[Food] Jun (전, Korean style pan-fry / pancake)

[Food]

[Food] Jun (전, Korean style pan-fry / pancake)

It was Sunday morning when I woke up on my bed because car horns were so loud they were penetrating my mind. My head was still dizzy from tiredness of last night, I just couldn't sleep well. I drank strong espresso around 10 pm and I should have thought it would stimulate my nerves up...eventually I got so 'high' off of caffeine. I struggled (reading a dictionary, watching episodes of a sitcom, that I know whole story already, again and again etc.) to sleep but failed as you see now.

I was hungry but didn't want to make excellent and fantastic dish, just something simple and easy to cook...hmm...what do I have in my freezer?

I found...some eggs, sliced raw beef, zucchini, cooked prawn, shiitake mushroom, sesame leaves... I had quite a few ingredients for a great dish but then I didn't want to because it would be so bothersome. Oh, yeah. I found a bag of Korean pancake powder! I decided to cook some Jun (Korean style pan-fry) for me :)

Korean style pancake powder. Mixture of flour, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, artificial seasoning etc. to give more flavor.

Jun is very easy dish to cook. You just mix the powder with water to make paste, it should be smooth and wet enough to be scooped with a dipper. It should not be too watery either, and it needs some viscosity to enwrap raw ingredients like a thin plastic bag.

I picked all the ingredients that I found in the freezer and sliced into thickness that I wanted. I rather prefer thin Jun than the thick one. Well, I can say Jun is not everyday food for Koreans. We eat it when we have a memorial rite of ancestors or Thanksgiving Day or Korean New Years...on 'Special Day'. Traditionally Jun was usually eaten by noble and royal families of Korea (because flour was very expensive in the past), despite the past, now we can eat Jun everyday whenever we want to, as a side dish...but we prefer rice and jjigae (Korean stew) for meal :)

Donggrangddaeng (동그랑땡, minced meat and vegetable Jun) 'Donggrang' means 'circular'

Jun with mung bean powder

Chopped spring onion Jun and Donggrangddaeng

I remember the Jun that my grandma usually cooked for us when we visited her on Thanksgiving Day and Korean New Years. She usually made Jun with sliced pollack nugget, shrimp, chopped spring onion and spicy green chili and sliced raw beef. She sometimes gave us her special Jun, chopped old pumpkin Jun which is very sweet and smooth with scent of honey-like pumpkin :) I always wondered how her spring-onion Juns are so crispy and soft, and how her old pumpkin Jun is so sweet even without any sugar.

Every time I asked her she answered : "I don't know either. I just cook from the recipe in my head." (I'm asking you the recipe, Grandma!)

Sweet old pumpkin pancake

While I reminisce old memories about grandma, I sliced and chopped ingredients that I wanted to cook. I dip them into the paste that I've already and toss them on heated fry pan with some oil. When you do this, you want to pour enough oil that can cover whole pan or your Jun will be burnt like a charcoal.

Sliced pollack nugget Jun

Oyster Jun (Covered in egg)

Sesame leaf Jun, it is usually stuffed with minced meat

Mung bean pancake, Korean usually eat it with Makgeolli (Traditional Korean rice wine)

Kimchi Jun (Kimchi pancake). The most common pancake in Korea. Crispy and spicy.

Difference between Korean pancake and western pancake is that Korean pancakes are usually pan-fried with oil, crispy, and usually spicy or salty, on the other hand western pancakes are (usually) baked with butter, soft, puffy, buttery, milky and sweet with maple syrup (yum! :D)

I love the both styles anyway :) Korean pancake is really simple and easy to cook supper and western pancakes are nice dessert :)

Meat Jun (It is unique Jun of Gwangju in Korea)

I'd like to talk bit more but I'm dying to eat these delicious Juns...so Ciao! :)

Bon appétit!