Fun Fact One: I am a huge Bollywood Fan. So basically I only watch English and Hindi movies and listen to mostly Hindi and English songs exclusively.
Fun Fact Two: I couldn’t really tell the difference between Japanese or Korean till about 2 years ago.
Fun fact Three: Now I can hum to Korean songs. I know who is BTS and I actually know the names of ALL 7 of them.
No, I am not proud of number 3, but my 2nd niece is definitely very proud of me and herself too. There have been times where I am working on my computer and I started humming to “Boy with Luv.” I’m praying that one day I don’t start wearing a T-shirt that reads “ARMY”
My nieces love everything Korean. The music, the dramas and the food. So naturally, me, being trophy aunt material, who’s always ready to make my nieces happy, have been inducted into all things k-pop including the food like today’s Korean Prawn and Scallion Pancakes – Haemul Pajeon recipe.
Pajeon often known as Korean Pancakes is made from a mixture of flour, eggs and scallions. A variety of other ingredients can be added to the batter, depending on the variation. There’s kimchi pajeon, seafood pajeon..etc. Scallion pancakes are one of the most popular ones and since my nieces love prawns. When I made the prawn and scallions rendition, it was a hit even with my mother, who doesn’t even appreciate Korean food as much. She went for seconds and really enjoyed the pancakes.
The official Korean name for this seafood and green onion pancakes is Haemul Pajeon and you can throw in any seafood kinds you like here – clams, mussels, oysters or you can make it completely vegan too.
The sauce goes really well with the pancakes, do note that it might be a touch on the salty side of dipping sauces spectrum. Basically, you just give the pajeon a light dip in the sauce. Don’t go crazy and submerge it in the bowl of sauce as I find it way too salty that way, unlike my niece who did submerge her pajeon with the sauce and enjoyed every moment of it.
You can easily find ready-made pajeon flour in certain grocery shops nowadays, but I guess it is not something that can be easily found in some parts of the world, so it’s always good to know how to make the batter from scratch. The recipe calls for both plain flour and potato starch (which gives it the chewy texture) so do give this Easy Korean Pancakes – Haemul Pajeon a try. 30 minutes is all that you need, max!
Watch the recipe:
- For the pancakes
- 400g, prawns deveined and cut into chunks
- 2 eggs
- 2 green chilli, sliced
- A bunch of scallions, cut into 5cm strips
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 cup potato starch
- 1 cup of water
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- 2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
- For the dipping sauce
- Spicy dipping sauce:
- 1/4 cup light soy sauce
- 40 ml of water
- 1 tbsp vinegar (or rice wine vinegar)
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 tsp white sugar
- 2 tsp gochujang
- 2 tbsp sliced spring onion
- Combine all the ingredients together and set aside.
- In a bowl, add water, eggs, fish sauce, sesame oil and pepper. Whisk till well mixed.
- Add both the flour and mix till smooth.
- Add prawns, green chilis and scallions.
- Heat a frying pan on medium until the bottom is well heated.
- Add about 2 tbsp of oil.
- Once the oil is hot, ladle some batter into the frying pan. Cook on 1 side till golden and crispy.
- Turn the pancake over and cook the other side.
- When both sides, set it aside onto a plate or a cutting board and cut into wedges.
- Serve with the dipping sauce.
delicious ❤️