Chinese traditional street food, Jianbing

History

Jianbing originated in the Northeast of China. Its history can be traced back 2,000 years to Shandong province during the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD). According to legends, chancellor Zhuge Liang encountered the problem of feeding his soldiers after they lost their works. He ordered the cooks to mix water with wheat flour to make batter, then spread it on shields, or flat copper griddles over a flame. The dish raised the soldiers’ morale and helped them win the battle. After that, jianbing was passed down through generations in Shandong province and gradually spread to different parts of China.

Types

The traditional jianbing originated in Shandong and flourished in Tianjin jianbing is basically made of flour and eggs with different fillings and sauces. As there are many variations depending on tastes and preferences in different regions, many cities have their own versions of jianbing. Shandong-style jianbing and Tianjin-style jianbing are the two most common versions of jianbing in China.

Shandong-style jianbing

Jianbing from Shandong province tastes crispy and harder as its batter is formed from the flour mixture that mainly contains coarse grains such as corn, sorghum, and millet. In the old days, people had Shandong-style jianbing mainly by rolling it with scallions or serving it with meat soup. Nowadays, the variety of fillings are richer and differ according to one’s preference, for example, sweet potatoes, lettuce, and pork are also used as fillings.

Tianjin-style jianbing

Jianbing from Tianjin is a transformation of the jianbing originated in Shandong. It is also called jianbing guozi and Guozi refers to its youtiao stuffing. Tianjin-style jianbing tastes softer as its crepe is made of green mung bean flour, which contains less gluten. Also, Tianjin-style jianbing is topped with youtiao (fried dough stick, similar to churros in Spanish and Latino-American cuisine), while the Shandong-style one sold by street vendors is usually topped with baocui (crispy fried cracker).

How to make?

Ingredients

2 tablespoons millet flour

2 tablespoons soy milk

1/2 teaspoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon water, if needed

1 tablespoon Chinese black bean sauce

1 teaspoon water

1/2 teaspoon Asian chile pepper sauce, or to taste

1 teaspoon water

cooking spray

1 egg, beaten

1/2 green onion, sliced

1 tablespoon torn fresh cilantro leaves

2 whole crackers

Directions

1. Whisk together millet flour, soy milk, and vegetable oil in a bowl to make a batter the consistency of heavy cream. Add a teaspoon of water to thin the batter, if necessary.

2. Mash the black bean sauce in a small bowl with 1 teaspoon of water to make it easy to spread. In a separate small bowl, mix the hot chili sauce with 1 teaspoon of water. Set the sauces aside.

3. Spray a large skillet generously with cooking spray, and heat over medium-low heat. Pour the batter into the skillet, and spread evenly to make a thin crepe. Cook the crepe for 1 to 2 minutes, until firm. Pour the egg evenly over the crepe. Cook an additional 1 to 2 minutes, until the egg is set. Sprinkle the crepe with green onion slices and cilantro leaves, pressing them firmly into the cooked egg.

4. Flip the crepe and spread with bean sauce and chili sauce. Place the crackers in the center of the crepe, leaving about 1/4 inch of space between the two crackers. Flip the top third of the crepe down over the crackers, flip the bottom third up, and then fold the crepe in half so the crackers are stacked on top of each other in a tidy package. Serve hot.

Food mix

Pancake dumplings with a bowl of casserole. Cut the casserole (ie pancake) into thin slices of willow, put it in the halogen, the halogen is made with clear oil, fennel, onion, and ginger, add salt, soy sauce, lotus root starch, water to make marinade, vegan, to ensure the morning stomach As for the greasy "harassment". Then the bowl, add with sesame sauce, fermented bean curd, chili, scallions, and fragrant dried.

Pancake dumplings and soy milk (Tianjin people generally called "slurry") can be mixed together.

Tips

1. The noodles of the pancakes are made of mung bean powder and flour. It can also be used only with flour, but the taste of the finished product will be slightly sticky. The mung bean powder is used more because the muscle strength is not enough, the skin is easy to break, it is not easy to operate, so the mung bean powder Use up to 1/3.

2. Green onion, according to personal preference, no need.

3. Sauce, sweet noodles, spicy sauce, can also be added with the right amount of bean curd.

5. Fritters, if the remaining oil sticks are soft, you can use the pan to fry and then use it, or you can replace it with fried oysters.