Mango Gelée

A wee Gelée before being devoured by toddlers.

By CookBad

This is a recipe from Cookie magazine. I in no way endorse Cookie. I found it on epicurious while looking for a gelée recipe that would work. I had tried Thomas Keller's Concord Grape gelée to go with his peanut butter truffles. Get it? Peanut butter and gelée? His were made with fruit pectin and even though I believe that I followed the recipe to the T, the gelée failed to gel. Sad. The truffles were ridiculously good tho.

These cute little things called for gelatin. I cannot abide standard store bought gelatin. So often it smells to much like what it is -- skin, bones, hoofs. I have gelatin sheets that I've been wanting to try, but these needed to be moulded. So, I went with agar agar.

Agar agar comes from red seaweed. In China, certain types of swallows eat this red seaweed, spit it up to make nests that hang on the sides of cliffs. These nests are then harvested (at great peril to the harvesters as they have to hang from clifts to get to them) and then sold for A LOT of money to make birds nest soup out of.

The agar agar I used come unchewed or spit up. I think I once read someplace that it has 4 times more gelling action that gelatin, so I went with that when subing it in. I'm going to double check this.

You can buy it at most asian markets in powdered form.

Cookie calls them, gummies, but they are not at all gummy, so I renamed them.
Here is the recipe:
Mango Gelée 1 cup fruit juice (pure juice-not a fruit-flavored drink) or nectar, such as Goya, Mott's, or Kern's, chilled or at room temperature 1 1/4-ounce package gelatin ( I used half as much agar agar, just to be safe) Preparation 1. Lightly coat 16 tartlet molds or mini-muffin tins with oil. 2. Place 1/4 cup of the juice in a medium bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin. Let sit for 1 minute. 3. Meanwhile, in a small pan, bring the remaining juice to a boil. Add it to the gelatin mixture, stirring until the gelatin is dissolved. 4. Spoon the mixture into the molds. Chill in the refrigerator until set, 2 hours. 5. Pop the tartlets out. Serve them cold or at room temperature within 2 hours, or store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Tip You can buy plastic or metal tartlet molds ($1.50 and up each, surlatable.com). An 8-by-8-inch baking dish also works-once the whole thing is set, just cut it into squares with a knife, or into shapes with a cookie cutter.

It was a bit tricky getting them out of the mold. It took a certain amount of slamming down.

These were nice. Cute. Kids ate half of them before they were even finished gelling. Sneaky evil kids. They reminded me of the little jelly candies that you can buy in china town in large tubs shaped like cats, or kids or teddy bears. Only healthier and without a huge amount of sugar.

I got the little tartlets from Surfas for $2.50. I think they will be great for making mini brioche someday.

Pork Noodle Soup with Cinnamon and Anise

very pretty, rich and hearty.

By Cookbad

I've been thinking about and making a lot of stock lately. We just finished the first major draft of the stock chapter in our book. We pretty much stuck to the classic French style stocks.

I decided to make this soup, because the stock was so much different than what I had been thinking about and making. simple, straight forwards and spiced in ways that I hadn't ever spiced a stock before.

I always like to do a little search about different ways of making what I am about to cook and I came across Master Stock in the process. It's a Chinese practice of poaching meat in the same broth over and over and over--sometimes using the same stock for years.

I'm both repulsed and intrigued.

Anyway, this recipe is from December 2007 Gourmet magazine.
You can also find it here:
Pork Noodle Soup with Cinnamon and Anise
2 1/2 pounds country-style pork ribs
6 cups water
2/3 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup Chinese Shaoxing wine or medium-dry Sherry
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 head garlic, halved crosswise
3 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks
1 whole star anise
5 1/2 ounces bean thread (cellophane) noodles

Garnish: chopped cilantro; sliced scallions
Preparation

Gently simmer all ingredients except noodles in a 6-quart heavy pot, covered, skimming as needed, until pork is very tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Transfer pork to a bowl. Discard bones, spices, and garlic. Coarsely shred meat. Skim fat from broth, then return meat and bring to a simmer. Rinse noodles, then stir into broth and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until noodles are translucent and tender, about 6 minutes.

Loved it. Inexpensive and hearty. Perfect winter one dish meal.

Gobi Manchurian aka Indian-Chinese food!

a wonderful combination of flavors

By Cookbad.

I've had Chinese-Cuban food before. It took me a while to figure out where these 2 cuisines would possibly meet and I'm not sure I can claim I figured this out on my own, but the answer is/was communism. Delicious Communism.

