When I first started baking, I avoided recipes that involved my hands getting dirty. I know that might be weird since cooking and baking are pretty hands-on activities, but I didn’t like the feeling of getting grit stuck in my fingernails or flour clinging to my shirt. It sort of makes sense if you consider that I have a history of despising the feeling of getting dirty. I was a bit of girly-girl. Always have been. My mom claimed I was the world’s unhappiest kindergarten finger-painter because of that reason of hating to be dirty. I am probably an anomaly in the culinary/ baking world…
Nowadays, I think of getting my hands dirty as being emotionally connected to the activity I am doing whether that be the sweaty palms in yoga practice or dirtying my hands up to knead dough. It helps me stay grounded, which is important since I have a flighty and anxious personality.
In a way, it’s funny that I chose to making homemade green onion pancakes, which is a pretty messy cooking project if you think about it. I mean, I am kneading the dough to facilitate the gluten formation. Then, I am getting my hands all oiled up from the dough that’s drizzled in oil to keep the pancake interior moist. Oh, and you can’t forget that smell. Man, all those aromatics in the sesame oil and green onion just stayed with me for the rest of the day no matter how much I scrubbed.
However, I chose to make them anyway because they are one of my favorite snacks to nibble on…
Just Lychee 