[Food] Gamjajun (감자전, Korean Potato Pancake)

[Food]

[Food] Gamjajun (감자전, Korean Potato Pancake)

Gangwon province (North-Eastern region of South Korea) has been a solid production region for potatoes since they were imported because more than 80% of the region's terrain consists of alpine zone, highland pasture and several basins, like the Andes.

So Gangwon province is famous for its unique potato cuisines such as Ongsimi (Potato Dough Soup). Today I bring you a very simple Korean dish with a simple recipe, Korean Potato Pancake. It is a traditional and unique dish from Gangwon province that you can easily find in any market in Gangwon province.

A mountain climber brought potato pancake dough for lunch, putting chopped zucchini into the dough

Just go into any market in Gangwon province and you will always find some booths that griddle potato pancakes on an iron plate with surrounding plastic chairs, and Makgeolli (Traditional Korean rice wine). Customers sit around the booth and enjoy pancakes with a bowl of makgeolli.

The recipe is very simple...but it can be very tough and hard work unless you have a good and sharp mandoline.

1. Wash and peel potatoes and onions, then grind them with a mandoline to create a watery dough

2. Mix potato and onion dough into a bowl, adding some salt and pepper as desired

3. Oil any flat and wide pan, and scoop as much dough as you want (the bigger the scoop the bigger the pancake) onto the pan to griddle it.

The important thing is that you manually grind it rather than using an electric blender or grinder because manually grinding helps maintain potatoes' texture, giving you a better taste when you chew the pancake. If not...well, taste it yourself...you will realize what I mean.

Anyway, nowadays you can enjoy potato pancake conveniently at home but people still visit a market in Gangwon province to taste the original recipe. Freshly-fried potato pancake has a crispy edge and soft inside with a savory taste.

If you ever visit Gangwon province in South Korea, try a potato pancake in any market, and indulge in pancake with makgeolli. Savory pancake and sweet rice wine will make you happy. A jolly chat with another visitor is a bonus :)

Bon Appétit!

[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!

[Food] Pajeon (파전, Korean green onion pancake)

[Food]

[Food] Pajeon (파전, Korean green onion pancake)

A rainy day in Gangnam (which is famous area for the Gangnam Style), Seoul

Heavy rain has poured down since yesterday, and it is still raining cats and dogs. Personally, I like rainy days with the sounds of rain drops falling on the window pane. It sounds like a xylophone to me :). In contrast, my proud ancestors had likened the sound of rain drops to griddling Pajeon on an iron plate or a pan. I wish I could let you hear it.

Gamasot (Korean iron pot)

Meat is being roasted on a Gamasot (Korean iron pot)

If you were to listen to the sound of something frying on an oily pan, I think you'd understand what they were thinking. So if you ask any Korean 'What food do you think of on a rainy day?' 80% of them would answer 'Pajeon', because their ancestors' thoughts had transcended to the present and reminded them of Pajeon to eat on a rainy day. Pajeon and rice liquor on a rainy day is part of Korean food culture.

Pajeon and Makgeoli (Korean rice liquor)

Pajeon is a well-known traditional food of the Dongnae area in Busan (Yes, the city of Dwaeji Gukbap). The people of Dongnae have planted green onions for so long, and they say that the taste and smell of green onions is different each month (isn't that interesting?), which creates a slightly different taste of Pajeon each month.

Dongnae Pajeon was so popular in the Chosun dynasty (1500 - 1900 A.D.) so people said 'Let's go to Dongnae market to eat Pajeon'.

A view of Dongnae from the Dongnae fortress. Busan was the first city that protected Korea from the Japanese invasion

A traditional building in Dongnae

"Okay, okay. Now stop your explanations Prof. Kim...let's eat, please? Your Pajeon is here."

"Wait, mom. Let me put some sour chili paste for you in a sauce dish."

These days, Koreans usually eat Pajeon with soy sauce, but original Pajeon is traditionally eaten with sour red chili sauce.

I'm in the original Dongnae Pajeon restaurant with my mom. This place is one of my favorite restaurants in Busan despite its cost, because the taste of Pajeon always satisfies me :) Present Korean green onion pancake is usually made with flour, but flour was a very rare ingredient in Korea before the early 20th century...therefore Koreans used rice powder instead. It doesn't make tough dough as much as flour does, but it makes very soft and smooth Pajeon which is very popular for Koreans :) However it is very hard to make Pajeon with rice flour, because it is broken very easily when you try to turn it over due to very little viscosity - compared to flour :(

"No wonder this Pajeon is so expensive...phew" Mom sighed.

"Yes, mom, but the secret traditional recipe and griddling skill justifies the price, I think."

"You can say that if you will pay for it today."

"I think I'd better be quiet from now on."

Shh.....let me tell you some more before I leave....these are ingredients for Pajeon :)

Rice powder

Green onions :)

Clam

Scallop

Oyster

Beef

These are mixed with water, eggs and some more secret ingredients to make Pajeon mixture to be cooked on a pan with special skill that makes un-broken (intact) Pajeon.

Pajeon restaurant and its iron plate

Pajeon with large green onions and chopped squid

There is only one original Dongnae Pajeon eatery in Busan, Korea. I really wish its tradition continues forever :)