It was with great sadness I realized this Sunday was football-free. There was a shortage of safetys, a lack of lineman, no quorum of quarterbacks, and yet an inexplicable abundance of alteration. It was a rare lazy Sunday and I had to find a way to use it profitably. (Three-year-old viral video reference? Check!) So, in an effort to improve my cultural knowledge and snack food repertoire, I took a shot at making Chinese scallion pancakes.
Those crispy, tangy circles had been on my mind since I finished a detective novel set in '90s China and even before that, when the Dim Sum joint we went to inexplicably did not offer this standard snack. And according to Wikipedia, or some other non-reputable source, they're one of the only pancakes made with dough, rather than batter. Keep that in mind for your next cocktail party, Jimmy. I'll just add that I've never really made a dough before because the sticky-gooey batter really grosses me out.
After surveying a range of Internet recipes, I settled on a combination of one on About.com and another I found online to produce a respectable facsimile of what I remember. It turned out to be seriously easy. Here's what I did:
2.5 cups flour
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vegetable oil
A little more than 1 cup boiling water
A whole mess of green onions, minced.
2 T sesame oil
I added a little cornstarch to the flour to cut the gluten content. The oil was also supposed to thin the consistency a little.
In a large mixing bowl, stir hot water and oil into the flour and salt until a ball forms. Knead the dough for a few minutes then cover the bowl with a damp towel and let it sit for half an hour.
On a floured surface, roll the ball into a snake. Cut it into some pieces, depending on how big you like your pancake. Use some kind of cylindrical object to roll one piece into a thin circle. Brush the dough with sesame oil. Sprinkle the scallions on the dough.
This is where things get awesome.
Roll the dough up like a cigar. Or a burrito if you're not into tobacco products. Then roll the cigar sideways, like a cinnamon roll. Pardon the use of food metaphors to describe how to make another food, but really that's the best way I know how to describe it.
Let it all sit for another half hour.
Then roll the cinnamon rolls flat and fry them in oil over medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes a side until they're brown and crispy.
Let them chill on paper towels for a minute and then chow. Mmmm.
thanks for this simple but for me is big deal pancake.
Posted by: online jobs | November 17, 2011 at 10:24 AM