Hello hi everyone! This is a recipe for a Taiwanese green onion pancake (or scallion pancake/cong you bing) that I've been making since i was a kid. Fun story, my Mandarin teacher taught my brother and I how to make this after a lesson one day as a reward for finishing our homework, and it ended up being the only thing I remembered from those three years of lessons.
It's a super simple dish, but deceptively difficult to master though. Hope you try it!
Yields 2
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup water
1 large scallion or green onion
2 tbsp sesame oil
pinch of kosher salt
pinch of flaky salt
PREP
SLICE the scallion (or green onion) as thin as possible, set aside
MIX flour, water, and a pinch of kosher salt together to form a shaggy dough
TURN dough out onto a well floured work surface
FOLD the dough until no longer shaggy (try not to work too much bench flour into the dough), then form a log shape
DIVIDE the dough into two halves
FORM a large coin shape using your hands
ROLL the dough out with a rolling pin, turning a 1/4 turn with each roll
STRETCH the dough using your hands until transparent (some small holes are ok at this point)
ADD sesame oil, salt, and half of the green onions/scallions to the dough
ROLL up the dough horizontally to form a log, then roll again vertically to form a coil
SEAL the end of the dough’s coil with water
REPEAT with remaining dough
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a skillet on high heat with 4 tbsp vegetable oil
SEAR the dough coils coil-side down for 20-30 seconds, just long enough for a light browning to occur (this will prevent the dough from sticking to your spatula when smashing)
FLIP the dough coils over and smash using a spatula and dowel, rotating a 1/4 turn after each smash
FRY for an additional minute until golden brown, then flip and fry the other side for an additional 30 seconds
FINISH with flaky salt