Addictively delicious: scallion pancakes
We in the Netherlands are good at making pancakes and deep-frying all kinds of things. For this reason, it’s high time we started eating more scallion pancakes. Because this ultimate Chinese comfort food is both crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. With snippets of spring onion (scallion) as a bonus.
Made in China
There are Chinese people who claim that pizza evolved from the scallion pancake. Thanks to Marco Polo, who supposedly continued to long for this crispy-on-the-outside and chewy (‘tough’) pancake after returning to Italian soil. Those same Chinese people believe that Marco Polo also accidentally invented cheese fondue in his yearning for the Chinese hotpot.
I immediately believe that Polo kept craving this dish. I do too, after a trip to Taipei, where the cong you bing or cong zhua bing is part of the culinary heritage that lies almost literally in the streets. It’s one of the must-eats that every traveller must tick off during a stay in Taiwan’s vibrant capital. Preferably at one of the famous night markets. But a doorless shack with fluorescent lighting and ragged walls, or the evening pop-up stall beneath the hotel’s arcade, works too.
Not a pancake
The dish may be called a pancake, but technically it isn’t one. It isn’t made from batter, but from dough. The cake, which originated in northern China, is therefore also known as flatbread . Still, the scallion pancake is softer, pleasantly more moist and, because it is fried in oil rather than baked in an oven, crispier at the same time.
But as many cooks, so many scallion pancakes. Sometimes small, round and thick. Sometimes paper-thin, flaky and cut into pizza slices (yes, with scissors). And sometimes somewhere in between. But always the ultimate comfort food: lightly salted, crispy, warm and marbled like a good piece of wagyu beef. In this case, with fresh spring onion.
Dough circle
The even distribution of the spring onion is a thing in itself. By sprinkling the onion over the circle of dough, then rolling it into a dough snake, rolling that up again like a liquorice lace and then flattening it, the pancake becomes airier and each piece of spring onion gets its own place.
Some sprinkle sesame seeds on top before frying. Others dip the pancake after frying in a spicy or non-spicy sauce of their choice. In every case: addictively delicious. And even better news: it’s an addiction that costs next to nothing.
As long as no scallion pancakes have yet been spotted at our street food festivals, just make them yourself with this recipe.
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