An easy and cheap way to enhance your homemade Chinese Meal-Scallion Pancakes

It is yet again one of my favorite days, Pancake Day! This year I learned why Shrove Tuesday, which is the day before Lent, is also called Pancake Day. In most traditions the day is known for eating pancakes before the start of Lent because pancakes are made out of the main foods available, sugar, fat, flour and eggs, whose consumption was traditionally restricted during the ritual fasting associated with Lent. Now I don't participate in Lent but I have no problem participating in Shrove Tuesday by eating pancakes.

But one thing that also love to do is to find a different way to celebrate instead of the traditional sweet pancakes. So today I decided to highlight a delicious, savory pancake that I use to enjoy when my family lived in China, Scallion Pancakes. This was always a favorite of mine when we would go out, but sadly I haven't had a lot of success finding a Chinese restaurant that serves them. I never thought about making them myself because I imaged that it would be a difficult task. I am here to say that it is incredibly easy! And it uses such simple ingredients that it is an easy and cheap way to compliment your home cooked Chinese meal. I found the inspiration for this recipe from a blogger that I deeply respect and admire, Nicky from Delicious Days. If you are a food blogger you really need to read her blog, not only is the photography and writing wonderful but she has a lot of good advice about how to grow and develop your food blog.

Recreating my favorite Crispy Beef recipe from the Pearl Restaurant in New York City

After discovering this dish in New York I knew I had to at least attempt it on my own. But I have to say I was very nervous, I had never attempted such a dish before and it seemed like it would be a hard one to duplicate. But after enough convincing both from myself as well as my husband, who was determined to have me try to make this, I took the plunge.  The key with crispy shredded beef is making sure that you have all of your ingredients prepped and ready to go before hand.  This is a very quick cooking dish so having the ingredients ready is a must. It is fun to be able to create dishes like the ones you have in restaurants, especially when it is from a restaurant that you can't go to very often.

Chinese Green Beans

Personally I don't like serving a meal to my family that doesn't have a vegetable with it.  Whether there are vegetables in the main dish or on the side I try to make sure that it is always included.  So the other day when I made my General Tso Chicken I tried to come up with a nice veggie dish to serve up along side.  One of my favorite dishes in Chinese restaurants in the States was a Dry-Fried Green bean so I thought I would give it a try and see if I could come up with something similar. It turned out to be an incredibly easy dish to prepare and equally delicious.

General Tso Chicken better then you can get at restaurants

After a very disappointing experience at a Chinese restaurant last week I decided that it was time to go back to what I do best and make some at home.  For me Asian cuisine is my culinary staple, it is how I really came into my own as a cook.  I always enjoyed cooking meals but I never realized how good of a cook I could be until I decided to get more into my Chinese food.  It too all started from a bad Chinese food experience at a restaurant.  Sadly because I grew up in Hong Kong I am a bit of a snob when it comes to Chinese food and at the time I was living in East Texas and no matter where I tried the food was way below par.  So I began experimenting, seeing if I could do better and thankfully I discovered that it came quite easily to me.  Sometimes I stick to very authentic dishes, but I do also like to try and cook up some of the Americanized Chinese dishes. This time I decided to try my hand at a very American dish that normally in restaurants I avoid, General Tso Chicken. What I discovered about this dish is that not only is it an easy dish to prepare but it is so much better prepared at home then in restaurants.  This dish turned from being something my husband would never eat to a dish that he will now request.