Soft Batter Taiwanese Breakfast Egg Pancakes 軟粉漿蛋餅

Calling it Taiwanese "breakfast" egg pancakes is in fact quite an accurate description. No matter where you go in Taiwan, you can always find some breakfast joints selling egg pancakes. Some places even extend their opening hours till early afternoon for working crowd coming out during lunch time, seeking for a cheap and lighter lunch option.

So basically there are two types of Taiwanese breakfast egg pancakes texture-wise. Usually you'll find thinner and sometimes slightly crunchy on the edges for the wrapping. However, traditionally there's also this thicker and softer type of wrapping, like this recipe here. 

The soft batter wrapping is not as main steam as the thinner type. Partially I suspect that the thinner version is cheaper and easily accessible with factory premade product, and that's what you'll find at most of the little breakfast joints.

Soft batter Taiwanese breakfast egg pancakes 軟粉漿蛋餅 -

Ingredients (about 3 to 4 pancakes)?

Batter: 

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca starch 地瓜粉
• 1/2 cup potato starch 太白粉
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 1 stalk scallion (green part)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Others:

• Some eggs (1 or 2 per serving)
• Some mixed shredded cheese
• Some canned corn kernels (optional)
• Some olive oil
• Some soy sauce or soy sauce paste (optional)
• Some chili sauce (optional)

How?  

To make the batter, measure 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 cup of tapioca starch, 1/2 cup of potato starch, and 2 1/4 cups of water to a big mixing bowl. Whisk till evenly blended.

Destem and chop the scallion. Add the green part to the batter along with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Mix till evenly blended. The final consistency for this type of "soft" batter will be somewhat similar to thinner pumpkin soup.

Bring out a pan, I used non-stick pan because it'll make the job a lot easier. Drizzle some olive oil and switch to medium heat. Wait till it's a bit warm and make sure the oil spread throughout the surface. Scoop some batter over and swirl the pan to form an even round sheet with a little thickness to it. I used about 3 ladles per sheet.

It'll take about 2 to 3 minutes for each side, and don't try to move around the batter early on. The batter will start to set and since I'm using non-stick pan here, it'll be very easy to "detach" and flip to the other side.

So also 2 to 3 minutes on the other side, or till slightly golden brown color. Once ready, transfer the sheet to a plate. Repeat the process and continue to make more sheet/wrappings. Depending on the size of the pan you're using, my recipe should give you about 3 to 4 medium sized sheets, with some thickness that is.

To finally make the breakfast egg pancakes. Drizzle some oil to the pan to cover the surface again. Still using medium heat. Crack one or two eggs in a bowl first and beat it. Pour the beaten egg to the pan and try to swirl the pan to spread out the egg.

Before the egg sets, top with the sheet we just made. Give it a few gentle presses using a spatula, helping the egg binds with the sheet. Flip and add your preferred fillings to the center but a bit towards one side of the sheet.

I used lots of cheese here. Then try to fold in the sheet to make a log in the end. Maybe use some force here to give the log some pressure in order to hold the shape.

Transfer the log to a cutting board, slice to medium pieces then move to serving plate. Serve with some soy sauce, soy sauce paste, or chili sauce if desired. 

If you happen to have more sheets in the end, you can stick one sheet of parchment paper in between and store the sheets stacked together. Seal tight in a big Ziploc bag and send to the freezer. Just defrost for like 30 minutes or so before cooking the next time.

And if you're really not up for the challenge and make the sheet yourself, you know sometimes you can find the prepade sheets in the frozen food aisle in the supermarket. Just note that it'll most likely be the thin kind, not this special soft batter version. I've never seen the soft batter version sheet being sold as frozen product anywhere.

Also flavor-wise, I focused on oozing cheese this time so mixed shredded cheese is key here. You can play around with the fillings. In Taiwan, some of the most popular fillings you'll see at the breakfast stand are pork floss, tuna, and Chinese basil, cheese or without cheese is optional.

Extended reading:

• Basic scallion pancakes 基本款蔥油餅
• Pan-fried Chinese beef pie 牛肉餡餅

A Brush of Romantic Pink - Mentaiko Scallion and Sesame Seeds Onigiri

Here's my confession. At first I was imagining rice balls with chunks of mentaiko throughout, like clear white colored rice and red chunky mentaiko color contrast. Little did I know that once I removed the mentaiko roe from the membrane, there's no way I can keep these little roes intact.

So I ended up with mini roes scattered throughout the rice grains, thus the romantic pink hue everywhere. Definitely not what I have in mind, but with such pretty tone in the end, not bad actually.

Mentaiko scallion and sesame seeds onigiri - 

Ingredients (about 4 servings)?

• 60 grams mentaiko
• 4 portions cooked white rice
• 1 stalk scallion
• 1 large nori sheet
• 1 tablespoon white sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon toasted white sesame seeds

How?

Precook some white rice for this recipe, preferably use bit less water than usual to get slightly drier bouncier grains in the end. You can use the rice while still a bit warm, or even overnight rice that's been stored in the fridge. Just remember to bring up the temperature a little before shaping into onigiri. 

Remove the mentaiko from its membrane. 

Transfer the mentaiko roes to a bowl. Destem and chop the scallion. We will only use the green section for this recipe. Add that to the bowl too, about 6 tablespoons. Also tear one big nori sheet into smaller pieces and add to the bowl. Lastly, add 1 tablespoon of toasted white sesame seeds and drizzle 1 tablespoon of white sesame oil too.

Fold in about 4 servings of rice and gently mix till evenly blended. Roughly mark four equal portions.

Take each portion and shape into onigiri, let it be round or triangle, whichever shapes are good. You can dip some drinkable water to your palms before working with the rice to prevent sticking. However, the most fool-proof way to do it is laying down a sheet of cling foil, scoop the rice mixture on top, grab the cling foil edges and tighten up, making the mixture into rice balls.

You might want to use a new sheet of cling foil for each rice balls. Also notice that I didn't put any salt to the list of ingredients? Mentaiko can be very salty so just by itself, the flavor should be salty enough.

Have you found out that this time we are not using the nori sheet to "wrap" the rice balls, instead we torn it into little pieces and mixed together with the rice. However, I suppose if you would like to keep the nori sheet on the outside, to wrap the rice ball, that should work too.

Just that the texture can be a little bit different. If using nori sheet as a wrap, usually the nori sheet sould still be crispy if being served right away. On the other hand, nori sheet as part of the mixing ingredient, it'll turn soft with almost unnoticeable texture. But that nori aroma will be evenly permeating the rice grains throughout.

So I guess in the end it's up to you regarding where to use the nori sheet. I do find it fun and a nice change once a while by using the nori sheet as part of the mix-together element though.

Other onigiri recipes:

• Komatsuna katsuobushi onigiri (rice balls with Japanese mustard spinach and bonito flakes)
• Sansho pork onigiri
• Misoyaki onigiri 味噌焼きおにぎり
• Egg scallion and shio kombu onigiri 蔥蛋塩昆布日式飯糰