Then, in this months Saveur magazine I was hit with another Chinese hybrid revolation. Chinese-Indian. Makes more sense geographically and turns out, not surprisingly to be delicious.

Very simple to make (if frying is something you like to do) and quite possibly one of the most delicious vegan things I've ever put in my mouth is Gobi Manchurian. A lovely batter fried cauliflower in a spicy sweet sauce that hits every level. Saveur suggested that it be served with white rice, but I went with black for dramatic effect.

It is kind of like an Indian influenced NYC version of General Tso's Chicken ( a personal favorite hangover cure).

Here is the recipe:
Gobi Manchurian
SERVES 4
12 cloves garlic
4 2" pieces peeled fresh ginger
(3 cut into thin coins, 1 julienned)
1 head cauliflower, cut into large florets
Kosher salt
2⁄3 cup cornstarch
2⁄3 cup flour
1 tsp. red chile powder
Freshly ground white pepper
2 tsp. plus 3 tbsp. soy sauce
Peanut oil for frying
2 small onions, chopped
8–10 Thai chiles, thinly sliced
1⁄2 cup ketchup
1 1⁄2 tbsp. sesame oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced
Cilantro leaves

1. Purée garlic, ginger coins, and 1⁄3 cup water in blender; set aside. Boil cauliflower in a pot of salted water until tender, 6–7 minutes; drain.

2. Whisk together cornstarch, flour, chile powder, 1⁄2 tsp. salt, and 1⁄4 tsp. pepper in a bowl. Stir in half the garlic paste, 2 tsp. soy sauce, and 3⁄4 cup water to make a batter. Pour oil into a large deep skillet to a depth of 1"; heat over medium-high heat. Working in batches, dip cauliflower in batter; fry until golden, 5–6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a paper towel–lined plate. Drain all but about 6 tbsp. of the oil. Add onions; cook for 3–4 minutes. Add chiles and remaining garlic paste; cook until paste is lightly browned, 3–4 minutes. Add ketchup, remaining soy sauce, sesame oil, and 1⁄3 cup water. Boil; lower heat to medium-low; simmer until thick, 1–2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste; toss cauliflower in sauce. Garnish with remaining ginger, scallions, and cilantro. Serve with white rice, if you like.

Cauliflower after being fried, but before the sauce

My only suggestion would be to cook the cauliflower for only 4 minutes and blot it dry afterwards. This will keep it crispier after it is fried.

Not bad left over either.

Cucumber noodles

225g fresh or dried thin egg noodles
2tsp sesame oil
750g cucumbers
2tsp salt
2tbsp groundnut oil
1.5 tbsp finely chopped garlic
3tbsp finely chopped spring onion
2tsp chili bean sauce
1tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
2tsp sugar
2tsp sesame oil

If you are using fresh noodles, blanch them first by boiling them for 3-5 min in a pot of boiling water. If you are using dried noodles, cook them in boiling water for 4-5 min. Plunge the noodles into cold water, drain them thoroughly, toss them in sesame oil and put them aside till you are ready to use them. They can be kept in this state, if tightly covered in cling film, for up to 2 hours in the fridge.

Peel the cucumbers, slice them in half lengthways, and using a teaspoon, remove the seeds. Then cut the cucumber halves into 7.5cmx3mm (3x1/8inch) shreds. Sprinkle them with salt and mix well. Put the mixture in a colander and let it sit for 20 min to drain. This rids the cucumber of any excess liquid. When the cucumber shreds have drained, rinse them in water and then squeeze any excess moisture from them in a linen tea towel. Set aside.
Heat a wok or large frying pan over a high heat till hot. Add the oil and when it is very hot and slightly smoking , add the garlic, spring onions, and cucumbers and stir fry for about 30 seconds, then add the noodles, chili bean sauce, salt pepper and sugar, an stir for another 30 seconds until they are well coated in the spices and flavorings. Continue to stir fry over high heat for 3-4 min until most of the water has evaporated and the cucumbers are cooked. At this point add the sesame oil, transfer to a warm platter and serve immediately.

I have to admit, this is a bit of a cheat. I forgot when I was about to make this, that you needed Chili bean sauce, which you would need to go to an actual East Asian grocery to get. It said in the book (Ken Hom) not to use the sweet chilli dipping sauce that you can get anywhere, because it is not the right flavor (the sweetness is wrong). Still, it was almost dinner time, and I had everything else I needed, and I’d never cooked with cucumbers before, so I decided to give it a go anyway. I used Oyster Sauce instead of the chili bean sauce. I know that’s probably horribly wrong, but it came out really nicely.

