Chinese Scallion Pancakes with Ginger dipping sauce - IFC Challenge #1 | Cong You Bing

When  Saraswathy and Shobana geared up to create this new event 'International Food Challenge' I knew I that I am definitely gonna participate in this one ! C'mon, who would want to miss a chance to learn some exotic dishes from the cuisines around the world? The added advantage is you can make them at home without having to search for that speciality restaurant in your locality :D And as it would please anyone, the first challenge was to experiment on Chinese cuisine especially from the Cantonese region. So let me give you guys some heads up on this cuisine as shared to us from the event organisers. 

Cantonese Cuisine, also named Yue Cuisine or Guangdong cuisine, is one of the main cuisine styles in China. It comes from Guangdong Province in southern China and it is one of among the eight great traditions of Chinese cuisine. The basic cooking techniques of Cantonese cuisine include roasting, stir-frying, sautéing, deep-frying, braising, stewing and steaming. Steaming and stir-frying are most commonly used to preserve the ingredients' natural flavors. The most characteristic cooking methods of Cantonese Cuisine are cooking in salt, cooking in wine, baking in a pan, and soft ¨C frying. 

We were given four recipes to choose from namely Spiral Moon Cake, Cantonese Savoury Glutinous Rice Dumplings, Cantonese Wonton Noodles Soup & Chinese Scallion Pancakes. I chose Chinese Scallion pancakes, the simpler one. This closely resembles the Kerala parottas in that APF is used to make these pancakes. Spring onions or Scallions is used as a stuffing. This is served with a sweetishly sour dip. I enjoyed having these, especially the dip which made the pancakes more tastier !

Recipe Source: Adapted from here

I Took: 40 minutes

Serves: 3-4 pancakes (5 or 6 inch dia)

I Used:

For Pancake:

All purpose flour/Maida	-	1 cup + more for dusting
Scallions/Spring Onions	-	¼ cup
Oil	-	4 tbsp
Salt	-	1 tsp / As Needed
Boiling-hot Water	-	¼ cup / As Needed

For Ginger-Dipping Sauce:

Thin Soya Sauce	-	¼ cup
Rice Wine Vinegar	-	¼ cup
Chopped Scallions	-	¼ cup
Crumbled Dried Red Chilly	-	1 tsp
Ginger	-	1 tsp
Toasted Sesame seeds	-	1 tsp
Sugar	-	1 tsp

The Way:

1. Sift together flour & salt. Add 2 tbsp oil and mix well
2. Slowly add the boiling-hot water & knead until it forms a soft & smooth dough
3. Cover with a damp cloth & allow it to stand for 20-30 minutes
4. Divide the dough into 3-4 pieces of equal size & roll them into balls using hand
5. On a floured surface, place a ball & roll it into a thin circle using a rolling pin
6. Spread a tsp of oil evenly over the pancake & sprinkle 1-2 tbsp of scallions over it
7. Roll up the pancake from one end (horizontally) like a rug
8. Curl (vertically) the roll around in a spiral. With the palm press the top of the spiral to flatten it. Using a rolling pin, roll again & flatten to achieve a 5 or 6 inch pancake
9. In a hot non-stick pan, pan sear both sides of the pancake (like you make chapathis) until golden brown. Add oil if necessary
10. Mix all the dipping ingredients together. Cut the pancake into wedges and serve them with the dipping sauce

Notes:

• I omitted rice wine vinegar in the dip as I did not have them. Still tasted awesome !

Cheers,

Chitz

Chinese Almond Cookies - Baking Partner Challenge #13

Here comes yet another beautiful challenge from the Baking Partners. This time it's cookies from around the world & I chose to go Chinese with these beautiful Almond cookies. I have baked Ameretti cookies (Italian) before, so I was sure that this would also be acceptable to our taste buds. And as I had expected this tasted crunchy & great with the lovely almond flavor. It's very easy to make & I found the method quite similar to the Indian flat bread 'Chapathi/Roti' :) Try this out as your yummy tea time snack !

Recipe from here

Makes: 8-12 cookies

I Took: 

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Refrigeration Time: 1 hour
Baking Time: 20-25 minutes

I Used:

All purpose flour	-	¾ cup + 1 tbsp
Butter	-	4 tbsp
Sugar	-	¼ cup
Almond paste	-	2 ½ tbsp
Baking powder	-	½ tsp
Vanila Essence	-	½ tsp
Grated lemon zest	-	1 tsp
Salt	-	¼ tsp
Egg	-	1 tbsp
Beaten egg white	-	of 1 egg
Almonds	-	8-12 no

The Way:

