Scallion Pancakes

My new favorite thing to do on Saturday mornings is heading to the farmer's market in Union Square. I love getting up early on the weekends and getting a lot done before it's even noon. Walking through the square, perusing all of the fresh fruits, veggies, baked goods, plants - I love it! My constant purchase is always the 5 pound bag of mixed apples. Fresh apples straight from the orchard taste a million times better than what you get at the grocery store. At this point, I feel like I'm just depriving myself when I buy apples at the grocery store. I've become a bit of a farmer's market snob, it seems.

As a result of my inability to control what I buy at the market, I had a bunch of scallions to use before they went bad. I'm really trying to stop wasting food, which proves to be especially hard when recipes call for a tablespoon here, half a cup there. How do I use a whole bunch of scallions/parsley/cilantro before they die in the back corner of my fridge? Well, this time I wasn't going to let it happen! Once I started brainstorming what to do with these scallions, pancakes popped into my head!

It was really fun making the dough, which is actually the first time I've made any dough - sad to admit, I know. I used my food processor to do it since it has a dough hook and it made it so easy! Bread, you better watch out - you're next! Once I made the dough and started dividing it out, I realized very quickly that I don't have a rolling pin. Hmm, what to do, what to do? A wine bottle, of course! That's one of the things I love about cooking - there are always opportunities to be creative when things don't work out as you expect.

I got into a rhythm after awhile - roll out the dough, slather on some sesame/vegetable oil mix, salt, and green onions, roll it up into a long rope, coil it into a circle, and flatten it back out into a thin pancake ready to be cooked!

The pancakes turned out great - a bit crispy, chewy, with a prominent green onion flavor throughout. We had some sweet chili sauce on the side to balance out the sweet and salty flavors. Making these pancakes reminded me how fun cooking can be when you're doing something for the first time or just really getting your hands dirty and playing with your food.