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

Ribbon Pakoda | Ola/Ottu Pakoda | Ribbon Murukku | Nada Thenkuzhal

Ribbon shaped fritters prepared from besan flour

Not many of you would need an intro to this lovely snack ! You might have always seen your mom or granny prepare this for Diwali or Janmashtami & just munching them as such is a delight on it's own :) It is also a very common snack/fritter in the South Indian bakeries. At times, on lazy days, we used to have them as an accompaniment to rasam sadam when cooking elaborate meals with poriyals & kootu were not in picture. Have you tried them that way? If not, do take a chance. You would love them. As a matter of fact, they taste awesome with sambar sadam too ! Very easy to make, just mix all the ingredients together & fry them in hot steaming oil. Voila, your fritters are ready. Now let's take a peep on the ingredients that needs to go in for the dough :)

Recipe Source: Ma

I Took: 40 minutes

Serves: 3-4 cups

I Used:

Besan Flour	-	1 cup
Butter	-	2 tsp
Red Chilly powder	-	1 tsp
Black Sesame Seeds	-	1 tsp
Asafoetida	-	1 tsp
Oil	-	For deep frying
Salt	-	As Needed

The Way:

1. In a bowl mix together the besan flour, butter (softened), red chilly powder, black sesame seeds, asafoetida & salt 
2. Add water little by little & mix together to make a soft yet firm & non-sticky dough. It should not be watery & almost like the chapathi dough
3. Meanwhile heat oil in a kadai to deep fry. Grease with oil the string hopper/idiyappam mould with the ribbon pakoda disc on. Fill the mould with the dough 
4. Press the dough onto the hot oil in circular motion to form a single layer. Do not overcrowd as it will not ensure even & fast cooking
5. Fry them until the sizzling (shh) sound ceases. Turn over to the other side & fry again till the sizzling ceases 
6. Drain the excess oil onto a tissue paper & cool completely. Continue the same process with the remaining dough

Store in airtight container and enjoy them over a cuppa chai !

Notes:

• If the sesame seeds are too big, then they might get stuck in the disc & you will not get the desired shape. If then, pulse them in the mixie before adding to the dough. This ensures that they are fine enough to get through the holes of the disc
• If you like the pepper flavour you can add ½ tsp freshly ground pepper. Again make sure they are fine enough to get through the holes of the disc
• Originally dalda is used in the preparation of this pakoda, but considering the side effects on health I used butter instead !

Cheers,

Chitz