Week 1: Recipe 2: Scallion Pancakes with Sesame Seeds and Hoisin Sauce

The 52 New Recipes in a Year challenge was originally meant as an easy challenge to try one new recipe each week for a whole year, but I can't stay out of the kitchen so I'm running ahead a bit. Today I tried the scallion pancakes with sesame seeds and hoisin sauce.

I was really looking forward to these because they are savoury and different from the sweet bite pancakes usually are. They didn't turn out quite like I expected, though. It'd be an overstatement to say they were a disappointment, but an extra teaspoon of salt would have done the scallions better justice. The hoisin sauce serves as a salty-sweet syrupy dip sauce, and is very strong of flavour, perhaps a compensation for the debatable blandness of the pancakes. Still, I'd have these for lunch again, but without the hoisin and with an extra scoop of sesame seeds.

The original recipe (serves 4):

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp sesame seeds
• 4 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 200 grams of flour
• 1 tbsp of corn starch
• 1 egg
• 6 scallions (sliced)
• 4 tbsp nut oil
• half a teaspoon of salt 
• 400 ml of water

Directions:

1. Heat a skillet without oil or butter and roast sesame seeds for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, mix the hoisin and the sesame oil for the dip sauce.
2. Whisk flour, corn starch, egg, sesame seeds, two-thirds of the scallions, the salt, and the water. 
3. Heat nut oil in a small skillet and pour in about one ladle of the batter. Cook for 6 minutes, flip over after 3. Repeat with the rest of the batter. Garnish with the rest of the scallions and serve with the hoisin dip.

Week 1: Recipe 1: Raw Steak Salad with Arugula and Parmezan Cheese

Last fall I joined a baking challenge for which we had to bake 1 pastry each week for 8 weeks straight. I had so much fun with it that I decided to initiate a similar challenge for a longer period of time: the 52 New Recipes in a Year challenge. Basically, we try one new recipe each week, and by the end of the year we send each other the recipes per mail. I'll be keeping track here as well.

So, my first new recipe of the year is the raw steak salad.

The salad is a side dish but serve it on a baguette and it works well as a (fancy) lunch. The most dominant flavors are the garlic and lemon juice, but even those are mild. The pungency of the arugula is softened by the texture of the meat. Personally (as a raw, red meat fan), I think this recipe is a perfect mix of ingredients. Also, it's very easy and takes little time to make. 

The recipe serves 4:

Ingredients:

• 320 grams of raw rump steak
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 minced garlic clove
• 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• pepper and salt to taste
• 40 grams of arugula
• 40 grams of parmezan cheese flakes

Directions:

1. Slice meat in very fine bits.
2. Mix meat with half the lemon juice, garlic, oil, and salt and pepper. Toss and let rest for 10 minutes.
3. Mix arugula with the rest of the oil and lemon juice. Serve meat on a bed of arugula.