Turns out I like cooked cucumbers. They taste very sweet, and have that semi-crunchy-ish, but still soft-ish consistency that they have as pickles.

I know this is not what this dish was supposed to be, but it was very good, and I am going to seek out the chili bean sauce, so I can try it again properly.

Hot and Sour Rhubarb and crispy pork with noodles

1kg Pork belly, boned, rind removed, cut into 3-4 cm cubes
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Groundnut or vegetable oil
375g medium egg noodles
4 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
1 fresh red chili, deseeded and finely sliced
2 punnets of interesting cresses (such as coriander, shiso, or basil cress)
a bunch of coriander
2 limes

For the Marinade:
400g rhubarb
4Tbsp runny honey
4 Tbsp soy sauce
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 fresh chillies, halved and deseeded
1 heaped tsp five spice
a thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

Preheat to 180c/350f
Place the pork pieces in a roasting tray and put to one side. Chuck all the marinade ingredients into a food processor and pulse until you have a smooth paste, then pour this all over the pork, adding a large wine glass of water. Mix it all up, then tightly cover the tray with tin foil and place in the preheated oven for about an hour and thirty minutes.

Pick the pieces of pork out of the pan and put to one side. The sauce left in the pan will be tasty and pretty much perfect, but if you feel it needs to be thickened slightly, simmer on a gentle heat for a bit until it is reduced to the consistency of ketchup. Season to taste, adding extra soy sauce if necessary, and put to one side.

Put a pan of salted water on to boil.
Add a good drizzle of oil to a pan or wok. Add your pieces of pork to the wok and fry for a few minutes till crisp and golden. You might need to do this in two batches. At the same time, drop your noodles into boiling water and cook for a few minutes, then drain most of the water away. Divide the noodles into four warmed bowls immediately, while they are still moist.

To finish, spoon over a good amount of the rhubarb sauce. Divide the crispy pork on top, and add a good sprinkling of spring onions, chili, cresses and coriander. Serve with half a lime each.

I had to try this one because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rhubarb recipe that wasn’t a dessert before. Rhubarb is so much fun to have around, it’s so pretty and I always believed that there should be other uses for it. It was also my first opportunity to use my brand new meat cleaver. I’m very excited to have one. I’ve been thinking about getting one for a while, and I found one at a good price. It’s really a lot more helpful then I thought it would be, I love it.

So this recipe is from Jamie at Home. It’s not the lowest maintenance recipe in the world, but it is totally worth it. This is so good! The use of rhubarb here is really wonderfully creative. It is all pureed into the sauce, so you don’t see it anywhere, but it adds the greatest tangy-ness to it. The mix of flavors is really amazing. This was my husband’s favorite out of all the Chinese or Chinese style dishes that I’ve made. It’s the tail end of the rhubarb season right now as far as I can tell, but every time it comes back in season, I’ll be pulling out this recipe. I may even grow some myself.

I did the final steps of pulling out the pieces of pork and frying them and reducing the sauce, and it really did add a nice finishing touch, but I think it would be worth trying it without those steps if, like me, those moments right before dinner are a little hectic. Also, I had no interesting cress. I can’t really get that. It would have been nice, but omitting it is not going to kill the dish by any stretch of the imagination.

Chinese Chicken in the pot

1 chicken
5 star anise
450ml/3/4 pint water

Seasoning:
225ml dark soy sauce
225ml rice wine, or dry sherry
150g rock sugar, or 75g Demerara sugar

Using a cleaver or meat axe, chop the chicken into bite sized pieces and place in a bowl.

Blend the seasoning ingredients to make a rich marinade and pour 10 tbsp over the chicken. Marinate for 1 hour.
Place the chicken in it’s marinade in a large flame-proof casserole with the star anise, water and the remaining marinade. Bring to a boil and then cover and simmer gently for 45-60 minutes, or until chicken is tender.

This is similar to the Pork Belly Hot Pot recipe that I made awhile back, but with a much shorter cooking time. I preferred the pork, but this is a good compromise if you don’t have all day to cook.

