Flickr Find: Korean Pancakes (Pa Jeon)

This recipe is a little late for Pancake Day, but it's still a great weeknight dinner. It will clear out your pantry and your fridge, and leave you with a delicious meal!

Korean pancakes are made with just a few ingredients, and they're very adaptable to any leftover vegetables and meat or seafood too. They're a little like omelets: try any combinations that sound good to you. The basic batter has eggs, oil, rice flour, and regular flour.

The recipe can be found at the charming food blog, Pithy and Cleaver:

• Get the recipe: Pancakes for Dinner: Vegetarian Pa Jeon

(Image: Flickr member maggiephotos licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (16)

Yum, those look delicious! Any ideas as to why they use seltzer water in the batter?

posted by Torrie on March 4th 2009 at 5:27pm
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Thanks for the link! I was so excited to see it!

The seltzer is supposed to make the pancake texture lighter.

posted by mgood on March 4th 2009 at 5:29pm
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I haven't ever seen a veggie version of this, always seafood.

posted by sally599 on March 4th 2009 at 5:53pm
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I just made some of these on Monday! Drizzled with a little soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sriracha.

posted by sjbreeze on March 4th 2009 at 5:55pm
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We made these (using this recipe) on Friday night. They were so good we made them again on Saturday night.

posted by Tangledgray on March 4th 2009 at 6:17pm
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the seltzer water allows air bubbles so its a bit fluffier!

works with belgian waffles too!

posted by ktpotatie on March 4th 2009 at 6:20pm
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Whenever my mom made this, it would never reach the table because my brother and I would sneak it off the plate piping hot. It's so delicious dipped in soy sauce, apple vinegar, and korean chili powder (gochugaru).

posted by veev on March 4th 2009 at 6:37pm
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The veggie version of this I've had had all the vegetables and kim chi. It's fantastic.

posted by gayatri on March 4th 2009 at 11:47pm
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@gayatri, i agree about the vegetables and kimchi.. it's so good!

posted by Fuzzyummy on March 5th 2009 at 3:32am
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oh man, i love when my mom makes these with kimchi and squid. such a great comfort food.

posted by minakim on March 5th 2009 at 8:28pm
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As much as I love Korean food, I really need to learn to cook it. These look amazing!

posted by tgray99 on March 6th 2009 at 7:29pm
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What's the difference between pa jeon and bin det duk (sp?)?

posted by kelleyk on March 9th 2009 at 9:30am
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Ohhh....I'm going to have to say this was definitely a recipe foul. The egg should NOT be the base of this recipe - rather, it shouldn't be in there at all. Egg will actually make your pancake very dense and muddle the vegetable flavors.

This recipe shouldn't be as complicated as the one on Pithy and Cleaver. My family's version - tempura batter mix, water, sesame oil, anything else you want to add (e.g. veggies/seafood/kimchi/chives), salt. Mix ingredients together. Fry in liberal amounts of sesame oil.

You'll find that this version bears an uncanny resemblance to those served in korean restaurants and in korea as street food.

posted by IHKY on March 9th 2009 at 10:22am
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kellyk: as i see it, pa jeon is a simple flour based pancake (mixed with veggies as you see above, or seafood or kimchi). bin dae duk has a base of mung beans, cooked similarly (i.e., fried in a pan) and with similar appearance (a savory "pancake"). but slightly different taste because of the mung beans.

posted by czilka on March 9th 2009 at 7:03pm
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Pa Jeon is made with reg flour

Bin Det Duk is made with beans (I can remember the name but it's small, yellow and some what flat)grind coarse in food processor.

I like chives on mine.

posted by iaintgoingthere on March 12th 2009 at 3:23pm
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It's Mung beans.

posted by iaintgoingthere on March 12th 2009 at 3:26pm
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