Recipe: Korean Seafood Pancake (Haemul Pajeon)

This savory pancake is very filling and so easy to make; a little batter, some scallions, a mix of your choice of seafood, a little dipping sauce, and you have a full meal. Serve with a little miso soup or kimchi.

Korean Seafood Pancake (Haemul Pajeon)

Makes 4 pancakes.

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups water
2 eggs
1 bunch scallions
Vegetable oil
3 cups mixed seafood of your choice (fresh!) - such as oysters, shrimp, clams, octopus, squid ...

Dipping Sauce:
¼ cup soy sauce
½ tbsp rice vinegar
1 stalk scallion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp Korean dried hot chili pepper flakes (optional)
½ tsp sugar
1 tsp sesame oil

Preparation:
Mix the ingredients for the dipping sauce and set aside. In a large bowl, mix the flour and water together, then beat in the egg. The batter should have the same consistency as pancake batter. Add the scallions and seafood.

Heat a griddle, skillet, or frying pan over medium high heat and add a thin layer of oil to the bottom. I prefer to use a spray can. Pour about ¾ cup batter into the skillet in a circle. Cook for 6-8 minutes or until the top stops bubbling and the bottom is browned. Flip over and cook another 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a serving plate.

Repeat with the rest of the batter.

Cut all pancakes into 8-piece wedges and serve with the dipping sauce.

(Image: Kathryn Hill)

Comments (10)

Just wondering if you got your recipe from here:

http://www.trifood.com/pajeon.html

I use the website pretty frequently for Korean food ideas b/c my bf loves Korean food. The recipes are reliable and delicious.

Yum. Love Korean food (Fairbanks, Alaska has the. best. Korean place, called Seoul Gate, that is located under a bowling alley). Cannot find a good Korean place here in San Antonio so I may be giving this a whirl.

Thanks LizLemonn for the link! I'll definately be trying those out. Gimbop - here I come.

@LizLemonn I didn't but it's amazingly close! It came from a friend.

The author of Korean Cooking recommends using 1 part rice flour and 2 part all purpose flour and no eggs. I had been using flour eggs for a while but the texture was not quite right. The beauty of pajeon is the crispiness!!

Yum! Pancakes for dinner are always win-win. I've enjoyed okonomiyaki a number of times. I'll have to give the Korean version a spin.

Reminds me a lot of the bánh xèo (Vietnamese crepe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banh_xeo )

of rice flour crispy crepe w/fillings of shrimp, fatty pork, mung bean, and sprouts accompanied by greens of lettuce, mint, basil, etc.

My Korean mother makes the batter with no eggs in it, just with enough water to thin it out to a soupy consistency. Then she spreads the batter out thin, and once the bottom of the pancake is set, she quickly whips up a single egg and spreads it out on top of the pancake. It gives the pancake an omelet-like consistency and it is delicious! I never make pajeon any other way.

Thanks for posting this. I have been craving them for quite some time and was weary of some recipes I have found online. I think the only change I will make is adding 1 cup of rice flour and only using 1 cup of flour.

@anning oh but I already covered okonomiyaki - look at the end of the post above, under "Related." :)