Mismatched Forks and Wine Bottle Rolling Pins: Scallion Pancakes

Ok… I’m on a carb kick. Let’s face it, who doesn’t love carbs? I promise I will try to tone it down a bit, but for now let’s just revel in the awesome glory of carbohydrates.

Done yet? (Me neither)

So a while back I had a potluck with a bunch of friends and, as oft happens with college kids who have no budget, we ended up with tons of rice and pasta dishes… There was one particular dish that caught my attention though; delicious scallion pancakes! Now I grew up eating authentic Chinese food once in a while, but for whatever reason I can’t remember really having these. Boy, I missed out!

My friend sent me the recipe he used, from Appetite for China. The trick he has is to sub in baking powder for the yeast to avoid the long process of letting dough rise. Once that additional 40+ minutes are removed from the process, making these are a cinch!

These are not your breakfast type of pancakes; this is a sort of tasty appetizer that pairs the striking green bite of scallions with a crisped doughy form that just calls for a bit of soy-sauce drizzled on top! Alright, rambling again…

Scallion Pancakes

1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour

½ Cup water

½ Cup boiling water

1 ½ Teaspoons baking powder

1 Teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons vegetable oil

1 Cup finely chopped scallions

Sift together your flour, and salt in a bowl. Pour in your boiling water (it is supposed to kinda cook some of the dough a bit) and mix a bit, then add the rest of the water to start making a dough. You want a rough dough so if it is a bit too mushy add flour very gradually (conversely, add water if it hasn’t really formed a dough). Mix in your oil and give it a quick knead.

Roll out your dough on a floured surface, probably taking balls of dough a little smaller than a baseball. Roll it out pretty thin (about a ¼ inch) and sprinkle with chopped scallions.

1st appearance of a wine bottle as a rolling pin on this blog!

You then roll it up like a carpet so that all the beauteous scallions are inside the roll. Coil like a cinnamon bun (yumm...) and roll till 1/3 inch thick.