Food of My Friend: Sourdough Discard Scallion Pancakes
My good friend Naomi recommended this one because she knows I have a lot of starter discard. I appreciate the recommendation, Naomi, but you still need to pass on one of your own recipes!
For those who may not be aware of the details that surround sourdough starter, pretend you are interested for about 45 seconds and then move onto the rest of this post. Starter is a living thing and needs to be fed regularly. A normal feeding entails reserving about a 1/2 cup of the starter, mixing it with 1/2 cup or so of warm water and 1 scant cup of flour. You combine it well and leave it on the counter to get lively. After about 2 hours, return it to your fridge and it will be ready for the next time you bake or until it's next feeding. The starter that gets removed before the feeding is called discard. Since I normally use the discard to do a loaf in my bread machine, it doesn't get wasted. However, for people who don't bake as much, they need to toss the discard because feeding the entire thing means you'll soon have a whole lot of starter! That's good if you're sharing. If not, it may take over your entire refrigerator. Hence my Facebook post earlier today about feeling like the Sorcerer's Apprentice of Starter.
Since I knew I was making this recipe tonight, when I fed one of my starters, I kept the discard. And here we go.
Today's cast; I had slightly more than 2 cups of discard today so I doubled the recipe.
The recipe is very easy. For the most part it consisted of prepping the ingredients and mixing them into the starter. I found a bud on the green onions! Thought it was cool.
The green onions were cut at an angle into thin-ish pieces. I like using the white part, too--it adds some bite.
You can use ground ginger but if you get a fresh ginger root...the difference is phenomenal. I broke off a chunk and you can tell it was a really fresh piece because the outer skin is not dry and flaky.
I used a knife to trim the knobby bits (they can be saved in the fridge or freezer and added to stock) and to peel the skin off. I left the skin on the bottom section because I didn't plan on using the whole piece.
You usually want to use a fine grater for ginger. This one works fine but if you can get a Japanese ceramic one, even better.
Because the holes are so small, the ginger comes out as a paste. Grate over a bowl and then scrape off any bits that cling to the grater itself. The smell is out of this world.
So these ingredients are mixed into the starter--sesame seeds join the green onions, ginger and some salt and pepper.
Here's the starter discard. It's very thick and there's a slight stickiness to it. This particular starter is interesting; I took discard from my King Arthur starter, mixed it with milk and flour and let that sit for 24 hours until it started bubbling actively. So I guess this is King Arthur starter 2.0.
Now the recipe says to mix all the ingredients into the starter, except for the water. Yet if you read toward the end of the recipe, it says to add the sesame seeds and green onion onto the batter when it's spooned into the hot pan. Hmmmm. I didn't think it would make much difference which way I did it but in other recipes, the discrepancy could have been highly problematic.
Water was added to the mixture a tablespoon at a time until it became like a thick pancake batter. It took me about 7 tablespoons total. The recipe called for a little sesame oil to be added to the pan; I also added a small amount of avocado oil.
As with regular pancakes, when it bubbles on top, you flip it over. That little baby pancake was a dribble from my spoon. I ate it.
I cooked the rest with as little oil added as possible. This particular starter was a bit heavy due to its dairy content so the pancake was a bit dense rather than airy. What I found interesting is when you first take a bite, you think, oh, pancake and a little green onion and then bang! The sourness hits you on the back end. I definitely felt it needed more of a dipping sauce than the plain shoyu that the recipe recommended.
So I mixed shoyu with a mature Chinese vinegar and then thought, duh, it's already a sour dish and you're adding a sour dip. So I added honey to the sauce and that was perfect. Slightly salty, tangy with the sweetness throughout. That really worked.
I wasn't sure how the guys were going to react. I had a Zoom meeting and when I came back, they had eaten all but two! Chris and Eric both said they liked it and Tom said, "this is unlike anything I've had before." Which can really mean different things.
I think the recipe has definite potential. I want to try it again with a different starter to see how that affects the texture and level of sourness. For right now, I felt the recipe was trying to be too many things but not necessarily succeeding. Still, the guys liked it and that is pretty important. Turtle rating of 4 because of that but leaning slightly towards the 3.
