Ramp Pancakes

Last summer we made Scallion Pancakes during a CSA week where we received an abundance of green onions. They were such a great lunch that we wanted to recreate the recipe with the ramps we picked up over the weekend. The ramps lend a garlicky flavor to the pancakes that cannot be replicated with scallions alone. This recipe results in a flaky Chinese-style pancake that is full of ramp flavor with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce that brings umami to this savory dish.

Recipe from Crumb.

Ingredients:

Ramp Pancakes

-2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-1 cup boiling water

-2 tablespoon sesame oil

-1 cup thinly sliced ramps

-1/2 teaspoon salt

-Canola oil, for frying

Dipping Sauce

-2 tablespoon soy sauce

-2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

-1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce

-1/2 teaspoon grated ginger

-2 teaspoon sugar

Place 2 1/4 cups of flour and 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a heatproof bowl and pour in the boiling water while stirring the flour and water. Once the dough is cool enough to touch (it won't take long), knead it into a ball. Continue kneading on a clean surface until the ball of dough is smooth (about 5 minutes). The dough will be tacky, but shouldn't be overly sticky. Place the dough back into the bowl and cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes.

 Cut the dough into four pieces and flour your work surface before rolling (with a rolling pin) each piece into a 6-8 inch circle.  Brush the surface of each circle with a 1/2 tablespoon of sesame oil, sprinkle with salt and a quarter of the sliced ramps. Roll (like sushi) into a cylinder and then coil the cylinder into a spiral tucking the outer end underneath. Roll (with a rolling pin) the spiral into a 5-6 inch pancake.

Heat 1/2 tablespoon of oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Fry the scallion pancake for 2 minutes on each side or until the outside of the pancake is golden brown. Remove the fried pancake from the pan and drain on a paper towel. Continue with the remaining pancakes adding more oil when necessary.

To serve, combine all of the ingredients for the dipping sauce and cut each pancake into 6 triangles.