Tuesday

PAJEON - Daring Cooks' Challenge - February / 2012

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The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

The challenge this month had a lot of room for variation, because we could choose among patties, fritters, croquettes, and even rösti, using our creativity for flavors. Rösti is on my list, but not for now.

I've been in the mood for cooking some Korean food lately, so decided that I would go that way. One of the most popular Korean dishes among foreigners who come to Korea is PaJeon. It is a kind of pancake very similar to fritters and they can be made with just about anything you have in the fridge. But there is something characteristic about them. They contain a large amount of green onions, which makes for their typical appearance.


It is said that Koreans associate PaJeon to rainy days because it is easy to make and you can use anything you have in the fridge and you don't have to go out to buy ingredients. Also, the vitamin C contained in the green onions would protect them from catching a cold on rainy days


To understand a little more :

JEON = pancake, so any Korean dish that ends with Jeon will be some sort of pancake.
PA = green onions, the prominent ingredient of PaJeon, even if you add other ingredients such as seafood, tofu and oysters, to name a few. 

Some examples:

HaeMul PaJeon = Seafood Green Onion Pancake
DuBu PaJeon = Tofu Green Onion Pancake
Gul PaJeon = Oyster Green Onion Pancake
OJingEo Pajeon = Squid Green Onion Pancake

Korean Pancakes without green onions:

BuChu Jeon = Garlic Chive Pancake
KimChi Jeon = Kimchi Pancake
AeHoBak Jeon = Zucchini Pancake 

You get the idea.

Sources: 


PAJEON

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour (you can substitute 1/4 cup rice flour for a chewy texture)
1 cup water
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 onion, sliced
80g green onions, cut into 2 inch pieces
1 inch piece of a fresh red hot pepper, finely sliced (optional)
1/3 of a medium sized red bell pepper, sliced
oil for shallow frying

Directions:

Prepare the vegetables.


In a bowl, whisk flour, water, egg and salt until well combined. It will be thinner than American pancakes, but thicker than crepes.


Stir in the vegetables.


Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a frying pan. Ladle the batter into the pan making individual sized portions, or spread enough mixture to cover the whole pan to make a single large PaJeon.


Fry for a few minutes on medium heat until bottom in golden brown. 

Flip the cakes to brown the other side. 

Serve with dipping sauce.


DIPPPING SAUCE

Ingredients:

2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp water (or more if your soy sauce is too salty)
red pepper flakes to taste (optional)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tbsp finely chopped green onions

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl until well blended.

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Many thanks to Audax and Lis for the great challenge!

If you want to see the amazing results of my fellow Daring Cooks, please visit THE DARING KITCHEN where you will also find the original recipes and guidelines for this challenge.



17 comments:

  1. Renata, your Pajeon look fantastic! I can't wait to give these a whirl sometime soon. they look so crisp and light and delicious. Great job!!

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  2. Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe. My husband loves green onions and I think he will love these. As always a brilliant job on the challenge

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  3. Renata, these are so great!!
    Looks so beautiful!

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  4. I love that you can put anything in these. We love green onions so we'll be having these for sure.

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  5. Renata, these look amazing. They look so fresh and tasty. I will have to have a cooking class featuring this challenge's ideas.

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  6. Yummy, my tummy is rumbling while I read this. I will definitely put this recipe in my soon to make pile.

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  7. They look beautiful with all the colors. It is amazing how many cultures have similar dishes with a slightly different spin. Some of the variations you list sound similar to the Okonomiyaki I had while in Japan - the dish where my wife accidentally ate octopus :)

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  8. What a fantastic easy to do recipe. I love the fact you can just use what you have.

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  9. When I saw this in the forums I was super impressed and on reading your full posting I'm even impressed I LOVE this recipe it is a real keeper I have made it a couple of times now and it is wonderful to have this on my rotation. Adorable photos as well (as always). Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

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  10. How beautiful! I love the dashes of green and red. They'd definitely brighten up a rainy day, and they look delicious. :)

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  11. So cool, never heard of these and I love discovering exotic specialties!

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  12. I love to learn new dishes, this sounds and look spectacular and it is fantastic that you can add anything you want, thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe.

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  13. Great photos, Renata! I didn't know that pajeon had to contain green onions, though Korean food is full of them. They are the only onion I don't like, so I just pick them out because pajeon is so good. Yours look delicious. Maybe I should make kimchijeon. mmm....

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  14. These are getting pinned on my food board and I am making them soon. they look and sound fantastic!

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  15. These must be the Korean version of Okonomiyaki, and I like the the ingredient list much better. They are on my must try list now.

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  16. How many servings does this make/people can it feed?

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    Replies
    1. This recipe yielded 7 Pajeons (4" diameter each). Depending on what you are serving this with, it will be enough for 2 to 3 people.

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