Scallion Pancakes

I know I mentioned we have no flour, and it's true.  We have no all-purpose, standard, white flour.  What we do have is atta, which is half all-purpose and half wheat.  Along with rice flour, gram flour, chickpea flour, and several other never-heard-of don't-know-what-they're-used-for flours.

And since I'm going stir crazy rounding up all these recipes that just happen to require the one pesky ingredient we don't have, Sally suggested doing a little substituting.  Switch the amount of all-purpose flour for the same amount of atta, plug and chug, and ta-da! scallion pancake.

Kinda. Sorta. Maybe.  Ok, they turned out perfectly normal, except for the extra-brown color and a little bit more stiffness to the dough than usual.  And hey, they're a little extra-healthy too. It's a nice plus.

Scallion pancakes are the perfect thing to make when you have too many scallions.  They don't require many ingredients (aside from flour), assembly is a snap, and they last a while in the fridge.  Just reheat them in the microwave for about 20 seconds and you'll be good to go.

I've seen them served with a soy sauce/vinegar sauce before, but seeing as we didn't have either of those, I didn't bother to look up a proper recipe for it.  And they're just as delicious on their own.

Scallion Pancakes
adapted from here and here
makes about 10 pancakes
Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/2 cup hot water
1/3 cup cold water
4-6 scallions, minced
salt, to taste
sesame oil
Directions
1. Mix together flour and hot water in a medium sized bowl.  Add the cold water and knead the dough until smooth (~20 strokes).  Cover dough with damp towel, let rise for 15 minutes.
2.  Pinch off a piece of dough and roll it into a ball (1 1/2 - 2 inches in diameter, a little bigger than a golf ball). Flatten it in your palm and place on floured surface.  Use rolling pin to roll out dough into a circle as thin as possible (1/16th inch).
3. Spread sesame oil over the flattened dough (about 1 tsp), sprinkle some salt and add some scallions.  Roll the dough horizontally (to make a tube- or just look at the picture here).  Then swirl the dough around like a snail's tail and press flat.  Roll the dough out with a rolling pin again (1/8th inch thick).
4.  Heat a flat pan, the kind used for making omelets or pancakes, on the stove with a drop of oil in it.  Add the pancake when the oil is hot.  Flip over the pancake when one side turns brown, cook the other side, and you're done!