Since I started making jeon around 10 years ago now it would seem, I started with this basic method that used flour and water, then went on to something fancy with this method that used ice water and cake flour. Since then I have gone to many different variations - mix of rice/corn/tapioca/potato flour with iced water, baking powder, with/without egg, etc. Nothing worked! Of course they recommend the pre-made Korean pancake mix, which I have no doubt will work. But I don't want to end up with yet another bag of something sitting in my pantry that I will only use once in a long while.
The key issues were:
1) The dough is too doughy and won't crisp up.
2) It is too oily and uses too much oil.
3) It falls apart.
Until I came across this receipe by my Korean Kitchen which uses only flour and get this - no liquid! Her method involves very lightly salting the veg so that the liquid comes out, and it's this liquid that's used to bind the ingredients. And then we have Marion's recipe that has all the works - baking powder, mix of flours and egg and only fries for 2 mins per side. Altho I haven't tried this exact receipe, I have tried enough variations to know this won't work. However, it gave me an idea.
I have watched many videos of roadside/market hawkers in Korea making 전 and I noticed one thing - they had just barely enough flour to stick everything together, or the batter was very liquidy. Many of them also seemed to only coat on egg (with their hands!) on the top side while the 전 was in the pan(!) rather than putting it in the batter. If they were making chive pancakes, they'd even arrange the chives on the pan directly to char, then pour on the liquid batter on top and let it flow in between the chives to adhere them. I tried this method and it did kinda work in terms of adhering the ingredients except my cakey batter was the issue. It made me think - in the past, it's the egg + flour that made the batter go cakey and not crispy. So egg was the issue. However when I omitted the egg, the thin batter wasn't enough to glue the bits together, so egg is the binder. Perhaps these 아줌마 were on to something.
So this time I tried the Korean Kitchen recipe and as expected, it fell apart on my first try. There wasn't enough liquid released by the salted veg to bind the veg. However after I smeared on the egg on the top side but it still fell apart. So I put it into the batter and then this time it wasn't too eggy. Secondly, my first 전 fell apart and was super oily and stuck to the pan because of the wrong oil temp. But by my third and final 전 when my pan was correctly warmed up and it had developed a 'non-stick' quality, the oil was able to go under the pancake to prevent it from sticking rather than into the veg to make it oily (and yet still stick to the pan).
So in short, it's ALL about proportions and controlling the temperature. Many recipes give you exact measurements, which are difficult because I don't want to end up with a quarter of a carrot or whatever left. So my top tips for a successful 전 are:
1) cutting ingredients up as thinly/small as possible so that they can stick. Try to keep them the same shape eg all matchsticks or all round pieces. Using different shapes eg prawn bits with matchstick veg is a bad idea.
2) flour is of no consequence.
3) Liquid is the enemy of binding. Egg is inevitable but you can't have TOO much egg otherwise it just becomes an omelette, which isn't crispy.
4) Utilise my inner 아줌마 that I now am and own, and don't use exact proportions, but work with what I have on hand and my intuitive feel.
Ingredients (in the vein of Korean Kitchen)
Matchstick or long veg seem to work the best - 2 parts zucchini to 1 part carrot
3 tbsp seafood - she used rehydrated shrimp and then chopped finely for umami but recommended real prawns, which I used, chopped chunkily.
¼ tsp salt
2 eggs
½C flour (not all may be used)
Method
1. Remove the skin of veg and chop all the veg finely into matchsticks.
2. Salt with the ¼ tsp salt, mix thoroughly and set aside for at least 20 minutes for the water to exude.
3. Add the flour - just enough such that all the veg is coated and the liquid exuded helps it to adhere to the veg and still has about 1 to 2 tbsp of dry flour leftover. Really 'knead' it into the veg so that the flour adheres to the individual veg pieces.
4. Crack in 1 egg and mix well so that the egg is properly mixed with the flour (again, the adhesion) rather than just egg sitting on top of the flour. The excess dry flour here sld be used up and there sld be minimal liquid batter visible. Crack open the 2nd egg and beat it but set aside. If there isn't enough liquid to bind the batter, add additional egg until it achieves the state described.
5. Warm up the pan. Once hot, add the oil and allow the oil to smoke slightly. Add on a veg to test - if it sizzles, it's ready. Pour on 1 scoop of mixture then flatten, then the 2nd scoop next to it. Then with the spatula, work it to combine into 1 pancake and then shape it at the edges. This works better than pouring on a huge mound of 2 scoops then flattening, which has the effect of causing the veg to absorb the oil and then the pancake adheres to the pan.
6. Once the pancake seems slightly set, work under the pancake to lift it so that it doesn't stick to the pan. Add more oil around the edges if necessary to achieve this (it sld sizzle, otherwise your pan is too cool). At this point, it sld slide easily around the pan.
7. When it can slide around, time to flip. Carefully flip with 2 spatula or if you're brave enough, flip in one go! Continue rotating the pan and sliding the pancake, and adding more oil around the edges as required.
8. The whole process easily takes 20 minutes for a really crispy pancake. Patience is required - keep it on medium heat as high heat will scorch the pancake before its ready and too low heat will either take forever or cause the pancake to stick to the pan. Then repeat until all the batter is used up.
9. Drain on a wire rack and serve ASAP as they go soggy really fast.
I have no pictures because it just tastes so good!
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