korean pancake
I was quite hesitant to try this ever since my multiple failed attempts at kimchi pancake. It either stuck to the pan, or come out rubbery. #scarredforlife. Then recently, two of my friends attempted it (in spite of my warnings of overmixing the batter, heat on the pan etc) and also produced rubbery products which did not help my fear AT ALL. I did more research on rubbery pancakes and it was pretty much the same everywhere - don’t over mix your batter, some asked to chill the batter first etc. Didn’t really help much until I saw Maangchi’s recipe for pajeon. She’s like my go-to person when it comes to korean food so there’s a lot of trust there. All the comments raved about how crispy the pancake was. I took at look at the ingredients and thought, if I had to throw another piece of rubber away, I wouldn’t be wasting much ingredients. As my partner was busy on a Zoom game with her friends, I was feeling quite bored and decided to give this pancake another go.
So I mixed my batter (trying very hard not to over mix and stopped once I saw that the flour had completely dissolved) and poured it into the pan and waited. It started cooking and with bated breath, I saw that it looked, well, RUBBERY. I was quite sad with yet, another failure but decided to continue anyway and as it cooked, I pressed it down with my wooden spoon (as instructed by maangchi) and flipped it and pressed it and flipped it and pressed it, added a bit of oil (because I forgot to add some earlier), and pressed it and I saw that the pancake was starting to crisp up! Rejoice! I was getting excited and added a bit more oil and repeated the process. 15 min later I had a wonderfully crisp pancake that I can safely say, was a success.
I think I could’ve used a little less batter though so this is my adapted recipe from maangchi.
Recipe
Ingredients
Spring onions
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup water
Pinch of salt
Pinch of sugar
Oil
Method
Wash and cut your spring onions into 5 inch lengths. I didn’t specify how much spring onions because I mean, just add however much you want! This recipe makes one pancake though so feel free to double it up if you’re making more than one. Mix your batter by combining the flour, water, salt and sugar in a bowl. Be sure not to over mix! Stop once its all combined.
Heat up a non stick pan and add some oil. Place the spring onions in the pan and then pour the batter over your spring onions evenly. If you want to add some seafood, you can add it on top of your spring onions before pouring the batter.
While the pancake is being cooked, keep patting it, pressing it slightly with your wooden spoon or spatula. When the bottom of the pancake turns crispy, flip it over and repeat the patting and pressing. Once its sufficiently crispy, transfer to a plate and serve with some dipping sauce!
For the sauce, I pretty much just mixed black vinegar and soy sauce because I didn’t have any sesame seeds and was just feeling lazy.
All the best for your pancake adventures!