1. In a large bowl sift together all purpose flour, baking powder & salt together. For even mixing sift for two or three times
2. Beat the egg nicely & keep aside
3. In another wide bowl cream the butter until pale yellow. You can use an electric mixer or whisk. I used whisk
4. Add ¼ cup sugar, almond paste, lemon zest & amaretto (or vanilla essence) & mix until it is smooth & lump free
5. Now add about one third of the beaten egg and mix well. Now gradually add the flour & mix well until everything is fully incorporated. Use hands instead of whisk while incorporating flour
6. Transfer the dough into a parchment paper & refrigerate it for about an hour
7. Preheat the oven to 175 degree C in conventional mode. Adjust the rack to the lower third of the oven. Line baking sheets with parchment paper
8. Once the dough is chilled, prep your working surface with 1 tbsp of sugar. Roll the dough over the sugar and then make small balls out of it (like you do for Indian flatbread or chapathi)
9. Flatten out the balls into cookie shapes of your desired diameter & thickness using your palm. Place them two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets
10. Brush each cookie lightly with beaten egg white and press a whole or chopped almond into the center of each 
11. Bake for 15- 20 minutes or until golden brown around the edges
12. Remove the baked cookies from the oven and allow to cool  to room temperature before serving

Notes:

Almond paste is nothing but powdered almond. Grind around 15-20 almonds in a mixie to get the above mentioned almond paste

Cheers,

Chitz

Chicken Spring Rolls | Chinese Chicken Spring Rolls using Pastry Sheets

What's the first dish that comes to your mind when you hear 'Chinese' ? It must be 'Fried Rice' or 'Noodles', correct? Okay, now what's it that comes to your mind when I say 'Chinese Starter'. For me it's always 'Spring Rolls'. A visit to the Chinese restaurant is never complete without gulping this all time favorite of mine. And yes, not to for get the 'Sweet corn corn chicken soup'. I used to order this every other time, that my dad used to ask me, 'Why don't you try something new at least this time?' :D

My mom used to make these spring rolls for us at home. So I knew it was not a Herculean task, barring the vegetable chopping. I think that's the only time consuming factor in Chinese cuisine. Once that's done, the rest is very simple.  It is one of the all time favorites of Deeps too.. He simply loves them and would be in full praises when I make them. And he did come home very early from office yesterday. I am still not sure which one of these two is the reason, 'Not much work today' (as he said) or 'I am making spring rolls for evening tea today' (as I told him in the morn). Anyways we both enjoyed this little delicacies over a hot cup of tea.

Recipe from Ma

I Took:

Preparation Time: 40 minutes

Cooking Time: 45 minutes

Yield: 12 nos

I Used:

Carrot	-	1 cup (refer notes)
Capsicum	-	1 cup
Beans	-	½ cup
Celery	-	½ cup
Chicken	-	1 cup
Soya Sauce	-	1 ½ tsp
Tomato Sauce	-	1 tsp
Chilly sauce	-	1 tsp
Worcestershire sauce	-	1 tsp
Sugar	-	½ tsp
Pepper powder	-	½ tsp
Ground paste	-	1 tbsp
Oil	-	For deep frying
Salt	-	As needed
Aginomoto	-	A pinch (optional)

To grind:

Ginger	-	1 tbsp
Garlic	-	1 tbsp
Chilly powder	-	1 tsp

The Way:

1. Chop all the vegetables. Clean and cut the chicken into small pieces (like chops)
2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan. Add the chicken pieces. Add a little salt & pepper and saute for 3-4 minutes
3. Then add the ground paste and onion and mix well (Ignore the previous step for veg spring rolls)
4. After 2 minutes of sauteeing add carrot, beans, capsicum, celery and aginomoto and fry
5. Then mix in salt, soya sauce, tomato sauce, chilly sauce, worcestershire  sauce and the remaining pepper powder and saute in
6. The veggies should become crisp & crunchy. Do not over cook as they again have to be deep fried
7. The filling for the roll is ready. Allow it to cool and dry. Moisture content in the filling will make the wrapper wet which will suck in more oil during frying. Hence best to wait till the filling has cooled down with minimum moisture in it
8. Now off to the spring roll sheets. Defrost them to room temperature before using them. Use the sheets after defrosting as they will dry out & crack if left unattended 
9. Lay out one of the sheet. Place about a tbsp (depending on the size of your sheet) of the filling on one corner. Lesser the filling, the better. Over sized filling have a tendency to break apart in oil

1. Fold over that corner and roll in
2. Fold over both the left & right sides
3. Make sure there is very little or no air pockets when you fold in the sheet, as they can allow oil to get inside the roll
4. At this point you can freeze the rolls if required for future use. Make sure the rolls are placed one aside the other (not on top) & covered suitably to prevent drying while freezing
5. Heat oil in a kadai. Deep fry the rolls. Keep turning the over in oil till the turn golden brown evenly 
6. Place them over tissue paper to drain off the excess oil. Serve with tomato ketchup

Notes:

• You can include more vegetables like cabbage & cauli flower. I had run out of them. So did not use here
• Aginomoto is added to enhance flavor but comes with a list of side effects. So highly recommended to avoid

Linking this to 'Flavors of Chinese Cuisine' event at Julie's 'Erivum Puliyum'

Cheers,

Chitz