By Justin Wei
Difficulty Level: Medium
Time 'till Eat: 90 minutes
Hands-on time: 50 minutes
Introduction and history of the dish
Chinese legend has it that Venetian merchant Marco Polo once had a Green Onion Pancake (蔥油餅, iû-tshang-piánn in Taiwanese, cōng yóubǐng in Mandarin) in China, and upon returning to Italy, missed it so much and tried to have someone recreate it. Unable to recreate the green onions inside the pancake, they tried to put it on top of the pancake instead, and the pizza was born.
We don't know how much truth is there to this story, but Taiwanese love their Green Onion Pancake and could care less of if the pizza was its cousin at all. They can be served as breakfast, an afternoon snack, or as part of a meal. Green onion pancake vendors usually open shop near schools as students usually grab these as a snack at the end of the day.
Gear
- Rolling pin
- Brush
- Knife
- Chopping board
- Pan
- Spatula
- Measuring cup
Optional pairings
-
Bubble tea
Ingredients
- Serves: 1
| Measure | Ingredient name | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | package | Plain pizza dough | We got ours from Trader Joe's |
| 10 | Stalks | Green Onion | |
| 10 | Tbsp. | Oil | Can be Avocado Oil, Lard, etc. |
| 1 | Tsp. | Pepper and salt mixture | |
| Salt | |||
Instructions
PREP
1. Time: 20 minutes.
2. Remind the pizza dough that it is about to be transformed back to Green Onion Pancake. Put pizza dough on a lightly floured surface, cover with an upside down bowl so it would stay moist.
3. Let dough rest for 20 minutes, and then divide it into eight equal pieces.
4. Finely chop green onion.
KNEADING
1. Time: 30 to 40 minutes
2. Put one piece of pizza dough on a floured surface.
3. Roll it out into a thin, circular and flattened sheet (diameter is about six inches).
4. Brush dough sheet with 1 t oil.
5. Sprinkle 1/8 t pepper salt mix powder and a pinch of salt over the oil.
6. Followed by 1/3 cup fine chopped green onion.
7. Roll up the green onion sheet and pinch the seam to seal it.
8. Roll the “green onion roll” spirally and pinch the seam again.
9. Cover the spiral roll with plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 to 30 minutes.
10. Repeat the process with remaining dough pieces.
PICKUP
1. Time: 10 minutes for each pancake.
2. Gently roll out green onion spiral rolls into flatter circles.
3. Add some oil in the pan, pan fry green onion pancakes with medium-low heat.
4. Turn pancakes over after five minutes, cook for another five minutes until the outer surface of pancakes is golden-brown and crispy.
5. Serve!
This article was originally published on taiwaneseculture.org as "Green Onion Pancake."
Editor: Olivia Yang
