Spring Wraps, Northern Style (春饼)

Dinko’s Introduction

These little flatbread wraps are traditionally eaten to celebrate the beginning of spring, but can of course be enjoyed any time as a family dinner. Don’t worry if you don’t have the exact vegetables I used. Any fresh greens, sprouts or young root vegetables, lightly blanched or sautéed, make wonderful substitutes. Move over Taco Tuesday, Spring Wrap Saturday is here.

Ingredients

Wraps:

500g – all-purpose flour (or a 350g all-purpose, 150g whole wheat mix]

140g – boiling water

130g – room temperature water

Neutral cooking oil, such as canola

Fillings:

4 eggs

3 medium carrots

1 cucumber

2 cups bean sprouts

2 scallions

2 tbsp – sweet noodle sauce (tianmian jiang)

Soy sauce

Sesame oil

Instructions

Wraps:

1. Measure out flour into a large bowl. Pour in boiling water and mix until all of the water is absorbed. Add room temperature water to the bowl and mix until a dough ball is formed.
2. Knead for 2 minutes, cover the bowl and place in a warm location to rest for 20 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into roughly 24 pieces (you can divide into more or fewer pieces, but the number should always be even)
4. To form a wrap, select two dough pieces and roughly flatten into patties. Brush a layer of cooking oil on top of one dough patty and place the other on top with the oil layer in the middle.
5. Roll out the dough-oil construction on a well-floured surface into a disk about 1/8 inch thick. Make sure to keep the layer of oil even across the middle as you roll. Repeat until you have rolled out all of the dough into disks.
6. To cook the wraps, heat a skillet to medium and grill the disks one at a time. Flip the first time when air bubbles begin to form as the two layers separate. Once the disk inflates on the second side, remove from the heat. Don’t worry if the disks begin to separate and the air leaks out.
7. Once the disks cool enough to touch, use a dinner knife to separate the layers apart

Fillings:

Eggs: scramble the eggs with a pinch of salt and lightly fry into an omelet. Slice into thin slices and set aside

Carrots: peel and julienne. Blanch carrot slices and then lightly sauté with a dash of soy sauce. Sprinkle with a dash of sesame oil and set aside.

Bean sprouts: blanch and toss with salt and a dash of soy sauce. Set aside.

Cucumber: peel and julienne into 1.5 inch slices. Set aside.

Scallions: Julienne into 1.5 inch slices and set aside.

Sweet noodle sauce: spoon into a small bowl and set aside.

Assembly:

To assemble a wrap, select a wrap and spread a thin layer of sweet noodle sauce in the middle. Top with filling ingredients of your choice and fold the wrap on the sides and bottom into a shape that resembles a closed taco.

The wraps will stay fresh for 1 day.

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