Mark Bittman's Quick Scallion Pancakes: fast, cheap, addictive

My Hero

Having conducted "Scallion Pancake Week" and revisited with Super Simple Scallion Pancakes, I was not prepared for the ease and deliciousness of Mark Bittman's "Quick Scallion Pancakes" from The Minimalist Cooks at Home.

Fast, cheap, and addictive In 20 minutes, you can make a pile of beautiful green pancakes with 4 bunches of scallions, an egg, flour, salt, and pepper. It is as easy as boiling water, which is the first step. You'll need a blender or food processor, a small bowl, and a non-stick pan.

These will stay warm in the oven at 300 F. If you are frying for company, these will have the same effect on your guests as potato latkes. They will hover around the pan.

Cooks' notes: Know your stove and frying pan. It is pointless to write "on medium high heat" because yours might be blazing hot or vaguely energetic.  The goal is to cook them through, with either lightly brown or deeply brown (my favorite) exteriors.

Lots of scallions

Ingredients

4 bunches of scallions, washed and trimmed
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
Oil for frying, salt & pepper
Lemon slices
additions (see below and use your imagination!)


Directions

1. Boil a pot of salted water.
2. Scallions:  Mince one bunch and reserve. Rough chop three bunches.
3. Add the chopped scallions to boiling water. Boil 5 to 6 minutes or until the thickest scallions are tender. Drain, but do not rinse.
4. Puree scallions in a food processor or blender.  Remove to a medium bowl. Add the flour, slightly beaten egg, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and reserved scallions.
5. Heat 2 T oil in a non-stick pan.
6. For dollar-sized pancakes, drop the batter by tablespoons. For larger pancakes, use 1/4 cup or eyeball with a large spoon.



Green in the pan

7. Cook the pancakes 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until brown. I like brown-and-crispy, so I lean toward 3 minutes. Serve with lemon slices.

Unable to leave well enough alone, I also added:

Garlic: throw 2 or 3 peeled cloves into the boiling water with the scallions.
Ginger:  Process a 1-inch piece of fresh ginger before adding hot scallions.
Chili pepper: With the ginger, I processed skin and seeds of a jalapeno. Feel free to use some (a technical term, indicating as much or as little as you want, taking into account the Scoville rating of the pepper and your ability to cope with it) fresh or dried pepper.

Scallion Pancakes (5 steps)

Scallion Pancake Week (May 1-5, 2006)

Adapted from three wonderful cookbooks:
The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking (Barbara Tropp)
China Moon Cookbook (Barbara Tropp)
China Express (Nina Simonds)

I first had Scallion Pancakes in the late 1970s at an otherwise undistinguished strip-mall Chinese restaurant in San Jose, in the days when you ate Chinese and went for ice cream -- yet another of the sound culinary traditions that has been tromped by our troublesome obsession with cholesterol. My Mother – not a fan of frivolous food – was quite fond of them.

Fast forward to 2006, and time to revisit Scallion Pancakes in a most interesting week in May:

Monday: As written, Tropp’s China Moon pancakes are inedible. She describes them as a “gussied up” version of the scallion pancakes in her first exemplary cookbook, The Modern Art of Chinese Cookery. Not in my kitchen – they were tough and poisonously salty.

Wednesday: Simonds’ China Express pancakes are delicious, but far too complicated to be a “fun” food for entertaining. She does, however, use cake flour, which makes an incredibly tender pancake.

Thursday: Go to the source. Although it requires making a cold and a hot dough, the Tropp’s Modern Art pancakes are simple (five steps, puffy, tender and delicious. She gives helpful instructions for freezing so that they can be a handy appetizer.

FOR 2 seven-inch pancakes:
Equipment
Food processor, silicon mat (optional but excellent) or parchment, rolling pin

Cold water dough 1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup cold water

Boiling water dough 1 cup all purpose flour (or ½ cup all purpose and ½ cup cake flour)
1/2 tsp kosher salt (or 2 tsp table salt)
1/3 cup boiling water

For the dough bowl & filling 1 T plus 2-3 tsp sesame oil or hot chili oil*
2-3 whole scallions, sliced into very thin rings

1. Make the dough: Cold dough: Put the flour and the baking powder into the food processor. Slowly add the water and process just until the dough forms a ball. Remove it from the bowl and reserve. Hot dough: Put the flour and salt into the food processor. Slowly add the boiling water and process just until it forms a ball. Add the cold dough to the hot dough in the work bowl and process for 15 seconds.

2. Form the ball: Remove the ball and knead until smooth on a silicone mat for about 2 minutes. If it starts to stick, add some flour. Coat the inside of a small bowl with a tablespoon of sesame oil. Roll the dough in the oil and cover the bowl with a towel for 30-45 minutes.

3. Make the pancakes: Turn the dough out onto the mat. Knead until smooth (1-2 minutes), adding flour if it gets sticky. Cut the dough in half, leaving one piece in the oiled bowl. Roll the dough to about a 1/8-inch thickness and don’t worry if it isn’t perfectly round. Brush lightly with sesame or chili oil and sprinkle the scallions all over. The scallions should look like a moderate case of zitz, not like a wall-to-wall carpet.

4. Roll and coil: Roll the dough up like a cigar (not too tightly), and then coil into a spiral. Press the ends together. Flatten the spiral with your hands or a rolling pin to about 7” in diameter. Cook immediately or cover with a towel for about half an hour for a more tender pancake.

5. Cook (fry and steam) the pancake: Heat a heavy skillet on high. Add a small amount of oil (to about 1/8”) and heat until a scallion ring sizzles. Add the pancake, reduce the heat and cover for 2-5 minutes. Watch it carefully so that it doesn’t scorch. Flip it, reduce the heat and cook for 3-5 minutes more, checking every 30 seconds to keep it from burning. Serve immediately.

Freezing option: Freeze flat, uncovered at the end of Step 4. When completely frozen, wrap tightly. Partially defrost in the refrigerator and cook as in #5, but on slightly lower heat.

* In China Moon (page 10), Tropp has an excellent recipe for Chili Oil with chili flakes, dried black beans, fresh ginger and garlic, which, if used in Step 5, makes a very zingy pancake.