Scallion Pancakes

A favorite appetizer/side dish at Northern Chinese restaurants is scallion or green onion pancakes. I don't have a hard and fast recipe for them, but here are the basics for four pancakes.

• 2 cups all-purpose or bread flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt, mixed well with flour
• a cup each of very hot water and iced water (you won't use all)
• 3 green onions, roots removed and chopped finely (white and green parts)
• sesame oil

Use a heavy bowl or have someone hold it for you while you pour hot water in with one hand and start mixing the flour together with the other hand. As soon as any clumps start to form, switch to cold water. Ultimately, you should be using half hot and half cold, but the first few times it might be hard to gauge this. Don't sweat it, you'll be fine.

As soon as you have a tacky dough (less water is better here) set it aside for fifteen minutes to an hour, covered with a damp towel. then, knead the ball of dough a few times, sprinkling with a little flour of needed. Cut into four equal pieces and cover again for at least ten minutes. Roll each ball out, brush with a little sesame oil, cover generously with green onions, and then roll the circle up into a cylinder. Flatten the top a little, brush with more oil, and cover with a little more green onion. Then roll the cylinder up so you end up with something that has the shape of a cinnamon roll. By oiling and folding so many times, you're creating layers of dough that will give the pancake some texture when you tear it apart later. Let each "cinnamon roll" sit for a minute or two, then flatten and roll into a disc. The discs can be stacked between plastic wrap and frozen, or fried in a tablespoon of oil over medium heat for three to five minutes per side. Frozen ones take longer but do not have to be defrosted before cooking.