Chicken with sesame oil and honey

1 chicken (about 1.4kg)
2tbsp veg oil
125ml water
2 tbsp sesame oil
Seasoning:
4tbsp light soy sauce
3tbsp clear honey
1tbsp rice wine or dry sherry
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt

Using a cleaver or meat axe, cut the chicken into bite sized pieces.
Mix the seasoning ingredients and add the chicken, marinate for 1 hour.
Drain the chicken reserving the marinade. Heat the oil in a wok and add the chicken pieces. Stir fry over a medium heat till the chicken begins to brown. Add the water and bring to a boil. Stir in the reserved marinade and the sesame oil and simmer gently for 40 minutes.


I marinated it for 2 hours, because my timing worked out that way, and that was fine. Also, I don’t have a meat cleaver, so what I did was use a decent knife to cut part way through the chicken pieces, down to the bone, then I held the knife still and whacked the back of it with a rolling pin to cut through the bones. This worked, though not as well as a meat cleaver would have, and it did do some damage to my rolling pin (but didn’t render it useless, so I kept on with it anyway). If you have fabulous knives that you love, I wouldn’t try this trick, as I imaging it’s pretty tough on the knife. Still, it did what I needed it too.

This recipe was dead easy to make, and really tasty. It’s not overwhelmingly flavored like what you get at a Chinese take away place, it’s much more subtle. I plan to make a noodle stir fry with the left over chicken and sauce.

Good stuff.

Abalone Mushrooms and green vegetables in oyster sauce

3-4 green stemmed flat cabbages (Bok Choy)
275g abalone mushrooms
4tbsp corn oil
125ml clear soup stock
1tbsp cornflour, mixed with 1&1/2 tbsp water
1/2 tsp sesame oil
Seasoning:
1tsp salt
1tbsp oyster sauce
1&1/2 tbsp sugar

Clean the cabbages and cut them in half. Cut off and discard the stems from the mushrooms. Wash and slice into large pieces.
Blanch the cabbage and the mushrooms separately in boiling salted water for 1 min. Drain and plunge into clod water. Leave to cool, then drain again.
Heat the oil in a wok and stir fry the cabbage and mushrooms. Add the seasoning and the soup stock and bring to a boil. Stir in the cornflour mixture to thicken the sauce. Just before serving, stir in the sesame oil.

I used a mix of straw mushrooms, and abalone mushrooms. This is just a veg side dish, but it’s a really tasty one. I’m a huge fan of Bok Choy, and I love mushrooms too, so this is going to come in handy.

Stewed Beef with carrots

700g braising beef
2-3 carrots
1 piece of dried orange peel, soaked
1 spring onion, chopped
1tbsp grated fresh root ginger
2 star anise
450ml water
Seasoning
3tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1tbsp rice wine or dry sherry

Cut the beef into 2 inch cubes. Place in boiling water and scald for 1 minute, then remove with a slotted spoon and rinse again.
Peel the carrots and cut them into chunks. Drain and rinse the dried orange peel.
Place all of the ingredients, including the seasoning ingredients, in a saucepan with the water, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours or until the meat is tender. Add more water if necessary while the meat is cooking.

Oh my god, yuck. I’m sorry, but yuck. As it turns out, I really don’t like things that are cooked with dried orange peel. It is just a matter of taste, I’m sure plenty of people would find it good, I am just not one of them. It wasn’t inedible, and I could tell that it was meant to taste that way, but this is the second time I have tried a dish that had dried orange peel and twice I have hated it.

I like marmalade, but I think I will stick to that alone for my orange peel intake.

Aubergine Box

2 medium Aubergines, peeled unless you have found very beautiful ones
For the stuffing:
300g minced pork
2 spring onions, washed, cut into strips, then finely chopped
2.5tso finely chopped ginger
1tsp rice wine
3 pinches of sea salt
1dssp light soy sauce
1dssp cornflour
1 egg white
Seasoning:
Light soy sauce
Chinese cooking rice wine
White caster sugar
Warm water from the kettle
1 spring onion, washed and finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

First make the stuffing. Mix the pork, 2 of the chopped spring onions, and the chopped ginger together very thoroughly in a bowl. Add the following ingredients, one by one: Rice wine, sea salt, soy sauce, cornflour. Next add the egg white and mix again thoroughly.

