Globecooking recipe : Cong You Bing (Taiwan)

Cong You Bing are a popular kind of Taiwanese street food, composed of a spring onion pancake wrapped around meat, vegetables and sauce. They are utterly delicious and surprisingly quick and simple to make. As far as the Madhouse kids are concerned, any food that you get to roll up and eat with your fingers gets bonus points !

Cong You Bing

ingredients :

(for 8 rolls - serves 4 generously)

for the flatbread :

500g plain flour

350ml warm water

1tsp salt

8 spring onions, finely chopped

for the filling :

a drizzle of olive oil

600g steak

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic

2 carrots, cut into thin sticks

125ml soy sauce

3tbsp tomato sauce

2tbsp sugar

1tsp Chinese 5 spice

salt, pepper

1tsp ground cumin

1tsp ground coriander

1/2 a cucumber, sliced

for the sauce :

3tbsp hoisin sauce

3tbsp oyster sauce

1tbsp soy sauce

1tbsp runny honey

1tbsp black rice vinegar

1tbsp water

Put all of the bread ingredients into a bowl. I actually couldn't get hold of spring onions so I used dried grilled onions instead - not as authentic but still very tasty. Add the water, stir to form a ball of dough, knead until springy then put in the fridge while you prepare the filling and sauce.

Finely chop the onions, garlic and carrots.

Heat the oil in a large pan or wok and cook the vegetables for 3 minutes.

Add the steak and cook for 5 minutes on each side, moving around so that the vegetables don't burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.

Collect up your seasonings : tomato sauce, soy sauce, Chinese 5 spice, cumin and coriander.

Sprinkle and shake them all in the pan and cook for an extra minute or two for the flavours to mingle.

Remove the steak and chop into fine slices with a sharp knife. Return to the pan and stir for the meat to be evenly coated in seasoning.

 Turn off the heat or continue to cook for a few more minutes if you prefer your steak to be well done.

Prepare the sauce by combining all of the ingredients in a bowl. Taste and adjust the balance of flavours if necessary. Reserve.

Take the dough out of the fridge, split into eight balls and roll them out on a floured board, one at a time.

Heat a little olive in a flat frying pan (not a wok) and fry each rolled out piece of dough for a couple of minutes on each side. Just as for the batbout (Moroccan frying pan bread), it will sometimes puff up during cooking.

To serve, take a warm flatbread, spread with some of the sauce, add a layer of cucumber slices, then some of the steak and vegetables. Add extra sauce if desired then roll up and eat.

Don't forget the paper napkins as they're messy to eat, but they're worth the effort ! 

*** Don't miss my country-by-country globecooking recipe index ! ***