Hungry Time of Year

It's mid March. The weather has begun to moderate (aside from the odd snow storm), the snow is melted here in the DC area, I'm itching to start seeds. And itching in general, well, sneezing - some of the trees here are in bloom, spewing pollen.

Back in the day, this would have been the hungry time of the year. The stored food from last year would be running low, the new lambs would be just arriving so MAYBE there would be some fresh ewe's milk, and all that my yard is providing is wild onions.

Those wild onions are considered a nuisance weed by most folks. I consider them delicious, especially when made into scallion pancakes. There are two distinct types of scallion pancakes, Chinese and Korean. Today I'm going to share my recipe for the Chinese ones.

1 cup green onions (wild, scallions, whatever) chopped 1/2 inch long (I adore onions)
2 cups flour (less if you're using whole wheat)
1 cup water
sesame oil for brushing
Kosher salt
oil for pan frying

Mix the flour and water together to form a somewhat stiff dough. Divide dough into 12 lumps. Take first lump, roll into a thin circle. Brush with sesame oil, sprinkle with kosher salt, top with 1/12 of the chopped onions. Roll it up like a jelly roll. Then take it and make a tight snakelike coil, and roll it flat again. You will have flaky layers of dough and onions. Fry it in a little oil in a non-stick skillet, at a medium to medium high heat. Repeat with the rest of the dough and onions.

My family usually uses just soy sauce on these, but you could add ginger to soy sauce, and some chinese black vinegar, and maybe a bit of hot chili oil. Or maybe you'll want to use a sweet sauce, like a sweet and sour sauce.