Pork Pancake

While Lucy still have time a couple of weeks before her pharmacy course starts in the middle of March, we are fortunate to have her to show us how to make Pork Pancake. She brought some of these Pork Pancake to the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen for us to try and we enjoyed it very much. So, we pleaded her to show us how to make these pancakes in the South Arm Community Kitchen while she still can attend the community kitchen.

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These Pork Pancakes are popular in the northern park of China. These pancakes are great for school lunch as it’s portable and filing. You can filled these pancakes with your choice of meat like ground chicken, ground turkey, ground beef or ground lamb. You can even make a sweet version of these pancakes with ground peanut and sugar. I will have to try the sweet version one day.

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This is a great demonstration as you can see that all the participants have hands on in making their own pancakes.

Ingredients

For the dough:

  • 4 cups (1000ml) flour
  • 2 cups (500ml) water
  • 2 teaspoons instant yeast

For the filing:

  • 2 lbs ground pork
  • 1 teaspoon five-spice powder
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 4 tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 3 to 4 green onions, finely chopped
  • 2 fresh shiitake mushroom, finely chopped (optional)
  • a little cooking wine, optional
  • 1 egg for egg wash, optional
  • sesame seeds for topping, optional

porkpancake-10

Instructions

porkpancake-14-300x200Lucy prepared the dough in advance from her home. She used a bread machine to make the dough. I found that Lucy’s dough recipe is too soft and sticky. I had to add at least 1/2 cup to a cup of flour during the kneading process. Perhaps, we should reduce the water to 1.5 cups instead.To prepare the dough by hand; add the yeast in a small bowl of water for a few minutes until it’s foamy. Place flour in a large bowl, add the yeast. Add water a little a time and stir with a wooden spoon until you can form a dough ball. Knead the dough on a floured counter top until the dough is soft and smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rise for 1 to 2 hours.

When the dough has risen, knead the dough again on a floured surface until it’s smooth and elastic. Cut the dough into smaller pieces, depending on how big you want the pancake to be. Knead the small pieces of dough into small balls and let rest for a few minutes while you prepare the filings.

porkpancake-12-300x200Combine the ground pork with salt, five-spice powder and soy sauce. Mix well.

Add the finely chopped green onions and mushrooms and stir to combine well.

porkpancake-13-300x200You may add some sesame seeds on the of the pancakes if you preferred. In order for the sesame seeds to stick to the pancake, you have to brush some egg wash on top of the pancake before you sprinkle and pat some sesame seeds on the pancake. The sesame seeds will make the pancake more fragrant you bite into the toasted sesame seeds.
porkpancake-20-300x200To make the pancake, roll a small dough ball on a floured surface into a thin round of about 6 to 7 inches in diameter.
porkpancake-22-300x200Place a thin layer of pork mixture on the dough.

Use a knife or a pair of scissors to cut a slid to the center of the dough.

porkpancake-23-300x200Roll the dough around to form a cone.
porkpancake-24-300x200The cone should look like this. Place the cone upright between your palms and flatten it into a disc.
porkpancake-25-300x200Like this.
porkpancake-26-300x200Use a rolling pin to gently roll the disc into a thin round pancake.
porkpancake-27-300x200This is another way of making the pancake. Instead of rolling the dough into round shape, this method require the dough to be rolled into a rectangle shape. Fill the dough with a thin layer of fillings. Roll the dough into a cylinder.
porkpancake-28-300x200Shape the cylinder into a spiral and flatten it with your palm gently before rolling it into a thin pancake.
porkpancake-16-300x200Fry the pancake in a non-stick wok on medium heat with a little oil until both sides are lightly brown, few minutes on each sides.

To ensure that the meat is properly cooked, add a small splash of water (a couple tablespoons) into the pan can cover to let it steam until all the water evaporated.To test if the pancake is ready, press the pancake and it should bounce back.

These pancakes can be baked in the oven too. Preheat the oven to 380F. Brush the pancake with a little oil and bake for 10 minutes or until the pancake bounce back when press. Do not overbake or else the pancake will be tough.

porkpancake-18-300x200Remove the pancake and let cool on paper towel lined platter.Cut into wedges and serve.

You may freeze these pancakes by individually wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in ziplock bag. To serve the frozen pancake, you can reheat them in a toaster oven and pan fry it again.

Lucy, thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe.

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  1. Marti

    Suanne, your blog is fun to read and I love adventures in food! I can tell I am going to have to bookmark it and keep an eye on your interesting days in the kitchen. 🙂

  2. Jessica

    This looks like a fun group project – and I love that I already use all of the ingredients! I’ll have to organize a pork pancake-making night with the sister and cousins. 🙂

  3. gaga

    Yum! It’s like scallion pancakes with meat! I love it! A sweet version sounds wonderful too.

  4. Follow Me Foodie

    wow this class looks like so much fun!!

    I had a version of this pork pancake yesterday…at Chen’s Shanghai Kitchen in Richmond.

    I seriously love Shanghai food, but it’s so starchy you feel SO full afterwards.

  5. Jim Hobson

    Hi there – thx for the recipe.
    I had some minced pork in the fridge and couldn’t find any inspiration. I Googled pork and pancake and your recipe came up.
    I made some of them and everybody loved them – they were YUM!
    Thx again. Jim Hobson, Lancashire UK.

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