Cravings.....

Scallion pancakes with dipping sauce

Hello dear readers! Let’s talk about specific cravings; do you ever have those days where you are just craving something specific for whatever reason? Well, Jason and I really enjoy green onion cakes, and this being Edmonton we’ve had the chance to sample a lot, and I mean a lot of them, but we often don’t find ourselves somewhere close to where we can get ones that we like. And, there’s been a few times where we’ve bought green onion cakes but what comes out to us is some weird sweet, puffy cake abomination. Like, are there even any green onions in here?

The other day Jason found a video from America’s Test Kitchen he’d saved on his desktop for green onion cakes and he said we should try this recipe. [Editor’s note:] By “we” I really meant her because I can’t bake as I just wind up not measuring and making messes. [JMC] So he went out and got us some green onions and because I had set up my baking area (check out my entire YouTube series here to see the setup) we had everything we needed to make the green onion cakes. Hooray! [Editor’s note:] Ok, calm down. 4 ingredients! Water, flour, green onions and sesame oil. [JMC]

Now before we get too far into this, we should mention we do have a favourite place on the north side to get green onion cakes, and that is of course at Siu To’s (he says it sounds like “Shoe”) Green Onion Cake Man restaurant and/or he’s always at Callingwood farmers’ market on Sunday’s too. While we enjoy his green onion cakes (as well as dumplings, soups, and everything else), sometimes you just don’t wanna leave your house, right?

The other thing is that while it might seem like such a huge task to make something from scratch and you might think why on earth would I bother making this when I can just go out and buy it? And that is a totally valid point, but oftentimes Jason and I do like to make stuff at home and we’re super lucky because my brother gave us these amazing pans (Thanks Sean!!). Now it was very sad that he had to let go of the pans (heh heh heh), because he got a new fancy induction stove top and couldn’t use them anymore so now we daily reap the benefits his generosity and pretty much every time we make something fantastic, we have to send pictures. Because if you don’t take a picture, did you really eat it?

Back to the green onion cakes. We watched the video, and wrote the recipe down and for making the recipe I can tell you that the hardest part of the recipe is letting the dough sit for 30 minutes. I mean come on, who has time for that? Green cakes needed to be eaten! But I’m glad that we waited because they turned out perfectly. The video has a few vital tricks and tips for the process so if you would like to make your own green onion cakes give this recipe a go for sure! Oh, and right now (beginning of June) at the farmers’ markets you can find a lot of places with fantastic prices for garden fresh green onions. My own little tip after our first batch would be to make sure that the green onions that you cut to go into the dough are cut small so that when you are rolling the dough out, they don’t poke through. [Editor’s note:] I had ONE job to do and I muffed it. Waawahh. [JMC] And make sure that you have a super amazing brother that gives you his best pans!

[Editor’s side-note:] Okay as anyone knows who eats green onion cakes (or dumplings or gyoza), dipping sauce is a must. Mind you some people just slather on Chili garlic sauce and burp fire for the rest of the day and be done with it but making a good sauce yourself is easy and this video had a good basic sauce that you could try out with only one specialty ingredient - that being the rice vinegar. I lived in Taiwan for a significant bit (12 years) and my sauce has a bit more complicated ingredients but they are in Superstores so you should be fine if you want to try it out.

Now as I mentioned some people swear by spicy Chili garlic sauce, or chili garlic sauce mixed with soy sauce, or even Sriracha sauce for their spike in heat when eating and dipping. With the big sriracha peppers controversy and change in the recipe some people are having to branch out a bit so I’ll throw my hat into the ring here with some suggestions. Again, I’ll keep the suggestions to ingredients you can get at Superstore.

There’s a chili condiment called LaoGanMa Spicy Chili Crisp sauce and it is easy to find and once you see its distinctive label you’ll always recognize it. DEElicous!! It’s not too spicy but it’s tasty and textured so it makes a great base for a dipping sauce. (Check the ingredients for allergies like peanuts, etc.) Then get yourself some soya sauce, Colleen prefers China Lily. Then some sesame oil - I like the darker kind because it's toasted but really any will do. But for me instead of Rice Wine vinegar I use something very Japanese called Shio Koji a “cultured rice condiment”

It has a pile of umami, seems a bit sweeter than the vinegar and Colleen isn’t as fond of vinegar as I am anyway so she’s much more amenable to this. (Thanks Chef Ryan for putting me on to this!!)

So with making dipping sauces half the fun is just eyeballing it. I’d say start with a couple three tablespoons of Soya sauce, add the same amount of teaspoons of Shio and then add a scoop of LaoGanMa, and some green onion slices. Stir it up and taste it and decide if you want it spicier and maybe load Sriracha or true chili garlic sauce into the mix. Colleen also prefers white pepper and pan toasted sesame seeds. Enjoy! [JMC]

Now, dear readers, it’s your turn. What are some foods that you just randomly crave? How do you fill that craving, go out and buy it or make it yourself because leaving the house is for suckers!? Where is your favourite cravings spot? Tell us all the things!! Lastly, do you even like green onion cakes? For sure we will be making our own green onion cakes from now on because these were too good not to repeat and eat!