by A.J. Coltrane

Ming Tsai’s Shallot Pancakes.  It may look like quite a few steps, but it’s fast and easy.  (Seriously, it’s super easy and the results are impressive.)  The original recipe is here.  The recipe below is scaled down in size.

Ingredients:

1 cup All-Purpose Flour

1/2 cup Very Hot Water

1 large Shallot, or substitute Scallions

~1 TBP Sesame Oil

~1 TBP Canola Oil, plus more for the skillet.

Sesame Seeds (Optional, but good.)

Salt

Step 1.  Combine flour and hot water in a mixer or food processor.  (I use a little food processor; the dough is ready in about 5-10 seconds.  Pulse it a few times and it’s done.)  When the dough comes together sprinkle a small amount of flour on a counter and knead for a couple of minutes — until the dough is smooth and not sticky.  If the dough is sticky add small amounts of flour to fix it.

Step 2.  Form the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for an hour.  (On Simply Ming, Tsai calls for overnight.  The linked recipe calls for up to 48 hours.)  In theory the minimum rest would be about 20 minutes — long enough for the dough to hydrate.

Step 3.  Combine sesame oil and canola oil in a small bowl.  Slice shallots thinly. 

Step 4.  Flour work surface and roll out dough to around 1/8″ thick.  Brush Oil mixture over the top of the dough.  Sprinke the dough with sliced shallots and salt.

Step 5.  Roll the dough into a “jelly-roll.”  Twist each end of the “jelly-roll”  in opposite directions 3-5 times.   (This will add more layers.)  Roll the “jelly-roll” up like a snail, tucking the end underneath.  Finally, roll out the snail to about 1/4″ thick.

Step 6.  Heat a skillet over medium heat.  (Ming recommends cast iron.)  Oil the pan with 2-3 tablespoons canola oil.  Brush the dough on top with the sesame/canola oil mixture and sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Place the dough in the skillet, with the oil/sesame seed side down.   Brush the new “top” with the oil mixture and sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Cook each side 3-4 minutes per side, until golden brown.  (The recipe calls for 2-3 minutes per side.  I found mine took longer, especially on the first side, but I didn’t use cast iron.)  Slice into wedges and serve.

Ming’s “Dim Sum Dipper”, pictured above, is 1/2 cup soy, 1/4 cup rice vinegar, 1 TBP Sambal Oelek.  You may want to halve (or less) those amounts… It’s basically a 2:1 ratio of soy to rice vinegar and a dash of something hot.

This recipe is so good, and so easy.. I figured I must have overlooked it in a cookbook at some point.  So I went looking.  The nearest thing I could find was in Jeff Smith’s “The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines”, but that recipe used lard to maintain the layers instead of oil.  That would explain why I haven’t made it.  (Two points:  Cookbooks by Jeff Smith are still readily available for cheap — go figure.  Also, Smith says that he got the recipe out of cookbooks by someone named Pei Mei.  A little research and.. there it is!  (One of the books anyway, Smith references Volumes I-III.)  Published in 1969.  It’s actually Fu Pei-Mei.)

The neat thing about this recipe is that it makes a nice “laminated” dough (think phyllo) with very little time or effort involved.  The recipe can also be scaled to whatever size is needed — the ratio is 2:1 ap flour to hot water, everything else is negotiable.

I’m thinking pesto might be a good substitute, or a roasted red pepper coulis…