Stack ’em up.
Drizzle ’em with maple syrup (and maybe top off with some cheeky bacon…)
Roll ’em up with Nutella, lemon juice and sugar, or ham and cheese.
Mate… you can even set ’em on fire a la crêpes suzette!
Who doesn’t love a good pancake!?
We all know of the fluffy American style pancakes, and many of us would have also tasted the delight of a thin French crêpe.
But did you know that the Chinese have a pancake too?
Okay, to be fair this one is more of a flatbread than a pancake, but someone started calling them ‘scallion pancakes’ some time ago and the name stuck.
Eh, we’re gonna claim it ?
Choong yeo bang (literally, spring onion/scallion oil pancakes) are indulgent and there are a few good reasons why we reckon these little fellas deserve a spot in the pancake hall of fame.
First up, the spring onion finally gets to play a starring role! It is here that the bridesmaid finally becomes the bride, abandoning the role of garnish to assume the role of an important main ingredient. When fried up within the folds of a salty dough, the finely sliced spring onions provide a fragrant and super satisfying savoury flavour.
Secondly, these pancakes are deloicious whether they’re rolled out thinly (for a crispy delight) or rolled a bit thicker (for chewy layers). We make ’em crispier in our video, but check out the instructions below if you want to give the chewier type a go.
Finally, we love these pancakes because they are hugely versatile. Dipping, wrapping, dunking… the possibilities are endless (or at least many!)
In our opinion, choong yeo bang are at their peak tastiness when they’re fresh, so do try to eat these as soon as possible after they come out of the pan. Nom nom!
They’re wickedly good on their own, but here’s a few other serving suggestions if you feel like fancying it up a bit ?
Wedges: Chop pancakes into wedges and serve with a variety of dipping sauces, e.g. hoisin, sweet chilli, and sriracha.
Wraps: Load these bad boys up with all sorts of tasty fillings for a satisfying meal. In our video, we went for juicy roast pork, fresh cucumber, and crispy carrot. You could also chuck in some boozy hoisin chicken and satay sauce ?
Dunkers: You probably wouldn’t want to dunk American pancakes into soup, but one benefit of the choong yeo bang’s flatbread-like quality is that it makes for *excellent* dunking. For example, serving these up with our chicken and corn soup is superb comfort food. Mum also likes to make choong yeo bang alongside congee (rice porridge), making it the perfect marriage between simple/clean and devilishly indulgent.
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