My grandmother used to make these when I was a child, and she always put onion powder in hers, to give it more of an onion flavour. I followed the recipe, with the addition of a teaspoon of onion powder, sea salt, and ground white pepper. I rolled them the way my grandmother did, which is to portion them out (16-18 per recipe), using hands, roll each portion into a hotdog-like shape, then with a rolling pin, roll out into a long, thin rectangle, about 1/8" thick. Brush with oil, sprinkle on green onions, and roll into cigar lengthwise. Next, take one end and begin coiling the cigar into a patty (like how a snake coils itself), and tuck the end tail under. Next, roll flat with rolling pin, again, 1/8" thick. I like to make two batches at a time, and freeze them, with parchment paper inbetween. No need to defrost when pan frying, just lower the temp a bit, and cook a bit longer. Sprinkle with salt and serve with hoisin sauce. Enjoy!
this is very close to the recipe that I use for green onion cakes (Martin Yan version). Green onion cakes are meant to be flat..the purpose of letting the dough rest is just to develop the gluten and make the cake more tender when fried. These cakes are typically served as appetizers in Asian restaurants. They are meant to be somewhat plain...I brush mine with sesame oil and sprinkle some salt when doing the layer of chopped gr. onions. The key is to serve them with a dipping sauce....my favorite is soy sauce mixed with a little bit of super hot red chili sauce (you know the kind with the bright green lid in the Asian cooking aisle). They are meant to be enjoyed with sauce thus they are kinda plain.
I cannot believe this recipe is online! My immigrant mother made these scallion pancakes faithfully for us growing up. She herself grew up having them in pre-communist China and then Taiwan. It is the quintessential comfort food in our home. Goes well with congee and pickled goodies.
Excellent recipe. A few notes...
* You will need 2 bunches of green onions unless yours are very large
* No need to let the dough rest. really, trust me.
* For more flavour, use sesame oil both in cooking and in the dough, or half and half with vegetable oil.
* LESS IS MORE WHEN IT COMES TO OIL! Add 2 or 3 drops to the pan before each batch of cakes you fry, not all at once in the beginning. We're not deep frying them, after all.
* Use sea salt.
* Roll the dough out long, roll like a cigar, coil like a snake, then roll flat. Thinner is better.
* Eat them hot. (drools)
* Thank you so much for this recipe!
in response to the below post about whether the dough should rise no traditional green onion cakes do not require yeast and the dough is not meant to rise...as you can see from the photo it is meant to be a flat cake
Great recipe! Protip: Use bacon grease in place of vegetable oil to make this dish super delicious!:D
I hate to give these such a low rating but they were SUPER bland!!! I added a good amount of salt and pepper as stated to do and bland, bland, bland. It had to be the dough. I even added more salt on them as they were frying and we still had trouble getting them down. Good thing I served some yummy soup with them so we could dip them in it to it to get them down. I threw away about 12 of these :(
I was concerned after reading some of the reviews which stated that the dough was bland. So I followed the advise of another reviewer and added salt white pepper and onion powder to the dough. That seemed to do the trick and otherwise I followed the recipe. I did sprinkle the cakes with additional salt when they were done as well. These were terrific and my husband and I gobbled them up. Thank you so much for the recipe spicyme!
This was such an easy and delicious recipe!! I have never made green onion cakes myself but my parents and grandma always did as I was growing up. This really brought back good memories! I halved the recipe and we ate all but two pancakes before the dirty dishes were even washed! Will definitely make again! Thanks for the recipe!!!
