scallion pancakes [葱油饼]

Hands down these are probably my favorite Chinese appetizers to get. It’s hard for me to resist the urge of ordering 3 or 4 plates of these. They’re so addicting. Yet, you know what’s funny? I hate scallions. I pick them out of everything, but scallion pancakes? Somehow I have no problem with them whatsoever. In fact, I love them in these. The more the better. And the more grease, the better. Ha, these aren’t the healthiest for you since they’re covered in oil from the pan frying, but they’re oh-so-good. Your mouth will thank you. Your heart? Eh, run it off ;)

I didn’t realize how easy these were to make. I mean, I guess if I really thought about it, it’s really just dough and scallions. Duh.

The one thing that took me forever to make these (actually, the only thing that made me put off making these) was the homemade dough. I’ve always been intimidated to make my own dough. Not sure why, but maybe it was my laziness taking over. One thing’s for sure, I thought homemade dough would be really hard. Wrong. I love proving myself wrong — or having others prove that to me. After watching my mom make homemade dough, it wasn’t so bad after all. It’s just water and flour and a lot of resting time. Not too shabby.

So you basically make the dough, section it off, roll it out, brush vegetable oil on it, sprinkle a generous amount of salt and scallions, roll it up lengthwise, then coil it into a snake, smash it down and roll it flat again. I took some pictures to demonstrate that in case my words are more confusing than looking at an actual picture.

Okay, stop judging my imperfect circle. This was probably the first one I made and decided it was the one to snap a photo of.

The coil. As you roll the dough, you’ll have scallions and oil oozing out of the sides, but don’t worry, that’s the point :) it’ll taste oh-so-good after it’s been pan-fried

Woohoo! The coil is now flattened with scallions all scattered within the skin of the dough.