Taiwanese green onion pancake (Cong you bing)

Mix the flour and salt, then make a hole in the middle and pour the hot water in.

Leave for a few minutes, then pour the room temperature/ cold water in.

Use a pair of wooden chopsticks or fork to mix the dough together- at this stage it will be clumpy and sticky.

Once the dough is cool enough to handle, use your hands to knead it for about 5 minutes. You know it's done once it's smooth and stops sticking.

Alternatively, you can process the dough in a mixer using a dough hook till it forms a nice smooth ball. (Use a medium speed for about 3-4 minutes.)

Either way, once the dough is done, roll into a ball and cover the bowl with a tea towel to prevent the dough from drying out.

Use the dough's resting time to make the filling. Slice the spring onions finely- if adding the white part to the mix, make sure you first cut it in half lengthwise or the bits will be very thick. Put the spring onions in a heatproof bowl

Heat the oil/ lard/ butter then carefully pour it over the spring onions (it may sizzle/ splatter if the spring onions are wet), add the flour, salt and Sichuan pepper/ 5-spice powder (if using) then mix well

Divide the rested dough into 6 equal pieces (To make sure the pieces are the same size, roll the entire ball into a log, then cut into 6 equal pieces- some people weigh each piece but I figure that's overkill)

Take out 1 piece and place on Silpat/ a floured or oiled surface. (Keep the other 5 pieces covered with a tea towel whilst working on this piece)

Using a floured/ oiled rolling pin, roll the dough into a thin rectangular piece. It's hard to make a nice rectangle so don't worry if your shape is wonky (having a rectangular piece gives you more equal, thin layers but isn't a must for the recipe to work) Pay attention to the edges of the dough as those tend to be thicker than the middle after rolling.

Tip: I like to flip the dough after every 1-2 roll, to make sure it doesn't stick to the surface.

Once you've rolled the dough as thinly as possible without breaking, brush on about 2 tablespoons of filling using a pastry brush or the back of a spoon. Make sure to leave a 1 cm clear border around the filling (so that the filling doesn't ooze out later)

Roll the brushed dough into a long log (see photos in post if this doesn't make sense) then pick up 1 end in 1 hand and gently tap the log on the surface, whilst simultaneously gently pulling the log. (This helps to stretch and relax the dough further, to make the layers even thinner.)

Pinch the ends together so that the spring onions stay inside, then coil the log into a pinwheel (like a seashell/ snail shell shape) and cover with a tea towel.

Repeat the process with the other 5 balls of dough.

The coiled pancakes need to rest before they can be further flattened/ rolled, so make sure you work in the same order that you filled them (as the first coiled pieces have had more time to rest.)

Place the pinwheel on the Silpat/ floured or oiled surface then use the back of your hand or the rolling pin to gently press it in to a flattened disc. Repeat the process for all the 6 pinwheels.

Add enough oil to coat the bottom of the frying pan and heat on medium high heat. (You can use more or less if you wish- less oil is healthier but more is tastier.)

When the oil is hot, gently place 1 pancake on the pan. (Lay it down in the direction away from you to avoid the hot oil splashing on you.)

Gently nudge it with the spatula to make sure it hasn't stuck to the pan then cover with the lid for 1 minute.

Uncover, flip the pancake, and cook covered for another minute.

Remove the cover, flip the pancake, press it down to make sure it browns evenly and continued cooking (uncovered) for another 3-4 minutes. You may want to flip the pancake 1-2x to make sure both surfaces brown evenly. The pancake will be nice and golden brown when cooked. Before removing from the pan, give each pancake a squeeze in between 2 spatulas to help loosen up the interior layers and make them more flaky.

Place on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil then repeat with the rest of the pancakes. 1-1.5 pancakes per person is usually enough, so if you don't need that many, wrap the remaining pieces individually with plastic wrap or parchment paper then refrigerate/ freeze.

Add all the ingredients together and stir well.

You can have the pancakes as a central dish or serve 1 pancake to each person. If placing them in the centre, you may want to cut them into smaller pieces (like we do with a pizza) to make them easier to serve.