Korean Pancake (Green Onion)

Pajeon 파전

Pajeon is a variety of jeon with green onions as its prominent ingredient, as pa literally means 'green/spring onion' in Korean. It is a pancake-like Korean dish made from a batter of eggs, wheat flour, rice flour, green onions, and often other additional ingredients depending on the variety. Beef, pork, kimchi, shellfish, and other seafood are mostly used. If one of these ingredients, such as squid, dominates the jeon, the name will reflect that; oh jing uh jeon is 'squid jeon.'

Pajeon is usually recognizable by the highly visible green onions. It is similar to a Chinese green onion pancake in appearance but is less dense in texture and not made from a dough. It is not to be confused with bindaetteok, which is a mung bean pancake.

In Korean, a seafood pajeon is called haemul pajeon (해물파전). Various seafood are used in the batter and toppings, e.g. oysters, shrimp, squid, clams.

Dongnae pajeon is named after Dongnaesung (동래성), a former fortress in the Joseon Dynasty and now a district in the city of Busan. Dongnae was a prominent battleground during the Imjin War and legend says the people of Dongnae threw green onions while defeating the invading Japanese soldiers. Dongnae pajeon was made in honor of the victory. The dish was also presented at the king's table and became popular when the Dongnae market flourished in the Joseon era. Dongnae pajeon is usually made from a batter of rice flour, glutinous rice flour, eggs, and gochujang. Soft spring onions, beef, clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp and other seafood are also added.

Ingredients:

Green onions

flour

water

soybean paste

sugar

vegetable oil

Directions:

1. Clean, wash, and drain a handful of wild green onions (or about 10 stalks of normal green onion).
2. Cut them into 5 inch long pieces.
3. Make batter by mixing ½ cup flour, ½ cup water, 1 ts soybean paste, and ½ ts sugar in a bowl. Mix well until the batter is smooth.
4. Place a non-stick pan on the stove and heat it up.
5. Add about 3 tbs vegetable oil to the heated pan.
6. Put the green onion on the pan parallel to each other, in the shape of a rectangle.
7. Pour the batter over the green onion evenly.
   *tip: If you want some seafood (chopped squid, mussels or  fresh oysters) in your pancake add it on top of the green onion before pouring the batter.
8. While the pancake is being cooked, keep patting it, pressing it slightly, and keeping it in a nice shape with your spatula.
9. A few minutes later, when the bottom of the pancake turns crispy and golden brown, turn it over.
10. Cook a few more minutes until the bottom of the pancake turns crispy and golden brown again, and flip it or turn it over.
11. Cook another minute and transfer it to a serving plate.
12. Serve hot with sauce.

Sauce:

Mix these ingredients in a small bowl:
2 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs vinegar

1 ts sugar or honey

chopped onion

chopped green or red chili peppers

1 ts roasted sesame seeds

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