Here is the promised link:
Sourdough Discard Scallion Pancakes
Equipment recommendation:
Japanese ceramic grater
I am pretty sure that Marukai also sells them. For some reason, I never bought one of my own. Adding to the list!
For those who may not be aware of the details that surround sourdough starter, pretend you are interested for about 45 seconds and then move onto the rest of this post. Starter is a living thing and needs to be fed regularly. A normal feeding entails reserving about a 1/2 cup of the starter, mixing it with 1/2 cup or so of warm water and 1 scant cup of flour. You combine it well and leave it on the counter to get lively. After about 2 hours, return it to your fridge and it will be ready for the next time you bake or until it's next feeding. The starter that gets removed before the feeding is called discard. Since I normally use the discard to do a loaf in my bread machine, it doesn't get wasted. However, for people who don't bake as much, they need to toss the discard because feeding the entire thing means you'll soon have a whole lot of starter! That's good if you're sharing. If not, it may take over your entire refrigerator. Hence my Facebook post earlier today about feeling like the Sorcerer's Apprentice of Starter.
Since I knew I was making this recipe tonight, when I fed one of my starters, I kept the discard. And here we go.
Today's cast; I had slightly more than 2 cups of discard today so I doubled the recipe.
The recipe is very easy. For the most part it consisted of prepping the ingredients and mixing them into the starter. I found a bud on the green onions! Thought it was cool.
The green onions were cut at an angle into thin-ish pieces. I like using the white part, too--it adds some bite.
You can use ground ginger but if you get a fresh ginger root...the difference is phenomenal. I broke off a chunk and you can tell it was a really fresh piece because the outer skin is not dry and flaky.
I used a knife to trim the knobby bits (they can be saved in the fridge or freezer and added to stock) and to peel the skin off. I left the skin on the bottom section because I didn't plan on using the whole piece.
You usually want to use a fine grater for ginger. This one works fine but if you can get a Japanese ceramic one, even better.
Because the holes are so small, the ginger comes out as a paste. Grate over a bowl and then scrape off any bits that cling to the grater itself. The smell is out of this world.
So these ingredients are mixed into the starter--sesame seeds join the green onions, ginger and some salt and pepper.
Here's the starter discard. It's very thick and there's a slight stickiness to it. This particular starter is interesting; I took discard from my King Arthur starter, mixed it with milk and flour and let that sit for 24 hours until it started bubbling actively. So I guess this is King Arthur starter 2.0.
Now the recipe says to mix all the ingredients into the starter, except for the water. Yet if you read toward the end of the recipe, it says to add the sesame seeds and green onion onto the batter when it's spooned into the hot pan. Hmmmm. I didn't think it would make much difference which way I did it but in other recipes, the discrepancy could have been highly problematic.
Water was added to the mixture a tablespoon at a time until it became like a thick pancake batter. It took me about 7 tablespoons total. The recipe called for a little sesame oil to be added to the pan; I also added a small amount of avocado oil.
As with regular pancakes, when it bubbles on top, you flip it over. That little baby pancake was a dribble from my spoon. I ate it.
I cooked the rest with as little oil added as possible. This particular starter was a bit heavy due to its dairy content so the pancake was a bit dense rather than airy. What I found interesting is when you first take a bite, you think, oh, pancake and a little green onion and then bang! The sourness hits you on the back end. I definitely felt it needed more of a dipping sauce than the plain shoyu that the recipe recommended.
So I mixed shoyu with a mature Chinese vinegar and then thought, duh, it's already a sour dish and you're adding a sour dip. So I added honey to the sauce and that was perfect. Slightly salty, tangy with the sweetness throughout. That really worked.
I wasn't sure how the guys were going to react. I had a Zoom meeting and when I came back, they had eaten all but two! Chris and Eric both said they liked it and Tom said, "this is unlike anything I've had before." Which can really mean different things.
I think the recipe has definite potential. I want to try it again with a different starter to see how that affects the texture and level of sourness. For right now, I felt the recipe was trying to be too many things but not necessarily succeeding. Still, the guys liked it and that is pretty important. Turtle rating of 4 because of that but leaning slightly towards the 3.
Sourdough Discard Scallion Pancakes
Equipment recommendation:
Japanese ceramic grater
I am pretty sure that Marukai also sells them. For some reason, I never bought one of my own. Adding to the list!
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