Pajeon: Korean Scallion Pancake Recipe

Pajeon

 

Well it has been about two weeks since my last blog post and video. Sorry about that guys! I was down with the flu for about five days and then when I finally got better I went to visit my brother out of town for about a week. I have  not seen him in about two years so I thought it was about time we hang out and catch up on things. I had a great time. I even brought my new best friend Riley with me. Riley is my Havanese puppy! He is a Cuban water dog and he is the the bestest buddy I could ever have! He had a great time to!

So now that I am back and feeling better I feel like cooking something!  I had to decide what I was going to make this week for my video recipe and in true fashion and love of Asian foods I decided to make a great little snack  or "banchan" as they call it in Korea a dish called "Pajeon." (pa jun) Pajeon is a Korean scallion pancake recipe, a "jeon."  There are many names for different kinds of pajeon or Korean scallion pancake recipe or "jeon" out there and are called many different names like buchimgae, jimi, chijimi, kimchijeon, kimchi jeon and jijimgae. These are but a few of the different kinds of pajeon in Korea. Your basic pajeon is made with a batter and scallions and is the basic pajeon recipe. In fact scallions are the predominant ingredient in Korean pajeon. No matter what type of pajeon you make you will find scallions as a main ingredient! The "Pa" in pajeon means onion as in pa kimchi or jook pa kimchi hence the scallions in the pajeon. Many people mistake Korean pajeon pancakes and Chinese green onion pancakes to be the same thing but they are not! They may look alike but the difference is that the Chinese green onion pancake is made with a dough and the Korean pajeon is made with the batter of eggs, flour, rice flour, or cornstarch and in some cases people even use potato flakes added to some kind of flour to make pajeon gluten free!

You can make pajeon, the Korean scallion pancake recipe with just about anything you can think of and the different batter recipes are just about endless. As with any kind of cuisine there are as many recipes for the cuisine as there are people making the recipes. This is the same when it comes to making pajeon. So this week I thought I would make three pajeon recipes.

The first one that I will make is the standard vegetable pajeon, the standard Korean scallion pancake recipe which I make with scallions of course and I add some finely shredded zucchini for texture and a nutty flavor in a batter of flour, eggs, cornstarch, gochugaru(Korean coarse ground chili pepper) salt and pepper and a  touch of sesame oil to boot! This will be the batter I use for the other two pajeon varieties that I will be making in this video as well.

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The second pajeon that I will make is called "Haemul pajeon." Haemul pajeon is the standard Korean pajeon vegetable recipe with the scallions but it also has the addition of minced clams, oysters, surimi or baby shrimp. You can also add some chili pepper to this or any pajeon recipe. Haemul pajeon is a delicious seafood pancake.

[caption id="attachment_2067" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Pajeon: Haemul Pajeon Korean Seafood Pancake - Click To Enlarge"][/caption]

I would have to say that my third choice is my favorite pajeon recipe. My third pajeon recipe in this video is called "buchimgae" or "kimchijeon." This pajeon is made with my standard batter and the scallions and also has the addition of finely chopped bae chu kimchi and pork sausage and sliced red and green chili peppers. It's a delicious pajeon. So let's make some pajeon. Enjoy the video!

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[caption id="attachment_2068" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Pajeon: Buchimgae Or Kimchijeon Pancake - Click To Enlarge"][/caption]

Chicken Wings: My Korean Hot And Spicy Baked Chicken Wings

Chicken Wings

 

[caption id="attachment_2025" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Korean Hot And Spicy Chicken Wings - Click To Enlarge"][/caption]

Who doesn't love chicken wings? I would be hard pressed to find someone who didn't love chicken wings of some kind or another. I know that the Superbowl is over and Yippee! The Giants won! Along the way for the last two weeks or so many people have been cooking party foods and one of the favorite party foods is chicken wings!

Well, I did not fall in line with this trend on my blog or my Youtube channel this last week or so. This week however I am making one of my favorite chicken wings recipes. This week I am going to make my Korean Hot And Spicy Baked Chicken Wings.  That's right! I said baked chicken wings.

I mean when you go to a bar or a restaurant or wing shack and order chicken wings like hot wings what you get are chicken wings that have been cooked in a deep fryer and then put into a steel mixing bowl. Then they put butter into the mixing bowl and then pour some kind of Louisana hot sauce in there and mix it up and then viola! You have hot wings.

Actually what you have is chicken wings that taste like salt, vinegar and hot pepper of some sort. Not my image of chicken wings. There is not real depth of flavor with chicken wings like that! I know the old saying "fat is where the flavor is!" But I am not really a big believer in deep frying chicken wings in order to make chicken wings.

