Taiwanese Beef Stuffed Scallion Pancake

Crispy flaky chewy scallion pancake, fresh crunchy cucumber & a warm melt in the mouth tender beef with a sweet & savory sauce all throughout.

3 year olds are awfully cute.

A 3 year old boy with flower corsages on both hands and wearing a tight t-shirt with the bottoms pulled up and tied to the side showing an exposed belly where beneath it is a Hawaiian tutu dress. Well, that’s too darn cute.

Top that with some belly shaking dance.

I died laughing.

That was my nephew performing a dance as part of a Montessori graduation for 6 year olds. This happened two years ago in Taiwan. I’ve never felt that 6 year olds need to graduate. I mean… what do they have to show forth? ABCs and 123s?

Nevertheless, this case is an exception. I’m happy that they did have a graduation or I’d have missed that cute dance. And more importantly, I wouldn’t have met my beef stuffed pancake.

When you live long enough in a city that’s really small like Chiayi (in Taiwan), one becomes lazy. A 20 minute drive across town became too long a drive. So, if it wasn’t for the Hawaiian dance, I don’t think I would have ever bothered moving my body that distance.

Ok, for fried chicken or chocolate cake, I’d do it. Nothing else.

And so after a tummy ache inducing dance performance, I had to compensate the tummy for the trauma it had to go through. I ordered something I’ve never eaten before. Shocking I know… since it would have been my third going fourth year in Taiwan (no idea what I was consuming all those years).

Taiwan Beef Stuffed Scallion Pancake. I fell in love with the name.. with the concept. Totally went head over heels for it on the first bite.

A crispy flaky chewy scallion pancake, fresh crunchy cucumber and a warm melt in the mouth tender beef with a sweet and savory sauce all throughout.

Chew chew chew, swallow swallow swallow just to get to the next bite.

Oh my oh my oh my.

Love Taiwanese savory bites like this? Then you’re going to love this Potstickers. Part thin & crispy, part soft & tender with a delicious pork filling inside. The textural difference of the potstickers will blow your mind.

Also, if you haven’t already, check out my last post Classic Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad. Fresh spring mix, sweet mandarins, beautiful pomegranate & earthy pine nuts tossed with a magical sweet, tangy & savory vinaigrette dressing. Healthy & perfect for a summer side dish or a light meal.

If you like what you see, don’t forget to subscribe or follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter to get the latest post updates. See you there!

Taiwanese Beef Stuffed Scallion Pancake

 

Save Print

Crispy flaky chewy scallion pancake, fresh crunchy cucumber & a warm melt in the mouth tender beef with a sweet & savory sauce all throughout.

Author: AiPing | Curious Nut

Recipe type: Appetizer; Snack

Cuisine: Taiwanese

Serves: 8 Rolls

Ingredients

• Click here for the Scallion Pancake recipe
• 
  
• Beef
• 3 lb beef chuck, cut in half length wise
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 5 garlic cloves, bruised
• 1" ginger, sliced
• 4 green onions, cut into 3" lengths
• 2 large carrots, roughly sliced thick
• 1 large daikon, roughly sliced thick
• ½ cup soy sauce
• ½ cup soy paste (See notes 1)
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• 1 tbs thick caramel sauce or kecap manis (for color)
• 2 tbs sugar
• ¼ tsp five spice powder
• 6 cups water
• Salt and white pepper, to taste
• 
  
• Herb Bag
• 1 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 dry chilies
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp black peppercorn
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 
  
• Sauce
• 3 tbs hoisin sauce
• 3 tbs oyster sauce
• 1½ tbs soy sauce
• 1½ tbs honey
• ¾ tbs rice vinegar
• 1 tbs water
• 
  
• 2 hothouse cucumber, thinly sliced (or shredded lettuce)

Directions

Beef Stuffing

1. Place the beef in a large stockpot (You can choose to brown them beforehand). Top it with the rest of the ingredients for the 'beef' (except salt and pepper). Add in the herb bag.
2. Over high heat, bring the liquid to boil. Once boiled, simmer covered on low for 45 minutes. Season the broth with salt and white pepper. Make it a tad saltier. We're not going to consume the liquid. We just want the flavor to penetrate the meat.
3. Continue to simmer on low heat for another 2 hours or until meat is super soft.
4. Remove meat from liquid and let cool. Shred or thinly slice and set aside. To make slicing easier, refrigerate overnight before slicing. Chilled meat is easier to slice thin. To reheat meat, dip sliced meat in hot broth or place them under the broiler until warm (brush sliced meat with broth to prevent drying).

Sauce

1. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients for the sauce. Mix well.

Assembling

1. Brush some sauce over scallion pancake. Top with sliced cucumber. Top that with meat. Brush another layer of sauce over meat. Carefully roll it, cut stuff pancake rolls in half and serve immediately.

Notes

1. The soy paste used in this recipe, though labeled paste, is actually in liquid form. It's thicker in consistency and slight sweeter than soy sauce. The brand I use is Kim Lan soy paste. It's easily found in most Asian markets. This is not the Korean bean paste, nor the Japanese miso paste, nor the many types of Chinese soy paste which are all in paste form.

2. Leftover broth: Braised additional beef. When done, add some water to broth to make beef noodles soup or add some chili bean sauce to make spicy beef noodles. To die for!

3.5.3208