Dinner Tonight: Shrimp and Scallion Pancake
This Recipe First Appeared In: Celebrate Pancake Tuesday Tomorrow
[Photograph: Nick Kindelsperger]
These pancakes were supposed to be small little guys, about the size of CDs (that's stands for a compact disc, for you young folk). They'd be perfect as banchan, those tiny appetizers set out for a full Korean meal.
So, if you've got some Korean short ribs marinading in the fridge, you can proceed to treat them as snacks but since I've been dreaming about just the pancakes, I took a page from fellow Dinner Tonight writer Blake Royer's experiment with Korean pancakes, and enlarged them to the size of a light meal.
The batter is made of the normal culprits: water, eggs, and flour, along with a healthy helping of shrimp, red bell peppers, and way more chopped scallions than you think would be necessary. Cooked over relatively high heat, it comes out of the pan with crispy edges.
It's aromatic, thanks to the scallions, but actually rather balanced. The shrimp and red bell peppers add a pleasing sweetness to each bite. Serve it with some rice and maybe some kimchi. Also, while terribly inauthentic, a little Sriracha never hurt.
Ingredients
serves 2
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 bunch scallions, green parts thinly sliced, white parts discarded
- 1/2 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and thinly sliced
- 1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and halved lengthwise
- 1/4 canola oil
Procedures
-
1
Whisk together the garlic, salt, water, eggs, and sesame oil in a large bowl. Add the flour, and whisk until it forms a smooth batter. Fold in the scallions, bell pepper, and shrimp.
-
2
Pour half of the canola oil into a large nonstick skillet set over medium-high heat. When hot, pour in half of the batter. Use a spatula to spread the batter out evenly across the skillet. Cook for 2 minutes per side, or until nicely browned. Drain the pancake on some paper towel and repeat process with the rest of the oil and batter.
10 comments:
If you have rice flour, it's even better -- crispier. And I use ice cold water, and the whole scallion. I have not done it with shrimp, but I'd do it with any meat I have at hand.
I like mine with a soy sauce-vinegar-chili oil dipping sauce.
Aya Tanaka at 4:45PM on 01/27/10
@carioca
Dipping sauce is a great idea. Can't believe I didn't think of that first!
Nick Kindelsperger at 4:47PM on 01/27/10
@Carioca- what kind of rice flour do you use? I have regular and glutinous rice flours.
We went to a Korean place once and our waiter was a Caucasian male who couldn't pronounce most of the menu. We got a pancake but were looking for the dipping sauce. The owner walked by and noticed we didn't have any dipping sauce, yelled something in Korean to the kitchen, but when we asked the waiter for dipping sauce he came back with a bottle of gojujang(spell?). sigh.
hmw0029 at 4:57PM on 01/27/10
I dunno! I think it is most likely regular. I like my pancakes very thin and crisp, so I started using the rice flour because I though wheat flour made them chewy. I also use rice flour to dredge my fish fillets before frying them, also for a crisper effect.
I also once rolled them up and put the inside baguettes with some chipotles adobados as sandwiches for a picnic. very successful.
Aya Tanaka at 6:01PM on 01/27/10
@Carioca - You should use regular rice flour. Glutinous rice flour lends a chewier texture. Hope this helps.
fatthy at 7:04PM on 01/27/10
I tend to use half regular rice flour, half ap - gives the pancake a springy mouthfeel while being crispy, and they are still edible when cold. When using rice flour only, the consistency moves a little to close to gummy, when there are leftovers.
wasserbrennt at 4:25AM on 01/28/10
A little Sriracha is ALWAYS a good idea! :)
My favorite is fries with Sriracha and ketchup.
engill at 5:40AM on 01/28/10
Is this your version of pa jeon? i always end up with really floury tasting batter, even with the boon chim powder in packages. I've read that adding eggs helps but to me, it still tastes very starchy. any help would be appreciated!
Ambitous at 10:39AM on 01/28/10
Are those shrimp raw or precooked?
I am guessing that you meant 1/4 cup canola oil :)
Great tip from carioca on using rice flour for dredging, got to try.
bauwau2u at 1:26PM on 01/28/10
I think this must've been intended for cooked shrimp. I used raw which I chopped finely, and they took a very long time to get cooked all the way through, much longer than the recipe suggests.
melting at 1:03AM on 02/10/10