Korean Pancakes for Dinner

Phoebe has been on a tear in the kitchen lately. I would love to say this is due to the fact that she’s watched her parents cook every night for her whole little life, and so now, at 9 1/2, her interest in cooking has finally kicked into high gear, but I think it’s more likely due to something else: Farm Camp. She has spent the last four weeks spraying pigs to keep them cool (did you know they don’t sweat?) harvesting yellow cherry tomatoes (which we then bought at the market for $8 a box), examining microbes in the compost pile, herding sheep, and cleaning and collecting eggs. In other words, we’ve been paying for her to do slave labor.

Not really — there are, of course, other activities like soap-making, hikes around the lake, painting with egg tempera, and cooking with the farm chef — a guy named Dan. I don’t know who this Dan guy is, but he not only sent home a little packet of inspired plant-based recipes after the session ended, but he also sent home a blossoming little cook. Last week, Phoebe invited our 20-year-old neighbor/friend/babysitter for dinner and oversaw the production of a pile of Korean Pancakes for her. And when we were finished she held up the heel of a carrot and asked where we keep the compost pile. I guess I know what our next project is.

Korean Pancakes (or pa jun)
They were so good Andy didn’t even mention the shredded zucchini inside. Chef Dan called for only vegetables, but we added shrimp and cooked up the leftover shreds of veggies into a spicy slaw. (Abby: “Mom, why? There’s already a whole salad inside the pancake!”) This recipe makes about 10-12 medium sized pancakes.

4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup shredded zucchini, shredded carrots, scallions (chopped) or red onion (slivered)
1/2 cup cooked shrimp, chopped up in to small pieces
vegetable oil

In a large bowl, whisk eggs together until frothy. Add flour and salt and whisk to combine. Add vegetables and shrimp and stir together. Add about 1 cup of icy cold water and whisk until batter has thinned.

Add a few glugs of vegetable oil to a large skillet set over medium-high heat. Pour 1/2 cup portions of batter into pan and cook until crispy on bottom, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook another 2 minutes. (I cooked two pancakes at a time.) Keep warm in a 200°F oven until all batter is used up. Serve with dipping sauce.

For Dipping Sauce: In a small bowl, combine the following: 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, couple shakes of hot pepper flakes.

Spicy Stir-fry Slaw: If you have any shredded vegetables left, add more oil, a minced garlic clove, and any leftover onions to the pan (medium heat), then smush in a 1/4 teaspoon red curry paste. Add vegetables and shredded greens (kale or chard) and cook another two minutes until everything has wilted.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

What is 7 + 15 ?
Please leave these two fields as-is:
IMPORTANT! To be able to proceed, you need to solve the following simple math (so we know that you are a human) :-)

24 Comments

Candace

How wonderful for her to discover cooking at such a young age! Farm camp sounds fantastic. I didn’t even know that they had such a thing. I’m “pinning” the Korean Pancakes to go on the dinner menu for this week. They look absolutely delicious. Thanks, Phoebe!

Reply
Tonia Collett

Those pancakes look amazing, really inspired now!
Have long stopped disguising the zuchinni (courgettes over here in UK) in meals after my husband ate platefuls in a stir-fry thinking it was cucumber. He ate it like that once, he can again. And he does. But reluctantly.

Reply
Bodi

These look fantastic, and may be what I cook for my vegetarian mother this week. Are there any reasonable ways to shred zucchini and carrots without a food processor?

Reply
Melissa@Julia's Bookbag

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness! MUST TRY immediately! Yes, I echo the previous question — what’s your favorite way to shred carrot — box grater? That’s how I do it but I always worry I’m going to shred myself 🙂

Reply
Monica

i’m korean and i was happy to see that this pancake recipe and dipping sauce recipe are pretty traditional! =) thanks for sharing!

Reply
Torrie @ a place to share...

We just started composting over the weekend! We can’t believe we waited so long to get started. Really simple, and it’s such a good feeling to drop all of the ‘bits & ends’ into the ‘compost container’ as I cook- instead of the trash or garbage disposal!

Reply
Caitlin

Farm Camp sounds pretty amazing and I kind of wish there was a grownup version. What a great experience for kids when they are at the perfect age to soak it all in. These pancakes look great!

Reply
JennyOH

Totally going to try these with my veggie-phobic toddler. I am also TOTALLY going to try to find a farm camp for her when she’s older! Sounds incredible. I went to a semester program like that (heavily focused on environmental issues including sustainability, included doing farm work) as a teen but would love to start it earlier.

Reply
Lisa

After reading about your slaw, I stirred some curry paste into our pasta salad dressing tonight. Thanks for the inspiration, it tasted great!

Reply
Kylie

We tried these last night and they were awesome, we loaded up on zucchini and used tiny (local Maine) shrimp. Instead of the stirfry (which looked awesome) we had baby bok choy coleslaw which was perfect and very easy. We got the recipe from our CSA (Laughing Stock Farms in Maine) essentially it was 1/2 cup rice vinegar, 4 teas. sugar, 1/2 teas salt whisk together and toss with chopped baby bok choy (about 3-4 cups). It was the perfect balance of fresh to go with the fried of the pancakes!
Love your blog, keep up the great work!

Reply
Sarah

This is so great! I’m a college student, so finding recipes that are cheap, healthy, and tasty is a pretty tall order. Thanks for your diverse and delicious posts 😀

Reply
jen

Hi Jenny,
Compost should DEFINITELY be your next project. We started 2 years ago, and it’s AMAZING how little trash we have now, and what a beautiful garden has come from just dumping our leaves, grass clippings and all the compostable scraps from cooking (no meat, no dairy) in a corner of our yard (behind some bushes.) It is so easy, doesn’t smell, doesn’t attract animals. And what a great thing to teach children. So glad your daughter is teaching you. Also, I’m guessing that Dan is Dan Barber, from Blue Hill at Stone Barns…right?

Reply
Liz

What a tasty recipe — and so fast! Decided at the last minute tonight to try these and we’re really enjoying them! Thanks for the healthy and delicious recipe.

Reply
Courtney

These were awesome!! I just used shredded carrots and corn- no meat. With a side of buttered broccoli, it made a wonderful vegetarian meal. This will definitely be a part of our regular dinner rotation.

Reply