Kimchi pancake

I have tried so many kimichi pancakes and they always fail. Either too doughy (if using only all purpose flour) or they fall apart. After my thought, I think I finally realised it's because many of the recipes omit egg! Secondly, even if there is no egg (like you see real ahjumohni doing), they will put the veg on the pan, then pour on the flour batter, then flip and pour on the egg! The egg really is the glue! Finally, I see many non-Koreans put in the different veg (kimchi, scallions, etc) and then pour on dry flour, (egg), liquid, etc all separately. I tend to do that out of laziness but my pancake falls apart! I had a sudden epiphany that maybe I really need to be mixing everything together first and lightly whisking to activate the gluten in the flour, and the egg as the glue!

So here is a true Korean chef's recipe - Chris Cho's kimchi pancake. Not just a random non-Korean blogger or K-influencer whose mom/dad cooked.

Ingredients

1/2C flour

1/2C potato starch

1/3C water

1/3C kimchi juice

3-4 tsp garlic

3-4 tsp sesame oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 egg

½ onion

2 scallion (lengthways)

2-3 C drained kimchi, chopped

1/2C pork, thinly slicked

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients except the egg and beat with a chopstick. Taste the batter to check seasoning. Adjust seasoning if required. Batter will be thick.

2. Add the egg and beat in.

3. Add all the ingredients in and mix the batter. 

4. Check the consistency (see the video) and adjust with more flour and potato starch if required. When using your finger to lift the batter out of the bowl, it sticks to the finger and barely falls off.

5. High heat, heat up pan till hot. Splash of oil. Pour on the batter and shape edges within first 30 seconds (otherwise it can't be re-shaped).

6. 2 minute high heat, flip and 2 more mins on high heat. Turn down heat to medium and flip for 2 minutes, then flip again for 2 minutes.

7. Along the way, press down with spatula to flatten out. Splash oil around the edges.

8. Invert out onto chopping board and chop up into squares.