective layer so that the char siu doesn’t dry out while it is hanging up.
And ta da! It’s lunchtime! We busy ourselves trying the char siu. I’m curious to see how it compares and one bite into it it surpasses anything you could buy pre made as it is so tender and moist but with the same flavour as the ones that you buy. It is so utterly addictive with such a tender texture and it ends up being everyone’s favourite at the table.
While we are busy eating the char siu Alvin takes a cleaver and chops up the soy sauce chicken which he serves with the ginger sauce and we can help ourselves to steamed rice if we would like. The chicken is herbal in flavour and aroma and again the texture is phenomenally tender – made fresh nothing beats it.
Our next course is the Shantung chicken which is made up of deboned crispy skin chicken mixed with cucumber, garlic, chilli, parsley and peanuts with a black vinegar sesame dressing. I must admit that we rarely order Shantung chicken, I know some people love it but I’m not a huge lover of it although this is a good version.
Lastly is the crispy skin chicken which he serves with some more of the salt and pepper mixture on the side which smells heavenly and like a dish in itself if you inhale deeply. The skin is crispy and crunchy and glassy and the salt adds so much flavour and aroma to it.
There’s even enough food for people to take home and it is too delicious to let it go to waste so we take a box away with us. But most importantly I have these recipes with me and after the char siu class I can’t ever imagine buying it again.
So tell me Dear Reader, which food can you not be left alone with for fear of devouring it all? And has your mum or dad passed on many recipes to you?
NQN and Mr NQN attended the class as guests of My Asian Table
My Asian Table
The Cantonese BBQ cooking class is $90 per person (bring your own apron). The class is held in Matraville, Sydney.
http://myasiantable.com/
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54 Comments | Add your own
Ohhh this seems like a really interesting cooking course to attend! I ve gotta look into doing it myself too
my Mum and sister loves Cantonese BBQ and Win Win particularly loves char siu like you hehe
I can’t be trusted with Ice cream! I can eat so much of it, it’s really disgusting hahaha
Sadly, my mothers not a very good cook so no recipes from her. While my grandma is fantastic but won’t give me any of her recipes either. Sigh Asian are so protective hehe
So much information and valuable knowledge, I have to bookmark your article its very interessting. Lots of new ingredients to disocer. =P
Lorraine your so lucky, I wish I could attend such a cooking class!
A very interesting class! Everything looks so mouthwatering.
Cheers,
Rosa
All hail the green shallot.
What a great class Lorraine, And the dishes looked so wonderful. Fortunately my Mom gave me her recipe book before she passed away so now I have all the old family favourites.
Great Post! Sending to Mum so she can maybe signup for a class
I cant be left alone with my Nan’s shortbread – Mum and I both have her recipe, but neither of us can get it as light as she did. We try and try but while it always tastes good, its never QUITE there!
What an utterly fantastic class Lorraine, you lucky thing you! I might try and make the crispy skin chicken tonight.
Can you please oh please give us the recipe for Shantung sauce? I’m not crazy about Shantung chicken, but we get an awesome Shantung lamb, and its sauce its one I’ve bee trying to replicate for a coupLee of years. Everyone in the family rings me for recipes coo I guess that comes with being a Chef, but I didn’t know I should withhold ingredients from my recipes
I LOVE Cantonese cuisine. I am the same where I can’t be left alone with a plate of char siu! I really, really want to do this class. Thanks for the awesome post!
I am now obscenely hungry, despite just having had breakfast. Look at the colour on that char siu! Ican’t be left alone with Pascall marshmallows – I can eat them by the bag.
It looks like a very interesting class, although a bit meaty for me and impossible to attend, but I would like to learn more about mixing spices etc.
And I like the story about chef leaving out an ingredient or two (or a step or two) Very true!
Ciao
Alessandra
Lorraine, what a great class…the dishes sure look professionally prepared. I must confess that the only thing that I have done was the hot oil on the mixture of ginger and shallot because I’ve seen my mom making it
Thanks for this informative post and have a great week
The marinades are so complex, aren’t they? So delicious though! The soy sauce chicken is gorgeously shiny!
Please could I get the recipe for the shantung sauce too, love love love it…..
Oh I love char siu pork I love steamed pork buns and steamed custard buns, I would find it hard to sit on a room and not eat them.
What a fantastic cookery course. I’m a massive char Sui fan and to be able to make it at home would be fantastic. The whole course looked amazing and such good value. GG
What a great cooking class. I, too, love char siu, but have never prepared any that was that authentic. Looks great.
Gosh, there are quite a few foods you wouldn’t want to leave me with in bulk…a good Mexican mole, cassoulet, muhammara, oh so many. Yes, I have a lot of down-home Southern recipes from my Mom and my versions are quite good, but not like hers.
Now I’m feeling hungry! And now I’m wanting to do some cooking classes. What a great day out. All those secret recipes revealed and you had a wonderful dining experience!
that cha siu is to die for, stunning red but melting in the mouth interior! HEART ATTACK !!
That looks amazing, I’d love to attend that course. I don’t know if I have the patience to make char siu at home tho when it is so quick and easy to buy it!
But how do you know he didn’t leave a vital ingredient out of the char siu recipe, and added it to the one he had in the fridge?
Your mum left secrets out of the recipes she gave you. That’s… commitment!
VERy interesting information and class indeed, TRUE!
Is only breakfast time, but wanted to devour the char siu too!
Had an oldie friend would provide a different food tip on their recipes each week,
Of “the secret”, we did not speak!
After writing everything down, experimenting at home,
Would produce the anticipated (by the oldie) groan!
