Korean Zucchini Pancakes – Hobak buchimgae 호박부침개 is one of pan-fry pancake variety in Korea. It often serve as side dish (banchan), appetizer, or snack. People often order it as a companion food for drinks in food stall or night market. And mother often serve it when there’s member of the family bringing home their friends at home. The dish are so easy to make.
Pan-fried Pancake or buchimgae refers to a pan-fried dish. It can be any vegetable, fish or meat soaked in eggs or batter mixture called buchimgae, jeon is included.
The sound of rain always remind people of pancake sizzles in the pan. Korean always craving for pancake / jeon when rain come. Crispy & soft jeon and spicy sour sauce always make you come back and craving it for more. In Indonesia is rarely raining now these time of year but it didn’t stop us for making it 🙂
At noon when I’m hungry but didn’t want to eat full meal, I often made the pancake. It depend on what veggie I have on hand that day on fridge. If Japanese have their tempura and Indonesian love their bakwan, then Korean proud of their pan-fried pancake. These day food no longer categorized by country. You no longer to eat certain food define by nationality. That’s the beauty of food 😉
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup zucchini
- 1/2 cup gluten-free flour (i use 1/4c rice flour + 1/4c sorghum/ regular flour if you didn't have any)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- Vegetable oil (i use coconut oil)
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice/ white wine vinegar
- 2 cayenne pepper, chopped (use any spicy chilli you have on hand)
Instructions
- Wash & prepare all the ingredients near you.
- Sliced the zucchini as thin as you can, flatten it, julienne into long thin stips, set aside.
- In a bowl, add in: zucchini, flour, water, sea salt. Mix well
- Mix all the ingredient. The batter may seem need more flour, but don't add in. Korean pan-fry always use less flour so the main ingredient can stand out more.
- In a pan, medium heat, add in 2-3 tbsp vegetable oil.
- Place the batter in the pan evenly & thinly as you can, try to make it circular shaped using your spoon.
- Turn the heat to low. 1-2 minutes later when the bottom part start to firm turn over the pancake.
- 1-2 minutes later, turn again the pancake. Add in 1 tbsp of sesame oil on the edge of the pan and shake the pan so the sesame oil can spread evenly.
- When the edge of pancake start to turn golden brown, lift pancake from the pan and place it on kitchen paper to remove some of the oil.
- Prepare the ingredients for the sauce.
- In a bowl, add in: chopped onion, chopped chilli, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, sesame seed, mix well. You can add 1 tbsp of water if the sauce too strong for you.
- Place the pancake on serving plate and enjoy it with the dipping sauce 🙂
Korean pancake are different from other type of pancake we often have. We didn’t pour over the sauce on top of the pancake. We dip the pancake on the dipping sauce. It a share food.
That’s why when someone offer you to eat korean pancake together with them, that means you’re close enough to share meal with them.
