Food & Drink

A worldwide celebration is always a good excuse to eat good food! What better way to merge the Lunar New Year and Mardi Gras than to make Chinese scallion pancakes?! We made these to incorporate the beautifully tasty asian side dish with the traditional Pancake Day and Mardi Gras - which means Fat Tuesday in french and is widely celebrated in Louisiana with a big carnival, lots of brightly coloured outfits, music, and food.

The scallion or spring onion pancakes are a Chinese tradition. They are made with a dough, and when making them they seem more like a fried flatbread than the batter-derived crepes that we think of as pancakes in the west, but the end result does translate best as a crispy pancake. The vast amount of spring onions incorporated into the dough adds a lovely sweet flavour and texture. We made a fragrant Chinese-style dipping sauce to go alongside which gave the sharp kick needed to complement the crispy dish.

Along with the pancakes we decided to invite the fun Mardi Gras colours - yellow, green, and purple - into the festive meal by making kebabs using yellow, green and purple veg, flavoured with the beautiful cajun spices of Louisiana. We also thought that kebabs bring in the festive, outdoorsy atmosphere of the Mardi Gras carnival celebrations. Of course if we were in sunny New Orleans we could have cooked these kebabs on a real BBQ, and if it is summer or at least sunny when you are making this dish I would suggest doing so. For us in the UK though, February is certainly not BBQ weather and so we cooked our kebabs over a hot plate inside, but in the recipe I have said to use a large frying pan or skillet, whatever you have available will do. It was also our first time trying these and although tasty, I would add more spice to the marinade next time to give it the true cajun flavours that were slightly missing this first time around. 

However you decide to try this meal, enjoy making it, have fun and don’t be afraid to experiment by adding things that you think would work.

Ingredients: 

For the kebabs:

2 courgettes

2 yellow peppers

3 red onions

1 aubergine

1 packet of tofu

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp salt

½ cup of olive oil

Kebab skewers

For the scallion pancakes:

4 cups plain white flour

1 tsp salt

2 cups water

¼ cup toasted sesame seed oil

4 cups scallions (spring onions)

Frying oil of your choice

For the dipping sauce:

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp minced fresh ginger

2 tbsp spring onions

½ tsp chilli flakes (or more if you want a good kick)

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp water

3 tbsp soya sauce

3 tbsp rice vinegar

2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Method:

To start the kebabs, chop all vegetables and the tofu into large cubes - big enough to be skewered later - and place in a large flat dish. Then mix oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, salt, and olive oil together and pour over the veg and tofu. Leave to marinade for at least an hour. 

To start on the pancakes, chop the spring onions very fine. We sliced them length ways down the middle before chopping them up to make the pieces as small as possible so that they don't end up pushing through the dough as you roll the pancakes flat. Place flour in a large bowl, mix with salt, and boil the water. Once boiled carefully drizzle the water over the flour a little at a time, mixing with a spoon as you go to create a dough in the middle. Keep mixing until all the flour has been incorporated and knead until you have a smooth and soft dough (you can use cold water if you want the dough to be a bit more chewy and stretchy). This may not use all the water. You can start forming the dough with your hands if it helps but do be aware that the water is hot.

Now divide the dough into 8 even round balls. Roll each into sausage shapes about 8inches long, and roll them into a spiral swirl, tucking the outside end underneath so it holds together.

Paint a very thin layer of the sesame oil over each one then roll out flat to a round pancake shape roughly 7 inches in diameter. Sprinkle an eighth of the spring onions over each pancake and then roll from one end into a sausage shape again. Repeat the step of curling the sausage into a spiral.

Now paint another layer of sesame oil over each spiral and again roll them out into flat pancake shapes. This time the spring onions should be incorporated. You want to try and get your pancakes as thin as possible without making holes. Once they have been rolled out they should be ready for frying, but leave this until every other aspect of the meal is nearly complete so that the pancakes are hot and crispy when eating.

To make the dipping sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan, add the garlic, ginger, spring onions and chilli flakes and cook on a low heat for two minutes. Stir in the sugar, water, soya sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil. Leave on the heat for another couple of minutes, then strain out the garlic, ginger, and spring onions. Leave the sauce to cool. You can now adjust soya sauce and rice vinegar to your preferred taste.

Now to complete the kebabs, skewer the marinated veg and tofu, divided out as equally as possible, onto the kebab sticks. Heat a large frying pan or skillet that will fit the sticks across. Lay the kebabs on the pan and continue to turn as they cook and gently char - roughly 10 to 20 minutes. There is no need to add extra oil but a tiny sprinkle of water now and again can help if the pan gets too hot and the veg is cooking too quickly on the outside.

To fry the pancakes, heat a frying pan with enough oil to evenly cover the bottom of the pan. Once the oil is hot, carefully place your first pancake into the pan and fry until browned and crisped - about 3 minutes. Then flip and do the same on the other side. Repeat this process with every pancake. You will need to add more oil every other pancake or so as they soak a lot of it up, this gives a great crispy texture. You may also need to keep adjusting the heat as you fry to account for the pan getting hotter the longer it is over the heat. Once out of the pan a little kitchen paper can be used to soak up extra oil. Eat hot and dipped in sauce :)

We enjoyed our feast in the warm presence of good company, and washed it down with a delightful oolong tea. Hopefully you can do the same as you welcome in the Lunar New Year! Enjoy!