Those of you that have already had the chance to visit this site before will know my background. I’m an Italian-Australian with an American dad married to a Korean, living in Italy. That’s quite a mix, yup I know that.
Slow Down There What is Pajeon?
Anyhow that was to introduce those who don’t know me to my world and why I’m so into Korean stuff. I watch Korean dramas, I speak a little Korean but, most importantly for this article,I eat korean food.
This in fact will be the first of a collection of articles in which I’ll be talking about Korean food. More in particular about Korean food my wife and I cook and eat at home. And today’s menu was Pajeon. If you’re unfamiliar with korean food, pajoen is a savory pancake made with spring onions as a main ingredient.
Generally all korean food that includes in its name the word jeon is a pancake. Pa means onion in Korean. So 2+2=4 and pa+jeon=pajeon.
The Recipe For Pajeon
I’ll tell you how we made it and you can give it a try, and don’t forget to let me know what you think of it and how it came out.
The ingredients needed aren’t that many.
- Spring onion
- Water
- Beer (optional)
- Carrot
- All purpose flour
- Shrimp (optional)
- Salt
Other ingredients we used:
- Soy sauce (As a dip)
- Kimchi
What we did is this, don’t worry its not complicated at all.
We cut into thin strips the green onion and the carrot. They don’t need to be particularly thin pieces. But keep in mind that especially if you’re going to eat the pajeon with chop sticks, it makes the job easier if the strips are thin.
We got about 200 g of flour and put in a bowl. Add 1 glass of cold water and mix it all up with a whisk. Then add 100ml of beer, if you don’t want to use beer use other water. The reason I use beer is that it gives the batter a light bitter taste which I think is nice. Mix it well so you don’t end up with a lumpy mix. Last but not leas add two eggs and mix it all up once again. Also don’t forget to add a bit of salt to balance the flavor out to perfection.
Now, if you see the batter is a bit too runny then just add a bit of flour to dense it up a bit more. If should look a bit runnier than a pancake mix. You’ll have to go through a trial and error process to find the sweet spot in making the batter. It took my wife and I a couple of times to get it right.
This is when we added to the mix the chopped onion and carrot. Also we added as an extra chopped up shrimp for extra flavor. Put some frying oil in a pan. Just a bit it doesn’t need to be a big amount. Heat it up and then add the mix to get going with the cooking. Keep in mind this: the pajeon needs to be thin, the right thickness is thinner that the tip of your pinky. The thinner the better.
Let it cook on a slow flame on one side until it’s well cooked. Then help yourself with a plate to flip it over and cook it on the other side. Once it’s cooked get your table set and ready to dig in. As I said we had on the side kimchi and some steamed rice. Also we had some soy sauce as dip on the side for the pajeon.
Now that’s that hope you give it a try wherever you are too. It is easy to find the ingredients for this korean dish anywhere in the world so just try it out and see you next time.
