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.

[caption id="attachment_2066" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Pajeon: Korean Scallion Pancake - Click To Enlarge"][/caption]

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]