Ratio 3:1:0.5 This is the formula for the dough. Shall explain below. This delicacy is not difficult to do, but there are quite a few steps involved. Once you get the hang of it, you'll think I write too much. Haaaaaaa ^.^
My first encounter with this biscuit was when my family visited Taiwan in year 2012. At first I was apprehensive about the snack, as a friend warned me it was way too oily and he would never ever eat it again. This happened just before our trip. But our nice tour guide-cum-driver kept singing praises about this Taiwan goodie, we just HAD to try it. That was it! I absolutely loved it! Too bad we only bought a few pieces on our first try. (The stall was rated number one in Yi-Lan by our tour guide! Arggh!) We bought whenever we saw a stall on the streets and would buy more than we could manage, but still devoured everything. Yummz!
The Sanxing (三星) spring onions used by Yilan (宜兰), Taiwan is big and very sweet with a slight pungent taste, and according to our tour guide, they cannot be bought elsewhere as it is difficult to keep fresh. You cannot find them even in other counties of Taiwan, that is why the name Sanxing Spring Onion Pancake draws so much attention and so popular. In order to make the pancake at home, I had to make do with our local scallions, so try to get them as fresh and fragrant as possible from the market stalls. (Photo source: http://www.go2taiwan.net/monthly_selection.php?sqno=62)
Spring Onion Pancake (recipe extracted from a Taiwanese show)
Ingredients
Dough
3 cups plain flour
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cool water
Some sugar (optional)
Some oil
(Important note: Use the SAME container to measure dough ingredients. If you are using a bowl, use the same bowl to measure flour, boiling water and water. The ratio is 3 (plain flour) : 1 (boiling water) : 0.5 (water))
Filling (original recipe calls for scallions and salt and shortening only)
Huge bundle of scallions
Fine salt
Sesame oil
White pepper
1-2 tsp oil
Method
1. Cut away roots, wash and clean the scallions. Hang upside down to dry until the whitish end shows a inner protruding tip. You may want to do this 1-2 hours beforehand
2. Put the flour into a big mixing bowl or pot. As I prefer a slightly sweet dough, I added some sugar. This is optional. You may also add salt if you like a more savoury taste. Stir well using a wooden roller pin.
3. While stirring the flour, slowly add boiling water and keep stirring. Use all boiling water. You should get uneven clumps of cooked flour.
4. Continue stirring and pour some of the cool water and mix. You may stop adding water when you think the dough is holding well, but I always get to use all the water. (DO NOT ADD MORE WATER NO MATTER HOW TEMPTING IT IS!) Now knead the dough with your hands until the dough is thoroughly mixed.
(This adding boiling water technique will not end up with a clean bowl and hands. It gets stickier as you knead)
5. Rub dough surface with oil, cover bowl with wet cloth or cling wrap. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
6. Dice the scallions. Set aside. Just before the 30 minutes is up, mix salt, sesame oil and pepper into the diced scallions. Give a taste test to see if you need to make adjustment. You should make it slightly saltier as the taste will be balanced off with the dough. Reason for not preparing this earlier is to avoid salt extracting moist from the spring onions.
7. Lightly dust the counter top with flour. Roll out the dough into a big rectangle. As you roll out the dough, lift up the dough corners from the counter top to make sure it does not stick. The rectangle has to be thin, about 3-5mm thick. The long side of the rectangle should be in front of you, with the shorter breadths at the sides.
8. Apply oil onto the dough. Spread the scallions as much as you will like to have, all the way to the West, South and East sides of the rectangle. Leave about 5cm brim at the North side of the rectangle to enable sealing.
 |
| the amount of scallions here in my opinion is not enough. I added more in my other batches. |
9. Starting from the long side in front of you, lightly tug, pull and roll the dough upwards as you go along until it forms a long log.
10. Pinch and seal as you pluck the balls out.
11. Press ball downwards with one sealed end facing you. Use roller pin to roll the dough flatter. It is ok if the dough breaks. You will break it anyway during frying.
12. Prepare a pan, drizzle oil (oil cover just about 1/2 of the height of pancake) and fry with medium low fire on one side until the bottom turns golden brown. Flip over and fry on the other side until both sides are done.
13. With the help of roller pin and spatula, turn and push inwards the sides of pancake to force out the layers. (the same idea that a roti prata vendor "crushes" the prata upon cooked)
14. Remove from pan and leave on prepared paper towels to absorb excess oil.
15. Serve while warm.
No comments:
Post a Comment