Mmmm. Scallion Pancakes. (Part II)

I made Scallion Pancakes (Recipe: Basil & Ginger) this weekend, and although I *love* them, TM tends to be a neaderthal and likes a little some more a humugous slab of meat with his meals.

Me, I could live with eating meat only 2-3 times a week, but since I've moved in with him, I've kind of been forced to cook and eat meat more often than usual. Perhaps this is the reason behind my recent emotional state? Possibly.

Anyways I made some more scallion pancakes yesterday with the dough left over from the weekend. Let me say, the recipe is delicious as it is, and the simplicity of it allows lots of room for adjustments and additions of yummy ingredients. Last time I used a sweet Thai chili sauce & cream cheese in place of the butter, yesterday I added in some diced cooked Chinese sausage (lap cheong) into the mix and dipped the finished product in sambal oolek. Heavenly. Or, perhaps devilish if you consider the fiery sambal.



Chinese Sausage & Scallion Pancakes. Or in Chinese, Lap Cheong Chong Yau Bang. Deliciously simple, with three main ingredients: cooked finely diced Chinese sausage, sliced scallions / green onions, and the dough, comprised of 4 parts all purpose flour, 1 part warm water, salt to taste, and oil / lard for cooking.

First, you roll out the dough into thin discs, after letting them rest sufficiently. Last time I followed the recipe and rolled out the dough *right* at 30 minutes. This time, I waited an hour before I touched them again. It seemed to work, as the dough was more relaxed and allowed me to roll it out nice and thin. I then slathered (I mean that!) the dough with melted butter, and sprinkled liberally with the cooked sausage and green onion.





Starting from one side of the disc, roll the dough tightly around the filling, pressing lightly as you go, into a long cigar shape. This helps create the layers of the finished product.

Think of it as puff pastry, or pie crust. The layers of water and fat sandwiched between layers of thin pastry helps create the fluffy, flakey layers later.

I coiled the cigar shape into a spiral, and tucked the ends under. You want to keep in all the filling, and try to keep a uniform shape.



At this point, I wanted to cool down the coiled spiral as it was a warm day - if I rolled it out right after forming the coils, I would chance loosing the layers as the butter was still really soft. I refrigerated the covered coils for about half an hour.

After letting them cool down, I rolled those suckers flat! I took care not to exert too much pressure (and risk the dough breaking and all those precious goodies falling out!), and tried to keep a uniform circle shape.



After rolling, the pancakes went into a heated pan with a generous amount of oil to crisp up. Don't be stingey with the oil. It helps keep the browning as uniform as possible, and helps cook the pancake!



I think I ate about one and a half of these while cooking. :p

TM liked this batch better than the previous meatless ones, and the sausage did provide more umami notes. I still like the simplicity of the green onion, but I'd like to try making some with dried pork floss, chili oils, or possibly even a sweet hoisin peanut one. Mmm. The possibilities are *endless*!

Scallion Pancakes. Mmmm.

Mmmm. So I've been inventive in the kitchen as of late.

It's nice that my family, as well as myself, work with food and so there is usually a plethoria of seafood (me), bread (sister) or produce (dad) at our respective homes.

Earlier this week, I made fish sandwiches which probably cost a quarter each (for condiments). Yesterday, I made an equally "frugal" dinner consisting of brown rice, scallion pancakes, soy-marinated black cod, corn and black bean salad, and sauteed veggies. Ok, so the only "free" thing was the black cod, but still. For a frugal delicious dinner, that was pretty damned good.

Scallion pancakes? I've *always* had to have them when we ate at ANY Szechuan restaurant when I was younger. Some places fouled it up, with too few green onions sprinkled into the dough, other places had horribly dry or pasty dough, still other places just did not cook it long enough!

Being that the recipe at Basil and Ginger has only five essential ingredients, it's typically one of those recipes that needs an experienced chef.

I, for one, am not one of those experienced chefs!

Ingredients:
-1 cup all purpose flour
-1/3 cup warm water
-salt
-lard / shortening / butter (I used a mixture of cream cheese & sweet chili sauce)
-green onions / scallions

I mixed together the flour with some salt in a bowl, then made a well in the middle and gradually mixed in the warm water.

When the dough came together, I gathered it together and left it to rest for about half an hour.

Meanwhile, I mixed together some softened cream cheese and sweet chili sauce (this concoction is also DELICIOUS on any cracker or bread!), and sliced up my green onions.

For the amount of dough above, I rolled it into a log and cut it into three sections. Working with each section separately, I rolled it out into a flat circle, and spread the cream cheese mixture onto it. I then sprinkled it liberally with green onions.

Working from one end, I rolled the disc up into a long cylinder, then pinched the edges down and rolled the cylinder into a coil. This coil was then rolled out again.

I pan fried the pancakes (3 of them - cooking for 2 after all!) in a generous amount of veggie oil. They were so beautiful and crispy and golden!!!

The cream cheese mixture was ok. I would probably keep the sweet chili sauce, but use butter or lard next time (there really is no substitute when baking for light crispy layers). I'd probably let the dough rest some more as well, or use cake flour next time as the pancakes were a little chewier than I liked.

In all though, this is one recipe that is staying in rotation. One of my favourite foods, and I usually have all the ingredients for it!