pei mei's green onion pies revisited

i'm a very itchy person....sometimes. there are some recipes i will use over and over and not even want to change it at all. then there are some where i will tweak here and there and not be content to leave alone. pei mei's green onion pies is such a recipe that i have not been able to leave alone......i've been tweaking.....
to date, i have tried different combinations of flour and water and the combination which has yielded a dough which is easy to work with is one which uses 9 cups of continental sharps flour to 5 cups of boiling water. continental sharps flour is a textured flour which is higher in protein than that popularly found on the supermarket shelves. i have found it in supermarkets, but you have to look for it - sometimes it's found in the deli section, other times, in the flour sections. probably the easiest is to ask a deli if they stock it.
all the other instructions are the same as for the original.

pei mei's green onion pies

pei mei is this famous chinese cookbook writer. i have her three volume cookbook set, and i have to say that it is pretty comprehensive and covers just about all the authentic chinese dishes i have had or heard about.
her green onion pies are known by many other names: spring onion pancakes and scallion pancakes are just two.
this is one of those chinese snacks everyone tells me is easy to make but i confess that i still find them to be quite time consuming. i did do a cheat version earlier, but with some things, it's nice to have the real thing.
this isn't a bad recipe; i'm still trying out the different types of flour to see if there are any significant differences between them. i also intend to try making them using my pasta machine for rolling the dough to see if i can speed things up a bit.

3 cups wheat flour (this is a chinese cookbook, so there has to be a distinction between flours)
1 cup boiling water
1/3 cup cold water
6 tablespoons lard or oil (we used oil because we don't have lard...i don't don't know whether we would use lard if we had it though)
3 tablespoons chopped green onions
3 teaspoons salt
1 cup oil

place flour in bowl. add the boiling water and mix with chopsticks immediately. let cool. after three minutes add cold water and knead the dough thoroughly until it is smooth. cover and let rest a while.
remove the dough to a floured board, divide dough into 6 even pieces (or more than 6), knead and roll each piece of dough into 10" round as in making pie crust. rub 1/2 tablespoon lard on dough and sprinkle the whole top with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 tablespoon chopped green onion. roll up as for jell roll making sure the ends are tightly closed now form into a round snail shape tucking in the final end into the centre of the bun, then press down and roll out until 1/4" thick.
heat 2 tablespoons oil in frying pan, place the pie in and fry about 2 minutes. use low heat and cover this pan. flip over and splash 1 tablespoon oil down side. continue frying until this side is golden and crispy, shake and juggle the pan often while frying as this action make a flaky pastry.
cut into small pieces to serve.
note: these may be kept in a barely warm oven until all are prepared.

spring onion pancakes

these are by no means the authentic spring onion pancakes popular in pekingese restaurants and in taiwan. these are my cheat/desparation spring onion pancakes. i wanted to make the authentic ones from scratch, but my dough didn't work out, so i came up with this, which isn't bad and a great way of using up scraps of puff pastry and spring onion.

1 bunch spring onions, chopped
ready rolled puff pastry sheets
salt
oil, extra

cut a pastry sheet in four squares. sprinkle some of the spring onion on a quarter piece of pastry. sprinkle with salt. place another quarter square of pastry on top and roll the two pieces of pastry together to created a thin "pancake".
heat a frypan with a little oil and carefully place the prepared pastry in the pan. fry until crisp and golden on one side and flip with a spatula to crisp the other side.
serve cut in wedges.