Green Onion Pancakes

Or is it scallion pancakes? No idea.

Regardless, it’s one of my favorite Taiwanese breakfast/snacky snacks. It’s simply flatbread with simple ingredients — just flour, water, green onion (or is it scallion?), oil, and salt. That’s it! It seems silly to buy the pre-packaged ones because it’s so easy and inexpensive to make. And there aren’t any preservatives!

And it’s oh so good and satisfies my salt cravings. It’s crispy on the outside and al dente-like chewy on the inside. Pockets of green onions peek out of the layers of flatbread.

But to be honest, this really can’t be considered a healthy snack. I mean, the only thing that’s nutritious are probably the green onions. Ok, who are we kidding? Here’s how to get your carb on:

Roll out your dough and spread oil on top. Then sprinkle the salt and green onions evenly all over the dough, not just the middle. I didn’t spread it evenly my first time making this and all I got were bland bites of dough followed by heart-stopping shocks of salt. Don’t let that happen to you. Spread it evenly a-c-r-o-s-s the dough.

Then carefully roll it up into a log.

Roll your log so that it looks like a little snail shell. The end might stick out like in the picture below so you might want to dab a bit of water so that it sticks to the spiral part.

Gently roll it out again to 1/4″ thick, being careful not to destroy the layers. The green onions might be busting out of the seams but no worries, just pop them back in.

Roll it out to about 1/4″ thick. Doesn’t it look beautiful? I was so excited to cook this puppy up!

The green onions smelled so good when these were being cooked.

You know, I’m getting hungry just looking at these pictures again. I need to cut back on food blogging. I think it’s making me fat.

Adapted from Global Gourmet

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cups boiling water

1 tbsp vegetable oil for the dough, 2-3 tbsp for pan-frying

1/2 to 3/4 tbsp salt

2 stalks of chopped green onions

Directions

1. Combine the hot water and flour and mix until it forms a dough.

2. Divide dough into 2 or 3 balls, depending if you want 2 or 3 pancakes.

3. Roll one ball out until it’s 1/4″ thick.

4. Spread oil and then sprinkle salt and green onion evenly across the dough.

5. Carefully roll the dough into a log.

6. Take one end of the log and carefully roll it into the shape of a snail.

7. Gently roll this out to 1/4″ thick, being careful so that the layers aren’t crushed.

8.  Repeat steps 3-8 with the other ball of dough.

9. Heat 1 tbsp of oil over medium-high  heat.

10.You’ll probably wind up cooking these one at a time. Pan fry it until the dough is cooked through, about 2-3 minutes on each side. You may need to add a bit of oil after you flip it over. Probably not necessary if you use a non-stick pan.

11. Slice into wedges and serve hot or warm. You can also pop these in the toaster oven if you have any leftovers.

Makes 2-3 pancakes. If you’re making 2, it’s about 540 calories per pancake, depending on how much oil you end up using.

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~ by bonnielu on March 23, 2010.