Sasha's Kitchen: Asian-Style Scallion Cilantro Pancakes

My mom recently sent me a wonderful new cookbook, but a women whose gardening books she had read, Sarah Raven, called Fresh From the Garden. The book focuses on fresh uses of seasonal, garden fresh ingredients and their uses in delicious seasonal recipes. So far, I have read the recipes for spring and winter and there's so many I want to try. The scallion/cilantro pancakes and rhubarb cardamom chutney were both delicious, and my husband and mom (cooking together for me) also tried a summer vegetable risotto that was a loose variation on the recipe in her book. Each of these three recipes were spectacular. This might just be my favorite new cookbook that I have tried in a long time! Don't skip out on Sarah's dipping sauce either - its the perfect match as I love sesame oil!

Scallion Cilantro Pancakes (from Sarah Raven)
makes 12 five inch pancakes or six eight inch pancakes - I doubled the recipe below for more because they were so good!

1/2 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 small red chile, thinly sliced (i used 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes instead)
pinch of ground black pepper
4 drops of sesame oil
canola oil for frying
5-6 scallions diced (green parts only)
small bunch of cilantro, freshly chopped

Dipping sauce
3 T soy sauce
2 T rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 T freshly chopped fresh cilantro

Put the flours, salt, egg and egg yolk and 1/4 cup of water, red pepper flakes, and sesame oil in a bowl and whisk together.  Allow to stand for thirty minutes at room temperature. Chop the scallions and cilantro and set aside.

combine the soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil for the sauce and stir in the sesame seeds. Also add the reserved white parts of the scallions left over from the pancake recipe.

Heat a teaspoon of canola oil in an eight inch nonstick pan over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Spoon in 1/2 T of the batter, tilting the pan to spread it over the bottom. Scatter the scallions and cilantro over the top, gently pressing them with a spatula. Fry until the underside is pale golden, about two minutes. Turn over and cook another minute or so. Transfer to a piece of parchment paper while you prepare the other pancakes. Serve right away with dipping sauce.

Sasha's Kitchen: Asian-Style Scallion Cilantro Pancakes

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto : Valentine's Special - Steak with Scallion and Barbeque Sauce

This weekend, I was having a major craving for red meat so I thought to myself: "What could be more perfect for Valentine's Day than a romantic steak dinner for two?" And so, the experiment began! I started with a top quality organic Ontario strip loin steak from my favorite organic butcher here in Toronto; Sanagan's Meat Locker in Kensington Market where everything is always organic and local. To my mind, a good quality steak is key to making it perfectly. I used the whites of the scallions that were left over from my great Fish Fragrant Eggplant experiment that I previously posted, however you could use the whole scallion, a sweet onion or a shallot if you prefer. I bought a steak that was about 8-12 oz and I found that I only needed half for myself along with a green salad, however you could certainly double the recipe if this is not enough for you and your guest. This is a nice recipe for those of us who do not have a barbecue, or live in sub-zero climates as all you require is a pan and an oven!

Steak with Scallion and Barbeque Sauce

For the steak:
1 8-12 oz strip loin steak
2 tbsp barbeque sauce (I used Gourmet Original Diana Sauce; my favorite!)
1 tbsp pomegranate barbeque sauce (I used President's Choice amazing Memories of Damascus sauce but you could omit this and add more Diana sauce)
1/2 - 1 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp olive oil
salt to taste


Rub the steak with the sauces and coriander powder. Ideally, allow to marinate for 30 minutes to an hour. Preheat your oven to 375F. Heat your pan with the oil so it's smoking hot. Just before you add the steak to the pan, sprinkle with salt to taste. Sear the outside until the steak has nice colour, but only flip once. Take steak from the pan and put in the oven on a foil-covered sheet pan, keeping the heat on in the pan as you will be making your sauce while the steak cooks. I cooked it another 8 minutes in the oven to get it to rare but you could try cooking it 10 minutes to medium rare or 12 minutes to medium-well.


For the sauce:
4 stems scallion whites (see my blurb about ingredients above)
1/4 cup red wine (I used Pelee Island Winery Merlot Reserve)
1/2 - 1 c chicken broth
2 tbsp barbeque sauce (again, I used Diana Sauce)
salt to taste


In the heated steak pan, add the scallions and cook until the rawness has just gone out of them but not burning them, about 30 seconds. Add the wine and allow the alcohol to burn off; scraping all the good steak flavour bits off the bottom of the pan while you do it. The alcohol is usually gone about 30 seconds to a minute after you start smelling the wine in the pan. To this, add the barbeque sauce and stir. Add the chicken broth and allow sauce to cook down to whatever consistency you want it. Adjust salt in the last minute or two of cooking as the broth has quite a bit of salt as well and you may not need more.

I added a nice green salad to my plate as well as my glass of Pelee Island Winery Merlot Reserve that I not only cooked with, but drank as well.


Gourmet Original Diana Sauce


Memories of Damascus Sauce


Pelee Island Winery Merlot Reserve

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto : Valentine's Special - Steak with Scallion and Barbeque Sauce