Spring Pancakes with Hoisin Sauce
Spring pancakes originated in northern China at least 1,500 years ago. Traditionally, they were eaten on the solstice to celebrate the beginning of spring. These chewy little wrappers are also filled and deep fried to make spring rolls. Hoisin or black bean sauce is the essential condiment here. Hoisin is the sweeter, smoother version, made with fermented soybeans, (also known as black beans) sugar or honey, rice wine, vinegar, sesame paste, chili, and garlic. Black bean sauce is a little textured and less sweet. I like to make the black bean sauce style and sweeten it with a little honey. Armed with pancakes and hoisin, there are endless incredible meals. A fun way to serve it is to prepare lots of little fillings and let everyone build their own perfect wrap. Classic fillings include Moo Shu Pork (see below or click here for recipe) and Peking Duck. If you don’t have Chinese black beans on hand, Japanese miso makes an excellent substitute. That said, make sure you pick up some salted black beans at your local Chinese market for an incredible flavor that is essential to Chinese cuisine.
Ingredients
Pancakes
- 2 cups sifted bread flour
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 cup boiling water
Sauce
- 1/2 cup salted black beans
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons sesame paste (tahini)
- 1 tablespoon rice wine
- 2 teaspoons grated garlic and ginger
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon 5 spice powder
Instructions
Directions:
- Combine dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
- Heat water and add sesame oil to water.
- Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix into a soft dough.
- Let dough rest for 30 minutes.
- Scoop dough into 1 oz portions (one heaping tablespoon).
- Dust with flour, flatten, and roll into 4-inch rounds.
- Brush one round with sesame oil, then place a second round on top.
- Roll the two pieces together until they ⅛-inch thick and about 7-8 inches wide.
- Heat pan to medium high heat.
- In dry pan, cook pancakes for about 2 minutes per side, or until brown dots appear.
- Allow to cool and then peel apart.
- Spread with hoisin sauce and wrap up with your favorite fillings
Moo Shu Pork
Like spring pancakes, this dish originates from the Shandong province, but Chinese American chefs have adapted it to locally available ingredients. The Chinese version is made with pork, egg, bamboo shoots, day lily, wood ear mushrooms, and seasoned with soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, garlic, and ginger, while the Chinese American version replaces the cucumber and day lilies with cabbage and carrots. In China, Moo Shu pork is not traditionally served with spring pancakes (click here or see below for recipe) as it is in America. There is a tendency to call older traditions “authentic” and newer or adaptive traditions “inauthentic.” This can serve to protect the integrity of a dish against low quality imitations, but in this case, Chinese American food is an authentic cuisine in its own right, with a rich culinary history dating back more than 150 years, when the first Chinese restaurants opened in San Francisco.
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb thinly sliced pork loin or tenderloin
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 3/4 C rehydrated wood ear mushrooms, sliced thin (black trumpet or morel make good substitutions).
- 1 C chopped daylilies or bamboo shoots
- 3/4 C summer squash or cucumber in 1/4 inch half rounds
- 1 C finely shredded green cabbage
- 1/2 cup julienned or grated carrots
- 2 scallions
- 5 oz of grated ginger
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp s soy sauce
- 1 tbsp cooking rice wine
Instructions
- This is a simple stir fry. Prep all your ingredients ahead of time, as they only need to cook for a few minutes.
- I prefer to cook my eggs separately and set aside.
- Start with the carrots, then add the mushrooms, cabbage, and squash.
- Add the soy sauce and cooking wine, finishing with the scallions and pork so as not to overcook. As these go in, remove pan from heat. Allow several minutes for the carry over cooking to finish the pork.
- Adjust seasoning to taste; you can add a little hoisin if you want to bump up the flavor.
