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: 

Aeri's Kitchen

Agra Food

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.