Chinese Zucchini Pancake
糊塌子
Chinese zucchini pancake is called ‘hutazi (糊塌子)’ in Chinese mandarin. It is one of the very popular Beijing style pancakes that people usually have for breakfast. The pancakes are soft and savoury, super tasty and easy to prepare. There are kids don’t like vegetables and I think to make veggie pancakes is a good solution.
The essential ingredients for zucchini pancake are zucchini and all-purpose flour. When making vegetable pancake or steamed cake, I always love contrast of texture, some biting. So instead of grating zucchini, I would have half in small matchsticks and half grated. This amount of ingredients is enough for 2 serving for breakfast. You could make one big pancake then cut apart or make 4 to 6 in smaller size.
I am in a low GI diet so when making pancake, I usually use wholemeal flour or buckwheat flour. Feel free to use any of your preferred flour, such as quinoa flour or whole wheat flour when preparing this healthy zucchini pancake. Also I use less flour than many other similar recipes online, just enough to glue and shape pancake.
For some more Chinese touch-up for the batter, you could add –
- A nip of 5-spice powder
- A nip of white peppercorn powder or Szechuan peppercorn powder
- A handful of sliced green onion
- 1 thinly diced Chinese/Cantonese sausage, or ham
For the dipping sauce, minced garlic and Chinese mature vinegar are essential, you could also add –
- 1tsp of light soy sauce
- A pinch of toasted sesame seeds
- 1tsp of chili oil or sesame oil
- A pinch of thinly sliced green onion
- A pinch of chili flakes
(No bother, simply Sriracha sauce is good enough)
Ingredients – Serve 2
- Zucchini, 2, about 550g
- All-purpose flour, 60g
- Egg, 2
- Salt, 1tsp
- Thai chili, 4, optional
- Garlic, 2 cloves
- Chinese mature vinegar, 1tbsp
- Light soy sauce, 1tsp
How to do –
- 1 zucchini cut into small matchsticks and 1 grated;
- In a big bowl, mix the zucchini with 1tsp of salt, set aside for 15 minutes, then squeeze the zucchini over a bowl to remove excess juice;
3. In a mixing bowl, mix the zucchini with 60g of all-purpose flour, and 2 eggs, a pinch of toasted sesame seeds and chili flakes are optional;
4. Heat 2tbsp of oil in skillet, spoon in the batter just like you make any usual pancake, press with spatula to flatten the pancake, pan-fry in medium high heat till golden both sides;
5. For the dipping sauce, mix 2 cloves of minced garlic with 1tbsp of mature vinegar and 1tsp of light soy sauce.
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