Peel the eggplants. Begin to cut a circular slice about 1/4 inch thick, but don’t slice all the way through. Next, make another round slice about 1/4 inch thick, but do slice all the way through. Now you have a half inch slice, that opens up, but is still held together on one end. Do this with all of the Aubergine. Put a heaped tsp of stuffing into each “box”, flattening the mixture evenly like butter. Close the box, and put them on a plate, ready for cooking.
Turn the heat up to high, and heat the wok till it’s hot. Add 2tbsp oil and turn the heat down to medium high. When the oil is hot, add the aubergine boxes, as many as will fit in one layer. After 1-2 minutes the boxes should be brown and toasted on the bottom. Remove from the wok and add 2 more tbsp oil. Cook for another 2-3 minutes on the other side, till brown and soft. Cook them all this way, one layer at a time. Then turn the heat to low, and put all the aubergines back in the wok. Add the soy sauce, rice wine, sugar and 2tbsp warm water from the kettle. Allow the ingredients to simmer on a medium low heat for 5 minutes. Add the remaining spring onion, and the garlic and continue to simmer. Add one more Tbsp water and cover the wok with a lid and simmer for 2 more minutes.


These were actually incredibly easy to make. The cutting and stuffing was no problem at all, and I made them a bit in advance and left them in the fridge till I needed them. That was also no problem. I only did it about an hour before cooking them, but in the future I would feel confident assembling them in the morning and cooking them in the evening if need be. The cooking took very little time start to finish. I had to start with two batches, but they all fit into one pan for the final stages of cooking.

I cannot say enough good things about these, they were wonderful. The flavor and the texture all came out perfect. I saw another version of this recipe in another book, where they made these, and then dipped them in batter and deep fried them. I may try that too someday, but I don’t know, it would be hard to pass up a chance to make them this way. I will make these again and again.

I got this recipe from an odd book. It is a memoir called Music, Food and Love. It’s this man’s story about growing up in China, and being a musician, and then in the back, he also has a collection of recipes from his childhood. Cool book. This recipe rocked!

Chinese Pork Dumplings

170g flour
90 ml cold water
110g minced pork
15 tiger prawns, peeled and deheaded
1 spring onion finely chopped
1 small piece of ginger finely chopped
light soy sauce
sea salt
Chinese cooking rice wine
1 egg, beaten
Sesame seed oil
A handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped

To make the dough, put the flour into a bowl and make a well in the center, then begin to drizzle cold water into the well, a little at a time, stirring with chopsticks around the edge of the well to incorporate the flour and form little lumps. Continue to drizzle the water where ever the flour is still dry, stirring till a dough begins to form. Knead with your hands till you have a piece of round smooth dough. Leave to rest for 20-30 min.
Take a piece of dough, about the size of a mini bread roll, and knead it again, turning and folding it. Then using a wooden rolling pin, roll your dough as thin as paper, into a round shape. Cut into strips, then into triangles. You need to think in terms of making 6-10 little dumplings for each person, so make as many as you need.

To make the stuffing chop the prawns and pork together very very finely, and mix with the spring onion and ginger. Add a little soy sauce, a few pinches of sea salt, a few drops of rice wine and one beaten egg, and mix well.

To make the dumplings: Taking a little of the stuffing mixture, place it towards one corner of a triangle and fold that corner over to cover the mixture. Then fold again in the same direction, so that you can’t see the mixture except through the ends of this little roll. Then, holding your thumbs a third of the way along from either end, twist and turn up, joining the two remaining corners.

To cook: Boil for 3-4 minutes, and serve with some chopped spring onion, a few drops of sesame seed oil and a drizzle of light soy sauce.


These are also from the book Music, Food and Love. First I will say that the dumplings tasted absolutely gorgeous. They were so good that my son has been asking me to make them again at every meal since. So no kidding, they are tasty. That said, I have some issues with the way the recipe is written.

I would only recommend following this recipe, if you have a good amount of confidence in dumpling making. Otherwise, find another recipe that explains things better, and then use this filling mixture.

First is the dough. It’s no problem to make, but it makes a tiny tiny little ball of dough. Really small. It also doesn’t really specify what size each dumpling skin should be, so you are stuck with a tiny small dough, and no idea how far you should stretch it. The skins have to be big enough that the filling doesn’t stick out, or they won’t stand up to the boiling, so they can’t be too small, but if they are too big, you’ll only get a few dumplings out of it.

Then the making of the dumplings… I typed it up just as it is in the book. If you can understand how that’s supposed to work, you have better spatial reasoning skills then I do.

Still, I enjoy wrapping things in dough, so I just made them as small as I could and still manage, and I sealed them up any way I could. I cooked them slightly longer, in case I had made them too big, and changed the cooking time, but after 5 min they were totally and completely done.

Very challenging, but still fun, and in the end we got to eat many tasty tiny dumplings that I loved!

