Greedy Girl : Scallion Pancakes with Spicy Soy Sauce

Pancake Month!

Hello September

This greedy girl has dubbed September 2013 “Pancake Month”. This month I will be doing a number of pancakes from all around the world, Chinese, Indian, Jamaican, you name it, I’ll be making it.

According to the know-it-all Google;

pan·cake/ˈpanˌkāk/

Noun; A thin, flat cake of batter, usually fried and turned in a pan.

So to kick things off we will start with my absolute favorite thing to eat at a Chinese restaurant; scallion Pancakes. And if you said “what’s that”, I’m sorry to say, you have lost many years of joy and happiness by never experiencing the awesomeness that is the scallion pancake. 'Big and serious', if your local take-out spot does not serve this, I suggest you never step foot across their doorsteps again.

Chinese Scallion pancakes, when done right are crispy, flaky, chewy, salty, oniony flavored morsels, dunked in the spicy soy dipping sauce. If I could, I would have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now I am not the author of Chinese cuisine, there are many variants to this simple recipe, but you will find most adhere to the same ratio of ingredients. Usually, experimentation is done with the dipping sauce. I kept my sauce pretty simple. I had a spicy soy dipping sauce at a Chinese place in Kingston Jamaica (so delicious I could drink it lol) so I tried to replicate that. I have made scallion pancakes many times before, but this time is surely the most delicious it has ever been.

I don’t know if you all have noticed, but I tend to make small portions of these recipes, most times not serving more than 4 persons. Feel free to double and triple these as needed

Makes two 8" pancakes or four 4" pancakes

Ingredients (Printable Recipe)

Dough

2 to 2.5 cup Flour

1 cup water

3 stalk Scallion (greens)

3 tsp Oil

6 pinches Salt

Sauce
1 tsp soy sauce/oyster sauce

2 tbsp water

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 stalk scallion (whole)

½ tsp hot pepper flakes

½ tsp vinegar

Greedy Tips:

You can eliminate the water and salt and just use 2.5 tbsp of soy sauce. However I tried that and found the soy sauce overpowers all the other flavors, sI i diluted it. (which I'm almost positive is what restaurants do as well)

1. First start by combining all the ingredients to make the dipping sauce, the longer the red pepper flakes and scallions soak in this mixture the better. You can make this even the day before.

2. Combine flour and hot water make a simple dough

3. Drizzle on a little oil, cover with plastic and leave to sit for 10 to 20 mins

4. slice the greens of three scallion stalks

5. Split the dough in two and roll it out. Paint with some oil and sprinkle with salt about 3 pinches

6. take half the scallions and sprinkle over the dough

7. roll it up tightly

8. once its rolled horizontally, roll the opposite way similar to a snails coil.

9 then take the rolling pin and roll this dough out again. this creates layers and fuses the salt and scallions into the dough. don't worry if scallions poke out the dough