Green onions, seafood surrounded in a crispy on the outside, but tender on the inside pancake, served with a side of spicy, sweet, and tangy Korean dipping sauce. Who wouldn’t want to eat this for dinner?
Pajeon is a popular street food/homecooked meal/restaurant food in Korea. You can load with vegetables, meat and any seafood of your choice. I like to use ground pork, muscles, squid, shrimp and clams and either chives or green onions. If I’m making one for myself, I will sometimes use octopus as my protein and eat it with a side of Soju :)
I don’t know much about this dish’s history, and I couldn’t find much information online. If you know, please send me a message. I’d love to learn more.
This is the one pancake that I would suggest using a mix for. You can find Korean pancake mix in most Asian stores. My first attempt turned out well in taste, but it wasn’t as crispy as I wanted it to be. My friend Jenny passed along some tips from her mom. Thank you, Mrs. Kim!
In this recipe, we use a mixture of Korean pancake batter mix and Korean frying mix. I used my soda water trick from my bánh xèo recipe and my second attempt came out golden.
The correct way to make Haemul Pajeon is to lay the ingredients into your skillet first and then layer the batter on top. I always put the batter down first, layer a few ingredients down and drizzle more batter on top before flipping. I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel; most of the time, it’s because I forget the green onions and other ingredients should go first!
Let me know what kind of Pajeon you end up making.
Ingredients
1 cup of Korean pancake mix
1 cup of Korean frying mix
500 ml of soda water + ½ cup of ice water
1 egg (optional)
2 cups of assorted seafood of your choice - defrosted if you’re using frozen
2 bunches of green onions, cut in half
Oil for cooking
Instructions
Mix your pancake mix and frying mix with your soda water and ice water. The batter should be very thin and runny. Place your batter in the fridge while you prep your other ingredients.
Preheat your frying pan on medium heat until hot - ad a good amount of oil to your pan, ladle in your batter, then add your green onions in one layer and seafood on top, drizzle a little more batter on top. I then pop a lid onto the pan for a few minutes to help the pancake settle.
Turn the pancake when the top is slightly set. Carefully flip your pancake. Drizzle cooking oil around the pancake edges using a pastry brush and, using a spatula, press down the pancake.
When both sides are crispy, transfer to a cutting board, slice into bite-size pieces and serve with sauce of your choice. I use a mixture of soy sauce, gochujang, and garlic chili sauce.
As lovely as the pictures look, I wasn't happy with my first attempt. I remade the pancake for the dinner the other night, and though the lighting is bad, the pancake was A-maze :) I added ground pork to this version.
Enjoy :)