Sesame-Scallion Bread, a Chinese Islamic wonder

Thick, tender-chewy Chinese Islamic sesame-scallion bread (called zhīma dà bǐng in Mandarin) is something I've loved for decades but making it at home to get results like what you'd see at a Chinese Islamic restaurant is challenging. The dough is either too tough or the layers of scallion not well distributed. Ideally, the bread is focaccia like -- thick, with a green specks of scallion (green onion) scattered throughout and a nutty, slightly crusty exterior, thanks to a coating of sesame seeds. But today, I improved on an old beloved recipe and I'm sharing my new findings with you so you can play with it too! This iteration my best, thus far.

There's a certain level of technique involved but you can do it if you've folded up a business letter, rolled a cigarette, or made a burrito. This bread is best prepared with Korean all-purpose flour (more on that below) but I have a decent supermarket substitute for you. The dough is cooked in a skillet so it's fun to observe the cooking process up close. And, eating the bread with a stir-fry like cumin lamb or a bowl of soup like hot and sour soup is well . . . divine!

Tips for your sesame-scallion bread journey

Choose flour wisely. As mentioned, Korean flour sold at Asian markets works best. Ranch 99 and H-Mart carries it for sure, as do other Chinese and Korean markets. It's unbleached and has a low protein (about 10 percent) level, which means it's more tender. Many many swear by it for Asian-style breads, dumplings and the like. If you don't have it, my substitute is below using standard all-purpose flour (such as Gold Medal or Bob's Red Mill) and pastry flour (unbleached or whole wheat, sold at hippie health food markets or online).

Chop the green onions int small pieces. No big chunks to get caught in teeth or not distribute well in the dough. Mix in some Chinese chives (garlic chives) with the scallion. Regardless, make the pieces very small.

Expect a soft, slightly sticky dough. It will seem like it won't behave but it strangely will. That's my experience. Don't add too much flour to firm up the dough. When you have to roll out the dough to a thin rectangle, it will seem hard to do at first. However, the dough will take to your rolling pin and get to the shape you want -- with little flour required on your board. Amazing! You can even pull on the edges slightly to get it to do what you want.

Do a trifold then roll or trifold again. The initial tri-fold helps to more randomly distribute the scallion and sesame oil. Then you can do a jellyroll and coil up the log. Or repeat that trifold to make a square. I like the coil on the far right best delivers a nice distribution of flavor throughout the bread. Check the photo further down of the cut bread; the one on the right is of the coiled dough.

Cook in a heavy skillet. You need to conduct heat well and slowly. I've made these in a carbon steel and cast iron skillet. A heavy stainless steel skill will work too. No thin, lightweight pan here. If the pan maintains heat well, then you can flip and peek and slow and hasten cooking as you want without changing the temperature too much. Also, you need a lid.

The breads end up being thick and very fun to eat. We enjoyed the first one with soup for lunch. It would be great with the stir-fried cumin lamb with green onions because well... you'll have some green onions in your fridge after making this bread!