Artepicure

Tonight I took a dumpling class at Artepicure in Somerville. It was probably the best cooking class I have taken so far. I have taken classes through Cambridge Adult Center, and at the Boston wine school but this was a great experience! John had bought me a g.c. for Valentines Day this year and I have waiting to take a class but every time I went to sign up they would already be full. I was the first to show up the building was a little confusing to find the front door, I didn't know it at the time but it is in a old industrial building turned loft apts the owner/instruction had bought one and turned it into a kitchen for his cooking school. The class size was kept small I had 7 people in my class unfortunately it was all couples + myself. The owner/instruction has a ton of experience cooking in different restaurants around the Boston area and the world. He has lived in South America, Europe, Africa and a few other places I don't remember. He had it decorated with a ton of things on the walls from so many different glass bottles, to cookbooks, antique pots and pans, ect... 

On the menu for cooking tonight was Nepalese veritable and cheese momos, Pan fried shrimp and pork potstickers,  Curried potato and pea samosas, and for dessert milk dumplings in cardamom and saffron syrup. We had to prepare all the dough from scratch for all the dumplings, then cut and put tougher all the filling and make all the dipping sauces.

My favorite dumpling was the Nepalese momos which had homemade cheese made by him. The dough was a basic dough recipe that included flour, salt, veg oil and hot water. For the sauce we made a spicy tomatoes sauce with was yummmmmyyyyy.

The next dumpling was the pan fried shrimp and pork potstickers. This was my second favorite dumpling, the dough for these was pre-made dumpling skins with a sweet chili soy sauce dipping sauce.

My least favorite dumpling was the curried potato and pea samosas, the filling for these were good I just didn't care to much for the dough we made. In the dough there was flour, baking soda, salt, veg shortening and a yogurt and water mix. The dipping sauce was a banana and cucumber raita which was really good.

Saving the best for last was the dessert milk dumplings in cardamom and saffron syrup.  These were also amazing!!! but they were really sweet I could only eat 1 or 2 of these before calling it quits. They were served in a syrup that included water, sugar, saffron, rose water, orange blossom water, vanilla and cardamom seeds.

I would completely take another class here, I liked that the instructor had us to every thing to prepare the dumplings. The class was suppose to be from 7-10pm but ran over. Sitting down to eat we enjoyed a family style dinner while chatting with everyone in the class, we discussed good places to eat in the area and a little about ourselves. I learned a few new restaurants that John and I have to try along with there is a fluff festival in Sept near our apt. I will be hitting that up in Sept!!