A Study in Scallions
Alternatively: how leftovers and a vegetable shortage resulted in an Asian favorite
Another week has passed at Zoom University, and the work is not getting any lighter. For some students, this week marks the second round of midterms. At MIT, much like at some other schools, the word “midterm” is a bit of a misnomer, as that implies that there is only one of them that occurs halfway through the semester. In some cases, as in my thermodynamics class (“3.046” in MIT talk), that is true: we had one home-based midterm at the halfway point of the term and there are no more such exams. In many cases, however, this is the second or maybe even third midterm exam students are taking. While I may not have midterms, schoolwork has still kept me busy, and the average amount of effort going into cooking is slowly decreasing :(
Well, by using literally just four ingredients (ok five if you count tap water) and less than 20 minutes of active cooking, I managed to whip up an exquisite dinner that I know I can turn to on those busy days…
That’s right: scallion pancakes! Thank you to both Rasa Malaysia and Angel Wong for the recipe!
Scallion pancakes, known as cōngyóubǐng (葱油饼) in Mandarin, are typically believed to be Chinese in origin, and their Mandarin name literally translates to “scallion oil pancake”. Makes sense: the only ingredients required for this dish are scallions, vegetable oil, all-purpose flour, and just a teaspoon of salt. This was my first foray in a while into East Asian dishes, and I was pleasantly surprised by the simplicity of this dish. I’d say the hardest part of the entire process was kneading the scallions into the dough - it really takes a while to uniformly disperse the scallions! Then again, “a while” for this recipe means over four minutes, so I really can’t complain :/
Given that all you need are scallions, salt, all-purpose flour, and vegetable oil, there is no reason not to make this whenever you’d like. My parents were quick to note the similarities between scallion pancakes and two Indian breads: parathas and uttapams. Given that dishes similar to scallion pancakes are common in nearly every country in Southeast Asia between India and China, I’m sure there has been more than a bit of creative innovation with this simple dish across the centuries. What will its future look like?
