On 4 Dec 2024, at 9 am, about 18 of us gathered at Sungai Ara Wan Ching Yuen to learn how to cook delicious vegetarian dishes from Venerable Zhen Sheng. The main purpose of the class was to do merits via meal Dana to Monastic Sangha and Wan Ching Yuen (WCY) senior citizens after the class.

The first dish was braised bean curds. Firstly, Venerable put the bean curds, carrots and two sachets of “Luo Xiang Zhi Wang” (soup bag) into the pressure cooker to cook for 40 minutes. Venerable explained that in order to have a healthy vegetarian diet, we should follow the 2:1:1 rule i.e. two parts of vegetables, 1 part each of rice and protein.

The second dish was vegetarian mutton curry. While waiting for the potatoes to be peeled and cut, Venerable showed us the bao ingredients he was going to use after lunch. Besides using the medium-gluten-flour, he added corn starch, wheat flour, super cream and shortening for the buns to have a smooth and soft texture.

Now it was time to cook the braised bean curds. He poured the cooked bean curds into a big wok and added some dried bean curds. Then the gravy was thickened with some corn starch. In order to save time, Venerable used Baba meat curry powder to cook the curry. He added potatoes and vegetarian mutton to the curry paste sauteed with lemon grass and then topped up with some water and brought to boil until the potatoes were softened.

The last dish was mixed vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflowers, mushrooms and carrots were stir-fried, simmered with some water and then thickened the gravy with some corn starch. The turnips and carrots were also stir-fried for the paste of the bao.

Within two hours, all the dishes were ready. They were packed and delivered to the Monastic Sangha and the WCY senior citizens. We were happy that the “lau pusa” (senior citizens) enjoyed their meal. Venerable Zhen Nian told us that the seniors have been moved from Than Hsiang Temple to this premise for nearly two years. Then we were invited to have lunch at WCY with Venerable Zhen Sheng, Venerable Zhen Nian and the WCY staffs. The dishes were delicious and healthy!

During the bao making session, Venerable Zhen Sheng told us that as flour absorbed water differently, the water should be added progressively so that the dough would not be too soft. Venerable took a short while to knead the dough with hands. He showed us the ‘windowpane” test to determine if the dough is sufficiently kneaded. We had a fun time learning to wrap the buns. It was very important to shape the dough smoothly. To ensure the buns do not sink after steaming, leave the buns in the steamer for five minutes. We were so happy that the buns we wrapped were all well risen with a smooth texture!

Venerable also demonstrated how to fry some buns with a little oil and water. Although these buns did not look as good as the steamed ones, they smelled good.

The cooking class ended soon after the buns were ready. We were grateful to Venerable Zhen Nian for organising this cooking class for us to do meal dana and Venerable Zhen Sheng for sharing his cooking skills and bao recipe with us. We look forward to more cooking class and meal dana in the future.

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