The Frugal Gourmet: Hunan Onion Cake

I'm back with another recipe! This time, I decided to cook a dish that I could have as a quick appetizer, so I went with Jeff Smith's Hunan onion cake recipe.

Ingredients

Smith's recipe for Hunan onion cake is straightforward and only requires tortillas, sesame oil, green onions, egg, and frying oil. The reason why the dish is very simple is because, "The Chinese dinner does not have a single dish that is the center of the meal. Rather, many dishes are served, in small amounts, of course" (Smith 351). With this in mind, I knew that the onion cake would be a sort of 'snack' rather than a whole meal.

The recipe itself uses a method of pressing tortillas brushed with an egg mixture together, with green onions in between. It's a much simpler version of a Bengali dish which I have grown up with-Mughlai paratha. Mughlai paratha is basically bread with an omelet inside. You have to fold it in a way so that the egg doesn't spill out of the bread when frying, which can be harder for newer cooks. Smith mentions that recipes with wheat are very common in the Hunan region of China, and it's usually made from scratch but he recommends using tortillas instead of homemade dough for a more precise result (Smith 352).

I mixed the sesame oil and water into the whisked egg, and then brushed this onto one side of a wheat tortilla. Next, I sliced up some green onions and sprinkled my desired amount onto the egg-coated side of the tortilla.To make it into a 'cake', you take another tortilla and brush the egg mixture onto it, and press down against the tortilla with the green onion. This method is very similar to making a sandwich!

Brushing on the egg wash

Sprinkling on the sliced green onion

I repeated this process three times, and placed wax paper between each tortilla to ensure they wouldn't stick together. When I completed the preparation of the onion cakes, I put weight on the stack per Smith's instructions, for about fifteen minutes. You can see below that I used jars and bottles in my kitchen, and also a meat tenderizer to ensure that the edges were sealed.

Pressing the onion cakes

To cook the cakes, I fried them in canola oil. The recipe suggests peanut oil, but I used canola instead since it was handy. The frying process is short and only takes a few minutes, but if you haven't sealed the edges properly the cakes will displace.

These cakes were crispy and delicious! I admit to being skeptical that Smith didn't add any salt, but the sesame oil ended up flavoring the tortillas very well. I would say this is the most successful dish I have done so far, since I enjoyed cooking it and can repeat this recipe again.

The finished cake, cut into wedges

Have you eaten a dish from outside of your culture that reminded you of a dish that your family enjoys? If so, have you recreated the dish before?


Smith, Jeff. “China: Hunan Treasures.” The Frugal Gourmet, Ballantine Books, 1984, pp. 351–352.