Korean Scallion Pancakes

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

I know you all are eating your hearts out this Thanksgiving: green bean casserole, roasted sweet potatoes, turkey. cranberry sauce, stuffing, and galore!! My family is eating barbecue for some odd reason but I am still insanely jealous that I'm missing out.

Instead my Thanksgiving breakfast consisted of Korean Scallion Pancakes!! I know. I clearly am a couple holidays off. I woke up this morning craving Green Onion (aka Scallion) pancakes because last night I read an article about 40 Taiwanese foods we can't live without. I must have dreamt about them because they clearly were still on my mind when I woke up. If you are up for some serious drooling check out the article to educate yourself on some of the most popular Taiwanese foods.

So I hopped out of bed and started looking up recipes on how to make them. The traditional Taiwanese flaky scallion pancake requires that the dough sits for 30-60 minutes before you can even make the pancakes. AND there's this super fancy technique to roll them out for which a rolling pin is necessary. I don't have a rolling pin and my tummy was not going to wait this long, so I settled for Korean scallion pancakes!

They turned out just fine and satisfied my craving. Texture wise these pancakes are more dense and not flaky in comparison to the Taiwanese scallion pancakes. However, there is a nice crust on the outside from searing it in the pan, you get the nice brown toasty color, and the flavor of the green onion really shines.

So if your Thanksgiving is just as wacky as mine food-wise, try em out! The recipe required a few basic ingredients, required minimal prep work, and most importantly, I GOBBLED them all up :)

Also, the bottom of this pancake got a little TOO toasty, but doesn't it look like a rose? It was too pretty to not share. (Or I'm crazy and the only person who thinks this looks like a flower.)

Korean Scallion Pancake (Pa Jun)

Recipe from Naomi Imatome-Yun 
Serving Size: 5 medium pancakes


2 cups flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups water
1 bunch of scallions
1 tsp salt
Oil for cooking

Soy Sauce (for dipping)


1. Finely chop the bunch of scallions and mix them together with the flour, eggs, water and salt. Let sit for about 10 minutes and consistency should be runnier than American pancake batter.

2. Heat a saute pan over medium heat and coat with a thin layer of oil.

3. Pour batter to fill pan in a thin layer.

4. Cook for 3-4 minutes until set and golden brown on bottom.

5. Turn over with help of spatula and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Add more oil if necessary, and desired color should be a toasted brown.

6. Serve warm and dip in soy sauce!

Apple Baskets

You know a little while back when I promised that I would have a series of apple dessert recipes for you? Well, I finally came through.

When I made my turnovers I had too much leftover filling, so I thought to myself (anyone else think of "A Wonderful World"??), what else can I do with these apples?

And then this happened.  Plus ten for Anika. Also to get the basket shape you need muffins pans. It's not actually an ingredient but a tool, which is why I'm awkwardly letting you know here.

Apple Baskets

Makes 12 apple baskets

1/4 cup melted butter

1 1/2 cups chopped, peeled green apples

1/4 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
4 phyllo sheets, thawed

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

2. Separate each phyllo sheet and brush with the melted butter. Lay the buttered sheets on top of each other until all four sheets are stacked up evenly. Phyllo sheets dry out really easily so cover with a damp towel when you aren't attending to them.

3. Cut the phyllo sheet evenly into 12 squares/rectangles and press into the muffin cups. They don't have to fit perfectly and if there is a lot of phyllo hanging off the muffin cup, trim it down so the phyllo sheets actually fit. I also don't think I'm explaining this step clearly so check out this phyllo cup tutorial that I Googled that has step by step pictures! Also in this recipe we bake the phyllo cups with the filling at the same time, and it produces the same result.

4. To prepare the apple mixture, combine the sugar, apples, walnuts, and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl. Toss well so the apples are evenly coated.

5. Place a heaping spoonful of the apple mixture into each pastry cup.

6. And now you can bake them until light golden brown and crisp (approx. 10-15 minutes)! Serve immediately. 

TIPS:

I noticed the longer I kept them out after the baskets were baked, the soggier they became. So eat them when they pop out of the oven!! I also ate mine with vanilla ice cream because there is something about cinammon-y apples that just calls for vanilla ice cream.  You don't have to of course, but just thought I'd discretely implant the idea in your head. Don't worry the ice cream was your original idea.