This is your classic unassuming recipe, the type that really defines Korean cuisine to me. A few veggies, simply put in a small amount of batter ? A vegetable crêpe, basically ? I’ve had some French ones, and it was never striking.
Yachaejeon is different. Yachae means “vegetables”, and jeon, “crepe”. It is dirtier than your usual crepe, as you put a bit more oil in the pan to get it deliciously crispy. This crepe is thick, so the batter remains soft, which contrasts with the outside crunchiness ; you get the best of both worlds. The veggies, cut thinly, are perfectly cooked within the crepe cooking time, tender with the right amount of crisp.
And the sauce ! The simple sauce you use to dip your jeon, called Cho-ganjang, makes a world of difference. It is made of only 4 ingredients, and ready within 2mn.
There’s a bit of prep time do to the vegetables chopping, but the recipe is quite quick and straight-forward. If you’re feeling lazy, just make pajeon ! These are simply green onion pancakes (use about 20 for 2 servings). The most traditional jeons are either made with vegetables, green onions, seafood (haemul pajeon) or kimchi (kimchi pajeon). You can also play around with what you have on hand ; just make sure you have from 5 to 6 cups of ingredients for 1,5 cup of flour and water each.
Winter Yachaejeon – Recipe
You can serve these 2 Yachaejeons as mains, which here makes 2 servings, or as appetizers, which would make around 6 to 8 servings.
Advice & key points – Ingredients
- Sauce ingredients : You should be able to find everything but the gochugaru in your usual supermarkets. For the gochugaru, which are hot pepper flakes (sometimes mislabled as hot pepper powder, but it should be slightly coarse), try to visit a Korean grocery store. If you wish to do more Korean cooking, don’t skip it : it’s a Korean staple !
- If you don’t want to make the dish spicy, don’t use green chili pepper.
- To easily and quickly cut your vegetables into matchsticks, check my video.
Advice & key points – Cooking
- It is important to use a nonstick skillet, or your jeon might fall apart ! Also, use a large one, or make more batches ; if you don’t, the pancake will be too thick and won’t cook properly inside.
- When the times come to cook your pancake on the other side, you have two options :
- either flip it bravely, or ;
- slide your pancake on a plate and put the remaining hot oil on top of it, then completely remove the oil on the pan with a paper towel. Put your pan on top of your plate, then quickly flip the plate to that the pancake falls into the pan. There you go ! 100% risk-free !
Let’s crepe up !
Winter Yachaejeon
Description
A deliciously soft and crunchy, thick vegetable pancake, filled with squash, leek, green chili pepper, green onions and onions. And 2 cute mushrooms ! The intense savoury flavour is reinforced by the salty, nutty and slightly spicy soy-based sauce.
Ingredients
For the sauce
Instructions
-
Prep those veggies !
Thinly slice your leek : slice in two vertically, then horizontally, then cut each part lengthwise into matchsticks.
Cut your squash into matchsticks (see video for a tip to make it quicker).
Thinly slice your onion, your green chili pepper and your mushrooms.
Slice your whole scallions in 3cm pieces.
Put all those veggies into a large mixing bowl.
-
Batter time
To your mixing bowl, add your flour, your water and your salt.
Mix together with a wooden spoon or your bare hands !
-
Let's cook !
Add around 2 tbsp of oil to a large nonstick skillet and bring to high heat.
Add half of your batter and spread it evenly on the whole pan area. Put your sliced mushrooms on top of it. After 30 seconds, lower the heat to medium. Let it cook 5 more minutes.
While it cooks, make your sauce by mixing the ingredients together in a small bowl.
Flip your pancake(see above for advice). Pour a little oil (around 1 tbsp) on the sides and shift your pan around to make it reach the center. Let it cook on high heat for 30 seconds, then on medium heat for about 5 more minutes.
When cooked, slide it to a plate and set aside, either in the oven at 60°C to keep warm, or covered with aluminium foil.
Cook your other pancake.
Slide your pancakes on a cutting board ideally, and use a large knife to cut them into squares.
Bring on the sauce, et voilà !! You're done !
Note
These are winter pancakes : when it starts to get sunny :
- replace squash with the same amount of zucchini,
- replace leek with carrot (100gr for 2 sevings),
- skip the mushrooms !