It is a Korean food that features green onions as its primary ingredient. It is a type of pancake or omelet that, in its most basic form, contains nothing but flour, water and green onions. Variations of the recipe, however, can include eggs, shellfish, kimchi or other vegetables. The simple preparation and fast cooking times make the dish very popular as a midday snack or as part of a larger selection of foods during a dinner presentation. When served, pajeon can be accompanied by rice, bean curd, vinegar dipping sauces, or it can be sprinkled with ground pork.
It is a Korean dish made from a batter of eggs, wheat flour, rice flour, scallions, and often other ingredients depending on the variety. Beef, pork, kimchi, shellfish, and other seafood are mostly used.
There are many kinds of jeon including pajeon (green onion pancake), buchujeon (Korean leek pancake), kimchi pancake and hobakjeon (zucchini 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.
The pancakes are traditionally prepared every year during the Korean Lunar New Year and Korean Harvest Festival, although they are eaten daily throughout the year.
Ingredients
1- 1/2 to 2 cups of seafood of your choice. For example: shrimp, mussels, oysters, clams, scallions.
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1 or 2 bunches of scallions
1 red chilli pepper 👈 this is optional
1 lightly beaten egg
Dipping Sauce
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
2-3 teaspoons of vinegar
1 tablespoon of water
A pinch of black pepper
A pinch of Korean red chilli pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoons of sugar
1 tablespoon of diced onion
Instructions on how to make a seafood pancake
Prepare the seafood, scallions and optional pepper, draining excess water. (Wet ingredients will make pajeon soggy.) Cut the scallions in half crosswise. Cut the white part of the scallions lengthwise if thick. Mix the seafood with the sesame oil.
In a large bowl, mix the pancake mix with 3/4 cup icy cold water. You may need a couple more tablespoons but add one tablespoon at a time. The batter should be thinner than a Western breakfast pancake batter and thicker than a crepe batter. (For a crispy pajeon, the batter should be relatively thin.) Mix in 1/2 of the seafood.
Heat 3 to 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a non-stick pan over medium high heat, ladle 1/2 of the mixture into the pan and spread it evenly into a thin round shape.
Arrange the scallions in a single layer on top of the batter, pressing them down into the batter. Add 1/2 of the remaining seafood and a few slices of the optional pepper.
Spoon one half of the optional lightly beaten egg on top. Cook until the bottom is golden brown (3 – 4 minutes). Reduce the heat to medium if the pancake is browning too fast.
Turn it over, adding more oil (2 to 3 tablespoons) around the edges. Cook for another 3 – 4 minutes. Repeat the process with the remaining batter and ingredients. Serve hot off the pan with dipping sauce.
