You know those recipes we hold near and dear to our hearts because they really are the greatest of all time? Well, our Greatest Recipe of All Time series is where we wax poetic about them. Today, food stylist Sue Li shares her recipe for scallion pancakes.
You know that fried disc with a sprinkle of scallions and a not-so-subtle dash of MSG that you often get at the Chinese restaurant? It’s a little soggy from oil but still has that oozy crunch? Well, that’s what most people in America perceive to be scallion pancakes. Sorry dudes, that’s not the real scallion pancake.
In my childhood in Taiwan in the late 80s, scallion pancakes were as ubiquitous as a slice on New York City street corners. It was a snack my uncle might buy me when he came to pick me from school and I’d devour them on the ride home. It’s usually flaky and crunchy and doughy all at the same time but never greasy. Ordered from street carts that dotted the alleys, for roughly $1 apiece, they come in plastic bags. You can get the chili sauce directly on them or on the side in a separate small baggie. Or if you’re an old-timer (aka traditionalist) like my grandpa, you get it with several squirts of black vinegar. You can’t go wrong with either sauces, and I’ve since put the two together with some minor tweaks and made a vinegary chili sauce for the recipe.
When my family and I moved to small town Texas when I was seven years old, one thing I craved the most was scallion pancakes. My mom, more of a career woman than a housewife in her past life in Taiwan, had to teach herself how to make them. This was pre-internet, so she went with her “instincts.”
(A little background: My mother thinks she can make anything. She’ll go into Macy’s, study a sweater inside and out, turn to me and say, “I can knit that,” drop the mic, and walk away.) So, she made some kind of dough with just all-purpose flour and water, rolled it out, sprinkled scallions and mimicked the shape of a scallion pancake and fried it. It was not good. The dough was fried on the outside, the layers inside were thick and tacky. My brother and I ate them because we’re good, obedient kids, but whoa, it was hard.
My mom didn’t give up on The Scallion Pancake because she wanted to eat them, too. Many long distance calls were placed to my grandmother. How is the dough made? What’s the ratio of scallions to dough? What kind of fat is used? What’s the technique when you fry them?
The big reveal was: The dough is a mixture of all-purpose flour and boiling water and it needs to be soft and slightly yielding like your thighs. (Grandma said soft like an earlobe but, honestly, I never felt that to be true. I compared my dough to many fleshy parts of my body and I found that the softness is more like my thighs.) The dough should be brushed with lard, but lard wasn’t easy to find in our suburban grocery store, so my mom used vegetable oil. A few large pinches of scallions are enough because too much would make the dough soggy. When frying the pancakes, flip them constantly and try to hit the edges of the pancakes against the pan to help the layers separate. My mom followed her mother’s advice and finally got it.
The ideal scallion pancake: About the size of a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut, crunchy on the outside, multi-layered and doughy on the inside with the perfect ratio of scallions. Traditionally, the recipe uses lard but as I mentioned, my mom used vegetable oil. I met the two versions in the middle and substituted the oil with schmaltz—it practically runs in my veins after almost two decades in New York. The schmaltz also adds that bit of flavor that’s akin to MSG without that puckered, dry-mouth feel.
So, I recommend you make these pancakes. They're the "greatest recipe of all time," after all. You don’t have to eat them entirely in one-sitting, but you won’t be judged if you do. Wrap any uncooked pancakes individually in plastic wrap and freeze them. The next time you really crave an appetizer with your Chinese take-out, just grab one from the freezer, thaw, and fry in the time it takes the delivery to get to your door.
Get the recipe: Scallion Pancakes and Dipping Sauce
