Scallion and CIlantro Pancakes

I had mentioned the journey around the world - A-Z series I had begun a few weeks back, yet another ploy to keep the kids engaged about their food.

Well, I skipped doing anything "real" for B - cooking up some Dal and rice saying that it was Bengali, but from Bangladesh. So C took me to China.

This weekend had a lot going on, Deepta was going to be doing her first public Indian singing performance. Given that I have been teaching her music the stakes are really high here. To make sure that she ensures the tension level and keeps it really strong she woke up on Saturday morning, unable to speak. Yes, she had the mother of colds and sore throats. Well, I had no choice but the roll with the punches. All in all, she did well, when you are six, the world is rather forgiving! It took a little time for her to warm up to the Aalap.

Well, I made some very simple shrimp and mushroom dumplings and made scallion and cilantro pancakes mostly following the recipe from Soma's blog.

I followed her recipe pretty closely, with some small tweaks.

Scallion and Cilantro Pancakes

Makes 6 medium pancakes

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup boiling water

Oil for brushing

Extraflour for rolling

1 cup finely chopped scallions

1/2 cup chopped cilanto

minced green chillies optional

1 teaspoon minced ginger

Salt and pepper
Oil for shallow frying

Method of Preparation

1. Place the flours in a bowl and add in the salt and pepper.

2. Gradually add in the water and mix into a dough.

3. Set aside in the refridgerator for 1/2 and hour.

4. Mix the cilantro, scallions, salt, pepper and green chillies if using.

4. Break into small balls, roll out into thin circles with a little extra flour. (note, I found the dough much easier to manage this way).

5. Place cilantro across the pancake and then roll into a tube, (see pictures, the instructions on Soma's blog are very well illustrated as well).

6. Gently scrunch the tube and then roll into a coil.

7. Flatten and gently roll into a circle.

8. Heat a skillet and place the pancake on the skillet. Add 2-3 tablespoons of oil and lightly brown, turn and repeat on the other side.

9. Continue making all the pancakes in this way, cut into wedges and serve with the dipping sauce below.

Dipping sauce for Pancakes

Makes 1/2 cup

1/3 cup soy sauce

1/2 teaspoon hot sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon minced ginger

2 tablespoons chopped scallions

1 tablespoon vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

Method of Preparation

1. Mix all the ingredients together and set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Serve and use as needed.

7. Flatten lightly and then