FINALLY, I asked, “Will I never get it right?”
The “secret” is adding your own amount TLC…was said with MUCH delight!
What an interesting class! Your mom must be so excited you know how to make the green onion sauce. Any sort of gooey cheese is my down fall. I could eat a whole wheel of brie by myself.
what an excellent course! i really struggle with cantonese cooking, our friends who are originally from HongKong always cook such amazing food and when i say mine isn’t as good they just say they can’t cook a roast!
Actually we have booked trip to HK with them in a couple of months, i am so so excited!
I can literally smell the char-sui just looking at it cooking on that grill. Yum!
I think I’ll leave Chinese cooking to the experts though. Must make a booking at Enjoy Inn!
I’m pretty bad with chips and olives I have to say. I could eat a whole jar of olives quite easily.
This post has not just been saved into my ‘Inbox’ files but my permanent documents! Lorraine, thank you! I almost feel I had been there with you
! Altho’ I have lately ‘bypassed’ Cantonese cuisine to a large extent for Szechuan, Shanghainese, Hainanese, Hunanese and Nonya, the scrolling of this is priceless! As far as recipes go, Mom left all the largely meat/potatoes cooking to the staff: definitely no recipes. With leftovers I sometimes have difficulties late at night with marinated meats meant for next day’s sandwiches or salads – so moreish at midnight if TV or lectures won’t allow you to go to sleep 
!
I bet you can feel my envy all the way to Sydney.
What a great class to attend.
Wow – your own mother held out on you!! That’s one ruthless cook! Although, lucky you for having a mother with secret recipes worth wanting – we’re not all that fortunate, you know.
Peanut butter. Medjool dates. EVERYTHING (that isn’t meat. Although I do like jerky.)
Pretty pretty shiny lacquered goodness!
I’ve never been much of a Cantonese cuisine fan, to be honest…but this post has me drooling. There are still recipes belonging to my grandma that my mom doesn’t know…I don’t think Koreans are as secretive as Cantonese cooks though!
i didnt know you have to pound the rock sugar…i just chuck the entire chunk in the pot haha!
My husband’s Mom used to make homemade char siu. But my Mom only bought it from the Chinatown shops. LOL I’ve obviously missed out!
i’ve got a pot of masterstock that is one year old. hehehe.
anyway, i prefer char siu without the red dye.
I also can resist chocolate, but not savory stuff and that char sui would be a real temptatation!
I love all 4 dishes. Thanks for the post and introducing us to Alvin’s class!
This is the first time I have seen licorice root as well! I make a master soup for winter – I just keep topping it up with leftovers etc. for a quick and easy snack when I get home
ahhh so special! so many special secrets!! this food looks crazy good. I just showed Ben this post – so many yummy food memories here! love that ginger shallot sauce.
Heidi xo
Oh what a great cooking lesson! I want to attend this “secret” Cantonese cooking class… I look forward to the eating part. =)
Hi Lorraine, everything looks delicious and I’m a non meat eater! Both my parents cook delicious foods, my sister and I were just saying on the weekend that we have to make the time to learn the recipes from them.
The completed dishes look amazing! Something to WoW future dinner guests with? And I want one of those Gordon Ramsay understudy apron’s!
I can’t believe your own mother would leave out key ingredients:0
Terrible!!
One of my favourite dish Char Sui, I have to fight Mr GG though as he is the real monster in our family.
This is a cooking class which I would love to take, I know Mr GG would approve
Wow this looks unusual but really good. What a great 4 hiours
Gotta love BBQ pork. <3 The food looks so delish. Really must've been rewarding to have learnt about it then gobble it up soon after
Those look like super roasts; so tempting!
Incidentally, my mom gave me all her cookbooks and notes when I started cooking – well, everything except for her annual paella and her meatloaf!
I’ve always wanted to try Korean bbq!
HI everyone! Thanks for your lovely comments, it was a really fun class
I did ask Alvin whether I could share the Shandong chicken sauce recipe and he said that he would rather that I didn’t put it online. Sorry! 
x
This was so fun to read about! I didn’t know that about young ginger being less stringy, that’s cool.
My fam had no special recipes handed down *sigh*.
The thing I used to eat obsessively were olives. Friends used to give me gigantic jars of olives as gifts, and they would be gone in a matter of days. No joke. The thing is, I haven’t stumbled upon any really yummy olives here in Quito, so I am in search of a new obsession!
Your own mother witheld that info from you?? Hah!
Out of all the Cantonese BBQ meats I can never decide between char siu and siu yuk (the roast pork with crackling), I think they are both equally delicious and I can never stop eating it. If there is a plate in front of me, I’ll be the one that gets the most!
I’ve learnt to cook many dishes from my parents, I love learning all the more home cooked dishes that you wouldn’t normally order at restaurants.
That looks like a fantastic class and one I’d definitely like to take!
What a wonderful experience! This char sui pork looks amazing and is a definite favourite. Alvin’s cooking class would be fantastic to attend (easy for you Sydney-ites). Just love that amazing under study apron – how unique and a laugh to include with your photos. Good for Alvin – spreading the Chinese food joy.
I would love to attend this cooking class, the food looks amazing and I would do anything to make restaurant-style char siu! Have tried a couple of times but it still isn’t as good…
I did this class on Tuesday night, and after a monster shopping session for spices and sauces, made wonderfully authentic and delicious soy sauce chicken last night, and have the BBQ pork marinating for tonight! Alvin is a great teacher and very generous with his knowledge.
Perfect.. by the looks of it the ingredients is quite plenty to prepare. O_O
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