How to Make Korean Pancakes (Kimchi and Seafood Scallion)

Batter and oil make the crunch

Korean pancakes are a flour batter mixed with vegetables, kimchi or seafood and fried thin in a pan, especially popular on rainy days and during holidays. Homemade ones often come out thick and soggy instead of crisp like a restaurant's, and the reasons are mostly the batter and the oil. Stirring the batter too long develops gluten and makes it chewy and heavy, and too little oil means the surface never fries enough to crisp up. Simply keeping the batter cold, mixing it briefly, using plenty of oil and spreading it thin makes a big difference.

Ingredients (example for two or three 20 cm pancakes)

These are typical ranges. Korean pancake mix already contains salt and starch, so no extra seasoning is needed. If you use plain flour, a little added starch makes it crispier.

• 1 cup Korean pancake mix, or 3/4 cup flour plus 1/4 cup potato starch and a pinch of salt
• 3/4 to 1 cup ice-cold water (for kimchi pancakes, replace some with kimchi juice)
• Kimchi pancake: 1 cup chopped fermented kimchi, 1/4 onion, optionally a little pork
• Seafood scallion pancake: a handful of scallions, about a cup of squid, shrimp and clam meat combined, 1 egg
• Plenty of cooking oil (3 to 4 tbsp per pancake)
• Dipping sauce: 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp vinegar, a little chili flakes and sliced green onion

Method

Make the batter right before frying and start only once the pan is properly hot. Treating the first pancake as a small test of the pan temperature cuts down on failures.

• Pour cold water into the flour and mix lightly, leaving a few small lumps
• Fold in the kimchi, seafood or other fillings (for seafood scallion pancakes, lay the scallions in the pan first)
• Heat the pan over medium, add plenty of oil and spread the batter thin
• When the edges are golden and the top is nearly set, flip once
• After flipping, drizzle a little more oil around the edge and fry until crisp

When pancakes turn soggy or fall apart

Thick, soggy pancakes almost always come from batter that is too thin or spread too thick, or from too little oil and heat. The right batter runs off a spoon in a ribbon without spreading like water. Kimchi and vegetables release liquid, so fry soon after adding the fillings rather than letting the batter sit. If a pancake breaks when you flip it, the underside was not cooked enough or there was too little batter for the fillings. Flipping repeatedly or pressing hard with the spatula squeezes out the oil and makes it soggy, so flip only once.

Kimchi pancakes versus seafood scallion pancakes

Kimchi already brings salt and flavor, so kimchi pancakes need almost no salt in the batter, and swapping some water for kimchi juice deepens the color and taste. Squeeze the kimchi well and chop it finely so it binds with the batter. For seafood scallion pancakes, a common method is to lay long scallions in the pan, drizzle a thin layer of batter over them, add the seafood and finish with beaten egg to hold the shape. Pat the seafood dry so it does not thin the batter. The scallions are the star, so less batter lets their sweetness come through.

Variations and side dishes

Add zucchini, garlic chives or potato to the same batter for zucchini, chive or potato pancakes. Chive pancakes turn out crisp when you use very little batter, just enough to bind the chives. The basic dipping sauce is soy sauce and vinegar in roughly a two-to-one ratio with chili flakes, green onion and sesame seeds. Leftovers regain some crunch when reheated in a dry pan rather than in the microwave. A light soup or a watery radish kimchi goes well alongside to cut the richness.

Cooking it in Japan

Without Korean pancake mix, use Japanese soft flour mixed with potato starch. Japanese okonomiyaki flour also works, but it contains broth seasoning and leavening that make the pancake richer and fluffier, so mix it with soft flour if you want crispness. Thin Japanese green onions are close to Korean scallions, and a frozen seafood mix, thawed and patted dry, is convenient. For kimchi pancakes, well-fermented sour kimchi tastes better than the sweeter kimchi often sold in Japan.

Food safety and allergies

Pancakes use a lot of oil, so watch for fire and burns. If the oil catches fire, never pour water on it; turn off the heat and cover the pan with a metal lid to cut off the air. Do not leave the stove while oil is heating. Cook seafood through and do not refreeze thawed seafood. Wheat in the flour, egg, crustaceans, squid and shellfish in the seafood version, and soy in the dipping sauce can all cause allergies, so check with everyone eating beforehand.