spring onion pancakes

2 min read

Cong you bang are a rich and flaky flatbread, often found at yum cha and street markets. They are absolutely divine on their own, dunked in Silken Congee(here), or even used as a wrap for stir-fried dishes, such as Fragrant Cumin and Coriander Beef (here). The best thing about these is that they put the humble spring onion in the limelight: when fried within the multiple folds of a salty dough, the finely sliced spring onions impart a fragrant and super-satisfying savoury flavour.

Makes 8 vegetable oil, for frying for the dough 460g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 1 tsp salt 1 tbsp vegetable oil for the filling 4 tbsp vegetable oil spring onions, very thinly sliced salt runtil a ball of dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead for 5-10 minutes until it is smooth. If the dough is very sticky, add a little flour as you are kneading, but keep in mind that it should be a little bit sticky. Cover and leave to rest for 20 minutes.

2 Shape the dough into a sausage and cut it into 8 even-sized pieces. Work with one piece of dough at a time, keeping the rest covered. Roll the dough out into a rough square about 1mm thick. Drizzle on 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil and use your fingers to spread it out across the surface as evenly as pos-sible. Sprinkle 3 pinches salt and 11/2 tablespoons of the spring onions evenly on top.

To form the pancake, take the edge closest to you and roll the dough as if you are rolling up a thin Swiss roll, then hold one end and roll it up again to form a snail shell spiral. Tuck the end under-neath the spiral. Repeat with the remaining dough, cover and leave to rest for at least 10 minutes.

For each pancake, heat 1/2 teaspoon oil in large frying pan over a low heat. Roll each pancake out into a circle. If you prefer a crisp preler a crispy pancake, roll it out to a.5cm thickness, and for a slightly chewier texture, roll the pancake out to a 1cm thickness. Fry for about 4-5 minutes on each side until golden brown and crispy, being sure to let all the layers cook through. Remove from the pan and fry the remaining pancakes.