Green Onion Pancakes and experimenting at the Asian Market

A few weeks ago, I went to eat at an Asian Dumpling House. Jeng Chi is in Richardson, and I never ate so much food for such a small tab. I ate family style with a group of 7 moms, and my total was $8. I even had enough money left to go down the sidewalk and have a Taiwanese Shaved Ice - what a night.

Since the boys are gone, I wanted to do something easy for dinner on Wed. night, so I thought I'd buy some frozen dumplings at Asia World and steam them. Jeng Chi sells them frozen, too, but I didn't have time to make it down there. I also bought a little container of soup to try.

Well, of course, I dreamed something up to cook for the meal. At Jeng Chi, they had these yummy Green Onion pancakes to go with the dumplings. So, I went googling for a recipe. I decided on this one.

Ingredients

* 2 cups flour
* 1 tablespoon sesame oil
* 1/2 cup boiling water
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup cold water
* Vegetable oil spray
* 1/2 cup minced green onions


Directions

1. Mix together flour and boiling water.
2. Add 1/3 cup cold water and knead until dough is smooth and elastic.
3. Add more water if necessary.
4. Cover and let dough rest for 15 minutes.
5. In a small bowl combine sesame oil, salt and green onions then set aside.
6. Divide dough into 10 pieces then flatten each piece in the palm of your hand.
7. Roll each piece into a 6" circle.
8. Spread each with some of the green onion mixture.
9. Roll up dough into a jellyroll then wind up into a snail shape.
10. Flatten slightly then roll on lightly floured surface to 5" circle.
11. Spray pan with vegetable oil spray then heat over medium high heat.
12. Fry pancake for 2 minutes then turn and cook other side.
13. Serve hot.

I made the dough in the mixer and then let it rest. No yeast involved in this one. I mixed for 10 minutes - I'm thinking maybe that was too long for this. It got really firm.


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While the dough was mixing/resting, I mixed up the green onion filling. Sesame oil, green onions, and salt - it smelled so good!

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I divided into 10 little balls.

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Flattened out the little balls and spread on some filling.

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Rolled up.

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Twisted into a snail.

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Then I flattened them. This is where it got tricky. The filling would try to stay in the dough - the dough almost seemed to have a skin by this point. But while rolling, it would eventually squirt out, and it got so messy. Not to mention that it didn't really want to flatten, so it kept springing back into a fat little snail. I tried flattening by hand instead of with a rolling pin and I tried elongating the jellyroll before rolling it up - it was all still messy and would start to stick to the rolling pin b/c of all the filling everywhere. But I kept going and did the best I could. I think they needed to be flatter.

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Then I pan fried.

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We used these to mix up a dipping sauce in individual bowls. I love, love, love that chili garlic sauce - we have decided it goes with everything...morning (eggs), noon (sandwiches), and night (pizza and everything else). I experiment with other brands, but always come back to this one. The other jars are lite soy sauce and rice vinegar.

I would like to also get Wasabi to go with this - if anyone knows where to buy that at the Asian Market, please comment.

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Here is our feast. Besides the soup and pancakes, we had cabbage/mushroom and seafood with crab buns. The seafood ones were the best, and they were great for leftovers the next day. The soup was delicious, and Todd wants me to get him some for work lunches when we don't have leftovers. The pancakes were good, but not as good as the ones at Jeng Chi. They were so cheap at the restaurant...I don't know if I'll experiment with them anymore. Although I did see a recipe on Weight Watchers that used Egg Roll wraps - that looks easier.

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