The Farmer’s Joy (Chinese Noodles)

225g/8oz vermicelli (very thin Chinese rice noodles)
350g/12oz white Chinese cabbage
1 large fungus
1 large carrot
4tbsp corn oil
1tbsp chopped spring onion
50ml/2oz clear soup stock
Optional ingredients:
Bamboo shoot
Chinese mushrooms
Bean curd


Seasoning:
2/3 tsp salt
1&1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar

Soak the vermicelli in cold water for 15 minutes until softened. Cut into sections.
Cut off and discard the root, and any old, withered leaves from the Chinese cabbage. Wash and chop into 2.5cm/1 inch slices. Wash the fungus and slice.
Peel the carrot and chop into large slices.
Heat the oil in a wok and stir fry the spring onion for 1 minute. Add the fungus and carrot slices and stir fry for 1 minutes more. Add the white cabbage and cook stirring for a few minutes.
Add the drained vermicelli, the soup stock, and the seasoning and mix together well. Bring to a boil and simmer, covered, for 1 min.

This was really good. It’s super simple, and like some other things I’ve made from this book (Chinese Cooking), I find that it’s much more subtle then the take away version of the dish that I am used to. In the end it’s just as satisfying, but you can feel much healthier eating it. I added a bit of extra soy sauce, but not much and it was beautiful. Also, I added a bit of Chinese preserved turnip slices on the top. If you get a chance to try these, do. They are really salty, but if you just add a touch to a dish, it can be really nice. The Chinese restaurant that I used to go to in Brooklyn put them on top of the cold sesame noodles.

Scallion pancake fry up

I got this idea from Matzo Brie, where you break up the extra matzo and mix it with eggs (this is obviously an oversimplification). I figured why not do it with the extra spring onion pancake the next morning.




Cut the pancake up into bite sized pieces. In a separate bowl mix about 5 eggs with a little milk, salt and pepper. Add some fresh chopped parsley (to combat the onion-y-ness of the pancake, it is breakfast time after all). Then add the pancake pieces into the bowl and stir to coat it all completely.

Heat up a pan (non stick) and melt some butter in it. Add your egg mix and leave it alone till it starts to set, then mix it around in the pan like you were making scrambled eggs till it’s done.


This was really satisfying. The parsley did a good job balancing out the onions, and the thick chewy pieces of pancake made it really filling and comforting. Whenever I make scallion pancakes in the future, I will always set aside a little to make this for breakfast the next day. I loved it!

Scallion Pancakes

600g plain flour
approx 600ml boiling water
6 spring onions
125ml corn oil
2tsp salt

Make the scalded dough (see below) with the flour and water and divide into 4 pieces
Finely chop the spring onions
Roll out each piece of dough to a circle 1/8 inch thick. Brush with a little oil, then sprinkle with a little spring onion and salt. Roll up the dough, and bring the ends together and pinch to seal. Roll into a ball, then roll this out into a 6 inch diameter circle.
Heat 1 tbsp oil and fry each pancake over medium heat until golden brown on both sides. Drain on absorbent paper, and keep warm while you fry the rest, adding more oil to the pan as necessary.

The dough is a bit time consuming, and it’s not the easiest to knead. As compared to an average white bread dough, it definitely puts up a bit of a fight. Still it’s totally worth it. Once the dough is made, the pancakes are nothing, super easy. I skipped the lard that is in the actual dough recipe because it wasn’t mentioned in this recipe, and that worked just fine.

The frying takes a few minutes on each side. I had to adjust the temperature quite a bit because I wanted it to brown nicely on each side, but not burn. A medium heat is your best bet.

The consistency of these is so satisfying. They are sort of chewy and dense and crispy on the outside with the lovely salty onion-y-ness. They totally rock! I made a scallion-less one for my older son who is against most green things these days, it was good too.




Scalded dough
275g plain flour
1tbsp melted lard
approx 300ml boiling water




Weigh the flour and sift into a large bowl. Stir in the melted lard.
Boil the water and measure out the right quantity
Gradually pour the water into the flour, stirring all the time.
Keep stirring to mix thoroughly, but do not bring the mixture together. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave to stand for about 10 minutes.
Knead the mixture to bring it together to a rough dough, and turn out of the bowl
If necessary, add more flour or water, the dough should be damp, but not wet. Cover with a damp cloth and leave for 20 min.
Knead the dough by vigorously pulling and pushing it apart.
Finish off by kneading it with the palm of your hand until it is really smooth (about 15-20 minutes).
If you do not want to use right away, put in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth.