Hello! Hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we are diving into a series that I have been planning for some time now. A few weeks back we did a series of videos dedicated to EVERYTHING that I ate in eight days traveling through Taipei Taiwan, and. Wow. I ate a lot of things. Much of which I genuinely had never seen before. So! As promised, we are now diving into a series of videos dedicated to my very best attempt at making all of these street food wraps, baos, and bites that we came across traveling through Taiwan. And of course, first up on this list is probably one of my very favorite things that I ate the entire time I was in Taiwan, which is this deep fried green onion pancake that we came across at the train station in Beitou.
For those not familiar, the green onion or scallion pancake known as "cong you bing" is a classic Taiwanese dish consisting of a flour and water based dough that has been wrapped and coiled into a ball with green onions, then rolled out again to yield its flaky texture. Though fundamentally a very simple concept, the cong you bing poses an inherent challenge, because it does not contain any leavening agents whatsoever. A traditional cong you bing attributes its flaky qualities solely from the way that it is rolled, yielding a flaky but not puffy texture. BUT. As you may have noticed in our travel vlog though, our deep fried pancake has A LOOT of rise and puff, so much so that they had to pop the air out of the thing before serving, which leads me to believe that there is, in fact, some leavening agents tucked into this pancake, which would have been activated by the deep fry. Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
2 cups AP flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup water
12 green onions
kosher salt
sesame oil
4 eggs
64 oz fryer oil
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp sesame oil
4 tbsp hoisin sauce
1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1/4 cup water
PREP
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
SEPARATE the whites and greens of the green onions, then slice thinly
COMBINE the whites of the green onions with the AP flour, baking powder, water, and a pinch of kosher salt, then kneed until a cohesive dough forms, adding additional flour if needed
SEPARATE the dough into 4oz balls, then form into a coin on a liberally floured work surface
ROLL the dough coin with 1/4 turn after each roll until 10-12 inches in diameter
COIL the pancake horizontally first, then vertically into a coil shape
form the coil into a coin shape, and roll out with 1/4 turn after each roll until 10-12 inches in diameter
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a fryer to 300F, then add the pancake and fry for 2-3 minutes until golden
REMOVE the pancake, then brush lightly with sauce mixture
ADD the egg to the deepfryer then let fry until lightly laced on the edges, then remove and place on top of the pancake
ADD the greens of the green onions on top of the egg, then roll the pancake into a wrap and slice in half