I discovered so many new and delicious foods during the four years I lived in South Korea. Jeon (Korean pancake) was one of these foods. Although “jeon” translates to “pancake”, they’re not what you might imagine when you think of pancakes. I think they are a bit more like an omelette. There are lots of variations, including seafood, green onion and kimchi.
In Korea, jeon are widely available from street food markets and restaurants, and are typically enjoyed with makgeolli (rice wine). Of course, in the UK it’s not so easy to find. Therefore, to get my fix I had to learn how to make my own. Oh how I miss Korean street food…
This is not an original recipe, but a few different recipes combined, including this one from My Korean Kitchen.
Kimchi Jeon
savoury Korean pancake
Servings: 2 large pancakes
Equipment
- mixing bowl
- whisk
- frying pan
- Spatula
Ingredients
Pancake
- 140 g (1 cup) flour
- 25 g (¼ cup) glutinous rice flour
- 1 tbsp gochujang
- 1 tbsp kimchi liquid
- 250 ml ice cold water
- 170 g (1 cup) kimchi, chopped
- 2 spring onions, sliced
- salt
- oil
Dipping sauce
- 1 ½ tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
- ¼-½ tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
- pinch gochugaru red pepper powder, optional
Instructions
Pancake
- Sieve the two flours and salt into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, except the oil, and whisk until everything is combined.
- Heat the frying pan over a medium/high heat and add 1 tbsp of oil, making sure it is spread over the bottom of the pan evenly.
- Ladle half of the batter into the pan and flatten it out. The mixture will be quite thick, so use the back of the ladle to spread it out. Turn the heat down to medium.
- After about 3-4 minutes, flip the pancake over, add some more oil to the pan making sure it goes under the pancake and cook for another couple of minutes until the pancake is crispy on the outside and cooked on the inside. Repeat for the other half of the batter.
- Cut the pancakes into bites sized pieces and enjoy with the dipping sauce.
Dipping Sauce
- Mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.
Notes
- The glutinous rice flour makes the pancakes crispier. If you don’t have any, cornstarch would also work, or you can omit it and just use extra plain flour.
- You can make smaller pancakes if you prefer.
- If you don’t want any spiciness in the dipping sauce, leave out the gochugaru.
