LIVE TO COOK

Occasionally, we go out to eat. When we do, we choose a restaurant that has kids friendly menu that suits our kid’s taste. Though the entrée don’t suit his tastes, most of the time the starters and salads will make his meal. So we look for restaurants that have appetizer options which are good and meat free.

Couple of weeks ago we went to a Szechuan restaurant. As we knew that our kid loves all kinds of bread, we ordered “Scallion Pancakes” for appetizer. As expected, he devoured the dish. We liked it a lot too. While eating, I asked my kid, “Do you like green onion pancakes, honey? Do you want mommy to make it at home?”. With full of happiness he replied, “Yes! I love it! I am Onion helper and mommy is pancake helper!”.

Though I didn’t know how to make scallion pancakes, I was confident that my blog friends would help me. When I searched for the recipe on the internet, I came across Barbara’s post about scallion pancakes with its history and the step by step instructions.

With instructions on hand, I decided to make them for dinner yesterday. I followed the instructions very carefully and the scallion pancake turned out well and was at par with the restaurant taste. I thank Barbara for the recipe and instructions. As this is the first Chinese dish that awed my kid, this goes to “A.W.E.D - Chinese” event hosted by DK. I am happy with the never fail recipe of Barbara and sending the same to “Your recipe rocks” event hosted by Madhuram. I would love to walk in the “Pancake on parade” event hosted by Susan, with the scallion pancake. As per Barbara, “Scallion Pancakes” are famous street food of Beijing. So this suits “MBP - Street food” event hosted by Sia too!

Ingredients:

3 Cups All purpose flour
1 Cup hot water
1/2 bunch Green onions (Chopped)
2 Tbsp White sesame seeds ( I added this for nutty flavor)
2 tsp Salt
Oil for Shallow Frying

** I skipped black pepper as my kid hates spicy or hot food

Method:

1. Mix the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the hot water 2 Tbsp at a time while mixing the flour with a wooden spatula.
2. Mix well until a ball of dough forms. Knead briefly until smooth. Cover and allow to rest for an hour.
3. Take a lime sized ball and roll into 4 inch circle.
4. Spread some green onion pieces and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

5. Roll into a jelly roll.

6. Flatten it and roll again to a 3 inch circle.

7. Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a shallow frying pan.
8. When the oil is hot, place the rolled pancake and cook until brown spots appear on both sides. If you need a crispy pancake, leave it until it is browned well.

9. Drain well and serve hot.

I have a little chef in my kitchen these days. He wants to whip up something delicious, just like mommy does. Every Saturday morning, the first question he asks after waking up is “Shall we make some pancakes, Mommy?” . He won’t stop until I make some pancake batter and crank up the stove. When I place the griddle on the stove, he will get on his step stool near the stove. The fun starts from sprinkling some water droplets on the griddle to check the heat. After pouring the pancake batter on the griddle, our little chef will start talking to the batter, “Are you done yet? Hurry up!!!”

To get this fun going every week, I have to come up with ideas for pancakes that are fun, filling and fast. This week we made “Potato Pancakes“. We are happy to share our recipe with you. In fact, it is an Express potato pancake as it got the “Hurry Up!” order from our little chef .

Ingredients:

2 Large Potatoes
1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 Cup All Purpose flour
2 Tbsp Butter (Melted)
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Sugar
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Black Pepper powder

Method:

1. Wash and Shred the potatoes. (I don’t peel the potatoes. You can peel if you like to).
2. Add other ingredients and mix well until lump free.
3. Heat a cast iron griddle until water droplets evaporate immediately.
4. Pour 1/2 cup of batter and spread slightly.
5. Cook until the sides turn brown.
6. Flip and cook the other side until done.

Our little chef seems to have mocked the process in his play home. When he prepared mock pancakes for one of his teachers, she demanded “Pancake Pops“. Now, our chef is crazy about learning to make “Pancake Pops”. So we made some “Pancake pops” with the same batter. Both the versions turned out yummy and we enjoyed a tummy full. Hope you too.

This is my first entry for WBB #23 hosted by Raaga.