Cōngyóubǐng (Scallion Pancakes)

Form the dough. Mix in that teaspoon of salt in with the flour, and make a little ‘well’, almost like you were making pasta. Then, take your hot water and add it in bit-by-bit, ladle-by-ladle, aiming for the dry parts. This’s done to make sure that all the dough gets some of that hot water action. Roughly mix this together with chopsticks.

Knead the dough, then cover and let it relax for ~30 minutes If you got a stand mixer, awesome. Hook attachment, speed one, eight minutes, fin. I know not everyone does though, so if you’re doing this by hand knead it for about ten minutes til things’re no longer sticking to the bowl or your hands. Cover with a damp towel, and let the dough relax.

Thinly slice your small mountain of scallions. Again, make sure these guys’re completely dry.

Portion out the dough into eight 1/2 cup pieces. Oil up a work surface (an oiled work surface is way easier than a floured one here), and roll this guy out into a bit of a ‘log’ shape. Cut into eight pieces.

Form the pancake. Ok, this and the next step are a bit tricky. If you wanna make this I heavily encourage you to check out 2:28 in the video for a visual and a more detailed explanation… it’s really hard to explain the hand motions in writing, so for these two steps I’m basically just gunna give an outline here: (1) roll it into a ~six inch long ‘log’ (2) press down on the log to flatten it (3) take the log and slap it against the table 2-4 times until it’s about ~10 inches long (4) use the palm of your hand to flatten it again until it’s about 4 inches wide.

Roll the pancake. Ditto here: (1) spread one tbsp of the yousu ‘seasoned roux’ mixture on the pancake, leaving a little room on the edges and putting a touch more on the side closest to you (2) place a huge handful of scallions on the side closest to you (3) pull back on the side closest to you a little and roll it over the scallions (4) stretch and fold the edges in – you’ll get some extra loose scallions, this’s normal (5) roll it again (6) stretch and fold the edges again (7) use your other hand to hold the end of the dough and stretch it a bit, roll it again (8) stretch and fold the edges again (9) put the remainder of the dough at a slight angle so that it’ll move towards one of the two sides when you roll up the remainder (10) roll up the remainder (11) swirl it around what’s now become your ‘top’ (12) pinch the very end and slightly tuck it to make everything all pretty (13) flip to the other side (14) pinch a bit of the excess dough almost in the fashion you’d crimp a dumpling, but tuck it in instead (15) work around the bottom, you’ll prolly have to do ~eight ‘pinch and tucks’ (16) use your hand to flatten.

Begin frying the pancake, press down to flatten, then flip and work through it, pressing/rolling it out thinner. With a flame at medium, pour enough oil to get a depth of about 1cm in your pan. Once the oil reaches about 350F, add in the pancake. Let it chill there for about 30 seconds, then smash it down and flip. Now with the spatula, press it from the center out to ‘roll’ it thinner.. turn 90 degrees, and repeat. Continue until the pancake is even and about a half inch thick… and flip.

Let the pancake fry for ten minutes, flipping at least four more times. Once you get the hang of it, this’s when you’d start putting more pancakes on – I like working ~2-3 at a time. Feel free to be restless with your flipping… this ain’t a burger, flip whenever you feel like it but at least four more times. After ten minutes, these guys should be nice and golden brown.

Put the pancakes in a pre-heated 350F oven for ten minutes. Again, preferably ya can find a way to macguiver a way to keep these in an upright position to allow the excess oil to more easily drain out.