One sad thing about my apartment is the lack of nearby Chinese food. There's plenty of Thai and Japanese, but I've yet to find some really good Chinese within walking distance (although I did notice a little storefront the other day when I was wandering around). So, to compensate, I was forced to try my hand at one of my favorite Chinese orders, scallion pancakes.That having been said, I can't say these are at all authentic - just tasty. I picked the recipe up from a friend in college, and I've kept it more of a "make it however you want, decide what tastes good" recipe. So just work the dough until it feels right, and add the oil, scallions, and salt and pepper as you see fit.
And I've never been sure of the sauce that scallion pancakes are served with, so I just combined some Ponzu and the leftover chopped scallions, and this seemed to be pretty good. Is there a real recipe for the dipping sauce?
As a side note, does anyone have a suggestion for best scallion pancake in Boston?
Scallion Pancakes
2 cups flour
1/2 cup warm water
1 bunch scallions, finely chopped
sesame oil
salt and pepper
Mix together flour and water in a large bowl until the water is absorbed and the dough is not sticky. Add more water a tablespoon at a time if all the flour doesn't incorporate. Once the dough is formed, knead it about 20 times, then cover with a towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
Cut dough into 6 equal pieces. Roll out each piece as thin as it will go, then spread the dough with about a teaspoon of oil, salt and pepper, and a sprinkle of scallions. Starting at one edge, roll the dough up into a cigar shape, making sure the scallions don't escape or get all bunched up together. Then coil the cigar into a spiral and press the spiral down with your hand. Roll this until it is thin, about 1/8 of an inch. Repeat with remaining dough pieces.
Fry each pancake over medium heat in a little vegetable oil. Stack all the fried pancakes and cut into triangles.
wHAT DO YOU MEAN STACK ADCUT INTO TRIANGLES?
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After they're cooked, stack the pancakes on top of one another and slice into triangles, like you would a pizza. But I suppose there's no need to stack or cut into triangles - you can serve them however you like.
ReplyDeleteScallion pancakes!! memories!! I like to put ginger in my dipping sauce. Mmmm.
ReplyDeleteThose pancakes look good.
ReplyDeleteHey there; I was googling for a recipe for scallion pancake sauce and came across this. Thought you might like to know what I found! All variations on the sauce call for soy sauce and vinegar (a Chinese variety, usually) in equal parts. The more popular additions include a dash each of sesame oil, chili powder/flakes, and ginger powder. A couple of recipes suggested a dash of sugar if it feels too salty.
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried ginger powder myself, but I've always used soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, chili flakes, and a few extra scallions if I have them left over. I try not to use too many so I have an excuse to make more pancakes later :P Hope that information helps you!
Thanks very much for the sauce ideas! I love that there's so much room to play around with the sauce.
ReplyDeletewhile i know very little about authentic chinese food (i have read we have some very good authentic chinese restaurants in chinatown), i do know that a quality "american" chinese is non-existent in boston proper. however, if you cross the river there is a great place in porter square - Chang sho. it is the only place i get chinese from. i live in the back bay and get takeout from there at least once a month. the place is also nice for a sit down meal. anyway (i digress), they have good scallion pancakes.
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