My Korean hot and spicy chicken wings has just a bit of sweet to it and it is one of my favorite chicken wing recipes. There are many chicken wing recipes out there but this is one that has many levels of flavor to it because of ingredients like chili pepper, garlic, ginger, onion, sugar, fish sauce and more. In fact these baked chicken wings are made with a variation of a traditional Korean kimchi paste for making kimchi like Bae Chu or Jook Pa kimchi.

First the wings are brined for 24hrs. Yupper! Brined! I could marinate them in some citrus juices and spices and even wine but I choose to brine these wings in a mixture of salt, sugar, crushed red chili flakes, rice vinegar and garlic granules.  The brining like the marinating is what allows the baked chicken wings to get crispy around the edges. The brine pulls excess moisture out of the chicken skin and lets all the flavors of the brine and kimchi paste come out to play with your taste buds!

These chicken wings can be made as hot or as sweet as you would like. As I state in the video the problem with the Korean coarse ground chili powder is that it really isn't that hot when you buy them and that is why I add Sambal sauce to the kimchi paste that I make for the chicken wings. You can use Sambal or crushed red chili flakes or even one of my favorites the Thai bird chili. Anything to add some more heat to the Gochugaru(Korean coarse ground chili flakes) So kick back and watch the video and I hope you make these chicken wings, My Korean hot and spicy baked chicken wings! Enjoy!

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Vietnamese Food: Pho Bo A Traditional Pho Recipe

[caption id="attachment_1991" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Vietnamese Food Pho Bo A Traditional Pho Recipe - Click To Enlarge"][/caption]

Hi everyone this week I am back to cooking because I really missed it. I will be doing some more sharpening videos in the future but this week I wanted to cook. So this week I decided on Vietnamese food! As anyone who knows me knows I love Vietnamese food. I love the flavors of Southeast Asian cooking whether it is Thai food or Vietnamese food or Laosian food.

This week I decided to make Pho Bo which is the favorite soup of Vietnam. The Pho Bo recipe I am making this week is a traditional pho recipe made of beef and noodles. Pho Bo is the national soup of Vietnam a place that used to be called "Tonkin" when the French occupied the country under something called the "French Protectorate." When I was a kid during the time of Nixon Tonkin was called Indochina.

Pho soup whether it is Pho Bo(beef pho) or Pho Ga(chicken pho) is the mainstay staple of street side stalls and eateries throughout Vietnam! Vietnamese food is very popular in the United States these days and Pho soup is on top of the list. Most Americans pronounce pho as "foe" and this is not the correct way to say it.  The Vietnamese people pronounce it someplace between "few" and "fuh". I myself am guilty of mispronunciation of this word for years.

In Vietnamese food culture Pho soup even more Pho Bo is a kind of early fusion cuisine that is influenced most notable by French and Chinese. Pho Bo is a soup that has over a 100yrs history that began in the city of Hanoi. As far as Vietnamese Food is concerned Pho is considered to be the "meal of the people." The traditional Pho recipe of Pho Bo is highly influenced by the French. The French Protectorate had occupied Vietnam from 1858 to 1954.

The French cooked a dish cooked a dish known as "Pot Au Feu". This dish was the humble predecessor today's traditional pho recipe and was made of meat and vegetables that were cooked in a rich broth. Way back in those early days beef was just about unheard of in that part of the world and the national meat was pork. Today in this type of Vietnamese food beef is readily available but pork is still #1.

As I stated the most important part of the Pho Bo is the broth. It can take 3 or more hours to simmer a good broth for Pho Bo and you want that broth to be as pure as possible before serving the soup. In the traditional pho recipe the broth is made from beef bones. Most notably the bones to be used are shank and knuckle marrow bones. You can also add meat to the broth mixture to help enhance the flavor of the Pho Bo. Cuts of meat like sirloin, chuck or even oxtail will help make your broth delicious!


Pho Bo is a very healthy soup and it is not the kind of beef soup that you want to skim all the fat from. A large majority of the fat will come from the marrow in the bones along with other constituents which are very healthful when eaten. In order to rid your Pho Bo of impurities it is necessary to blanch the bones for between 10 and 15 minutes to get the impurities out. Then the broth is made at a simmer. You want the simmer to be as low a flame as possible. The Vietnamese call this simmering process a "smile".

So the traditional pho recipe was influenced by the French and today there are many variations in Vietnamese food especially pho in both Vietnam and America. Today a traditional pho recipe can and is made with more than just beef or chicken. Other parts of the animal are being used today to create haute pho recipes or what I call the new school traditional pho recipe in Vietnam. Parts such as kidneys, lungs, tripe, brisket, brain, udder, and yes even penis! Other ingredients such as mushrooms, tofu, sprouts, varied greens, and scallions are being used and the list goes on and on!

Today I will be making a simple beef pho(Pho Bo) using beef shank and knuckle bones, chuck roast and eye of round raw meat slices with a simple combination of herbs and spices in my bouquet garni. I know if you make this recipe you will love it. Enjoy the video and thanks for stopping by!
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