Don’t we all love Saturday mornings? The first of the 2 precious days of the week when you can just sleep it off, take it easy, no lunch boxes to pack no hurried smoothies to whip, and no looking at the time and mourning, darn I am running late again. I just love Saturdays. Off late the Husband has taken to tennis, and by that I mean seriously, got himself all the gear, a very pretty racket, new cap, tennis balls and he hits the court by about 8 on a Saturday and that is no less than a miracle, I call it God’s engineering marvel, the very fact P manages to get up so early on a Weekend makes me want to say Blessed be the Lord.. I have always wondered what got P into tennis, he is not really the very sporty kind, or that is what I thought so,  he does his gym and all but that is it. So when he expressed his desire to learn tennis, I was pleasantly surprised. He seems to be enjoying his sessions  thoroughly and not to mention all the male bonding happening in all this. But man does not live by Tennis alone, man needs food, more important, man needs breakfast. So here we are, on a lazy Saturday morning we ate Chinese Pancakes, oh by the way this is the cheat’s version of Chinese pancake I learned from a friend.

Cheats Chinese Pancakes ( Mandarin Style )

Ingredients:

• All Purpose Flour- 1.25 cups ( 1 and 1/4th)
• Egg- 1 large
• 1 1/2 cups fat-free milk
• 1 tablespoon stick margarine or butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
• 1 scallion ( spring onions) minced
• 1/4 teaspoon five-spice powder ( if not you can use ground Sechzwan pepper corns, if  not the plain pepper)
• pinch of salt
• Oil or cooking spray

How:

• Measure the flour and start by combining the milk, butter, eggs and add it to the flour. Mix well till there are no lumps in the batter. The consistency of the batter should neither be too thick or runny. It should be that of the batter for crepes. If you find it too thick add a little water or too runny, add a table spoon or so of flour.
• Next, add the salt, spices or pepper and the chives and scallions. Cover and leave it to chill in the refrigerator for about 45 mins to an hour.
• Now set a griddle pan or a crepe pan or a tava on medium to high heat coated with oil.   Remove pan from heat, and pour a scant 1/4 cup batter into pan; quickly tilt pan in all directions so batter covers bottom of pan.  I use a ladle to spread the batter evenly into a circle. Cook about 1 minute.
•  Now  very carefully lift edge of pancake with a spatula to test as to whether it is evenly cooked or not. . The pancake should be ready to turn when it can be shaken loose from pan and the underside is has light brown spots on it . Turn pancake over; cook 30 seconds on the other side.
• Serve with fillings of your choice, we had it with a mixture of soy sauce and chili Garlic sauce.

 

 

Note:

You can make it ahead and to store start by placing  the pancake on a towel, and cool.  Stack the pancakes between single layers of wax paper or paper towels to prevent pancakes from sticking