Green Onion Pancake / Iû-tshang-piánn

Enjoy one of the all time favorite Taiwanese snacks!

 

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 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 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.
20160205_202127
3. Let dough rest for 20 minutes, and then divide it into 8 equal pieces.
20160205_202342
4. Finely chop green onion.
Kneading
  1. Time: 30-40 minutes
  2. Put one piece of pizza dough on a floured surface.
20160205_202420
3. Roll it out into a thin, circular and flattened sheet (diameter is about 6 inches).
20160205_202517
4. Brush dough sheet with 1t oil.
20160205_202620
5. Sprinkle 1/8 t pepper salt mix powder and a pinch of salt over the oil.
20160205_202755
6. Followed by 1/3 cup fine chopped green onion.
20160205_202900
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 15-30 minutes.

20160205_203004
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
20160205_205452
3. Add some oil in the pan, pan fry green onion pancakes with medium-low heat.
20160205_205620
4. Turn pancakes over after 5 minutes, cook for another 5 minutes until the outer surface of    pancakes are golden-brown and crispy.
20160205_210351
Serve!

20160205_211249

Leave a Reply