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Friday, September 4, 2015

Gamja Jeon ~ Korean Potato Pancakes

 
The word 'Jeon' refers to a Korean style pancake in general and gamjajeon is a variety made by pan-frying finely grated potato until golden brown using vegetable oil. Traditionally, this humble pancake is kept simple and made just with potato, salt and oil and uses no flour of any kind. Additionally onions or scallions, garlic chives, carrots, sliced mushrooms can be added to the batter to add color, texture and flavor. Or these jeon can be garnished with shredded fresh red or green chilies as well while frying. I think I made these jeon a tad thicker but recommend a thinner and crispier version. Gamjajeaon is usually served with a dipping sauce called choganjang, that can be made in a jiffy with soy sauce and vinegar.

The potatoes used to make jeon can be either finely grated or blended. Either way, a gamjajeon recipe recommends to remove some of the water content from the blended / grated potatoes so that the final batter is not watery. The potato is drained in a sieve and the starch water is allowed to sit for a while until the starch sinks to bottom. And that starch gets used in the recipe as well.  
Ingredients: (Yield 5 pancakes)
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into big chunks
1 medium onion, peeled / A bunch of scallions, chopped
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste / 1 - 2 green chilies deseeded and finely chopped
Oil to make pancakes

Method:
* Blend onion and potatoes together using a mixer / food processor adding no water. If you find it harder to process, adding a little water is fine. (or you can finely grate the vegetables as well.)
* Place a mesh strainer over a bowl and pour the pureed vegetables into it. Let it sit for about 10 - 15 minutes to drain the water.
* After the water has drained, transfer the vegetable mixture to a small mixing bowl. And just don't throw away the water collected in the bowl underneath since it contains the starch that can be added to the batter. (After resting, you would notice that the white starchy stuff sinks to the bottom and forms a dense layer at the bottom of the bowl.) Carefully discard the water until you get to the potato starch sitting at the bottom of the bowl. Add that starch to the potato - onion mixture in the mixing bowl.
* Add salt, pepper / green chilies and scallion if using, to the bowl as well and mix to combine.
* Heat a non stick pan on medium flame and add a tbsp. of oil. Scoop out about tbsp. of batter on pan and toast them until they are cooked through and golden brown on both sides, flipping them once or twice intermittently. Repeat the process with the remaining batter.
* If they are made mini size, you can make as many pancakes as the frying pan can fit at once. (I made a little bigger sized pancakes and so made them individually.)
* Serve them warm with choganjang or ketchup.
Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 56

Comments

18 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow that is new to me... Looks superrrr

MySpicyKitchen said...

I was expecting either grated or boiled potato for these pancakes. Processing uncooked potatoes is new. Pancakes look delicious.

kitchen queen said...

delicious tempting pancakes.

cookingwithsapana said...

Very interesting pancakes recipe.Nice choice.

The Pumpkin Farm said...

during one of the BMs i had only contenplated making them , but never got close....this indeed looks very unusual....would love to try

Kalyani said...

wow ! totally new to me... almost looks like little hashbrowns with a twist...

this looks so doable ! bookmarking !

Priya Suresh said...

Have tried this pancakes long back and loved it to the core, well done Suma..Am sure this pancakes are definitely a huge hit among kids.

preeti garg said...

Love this recipe.. bookmarked
Check my recipes @ www.simplytadka.com

Srivalli said...

Your pancakes look excellent Suma..love the top crust..:)

vaishali sabnani said...

very unique!..book marking !
Suma this is very interesting and something new that I have learnt..super.

Sandhiya said...

Wow..Interesting recipe and it's new to me..Loved your pics.

Gayathri Kumar said...

Love this recipe. The preparation is quite interesting!!!

Srividhya said...

Lot of unique and interesting recipes. Great share

Harini R said...

Very interesting method of preparation. Though they look like potato pancakes, I am sure they taste yumm and different.

Pavani said...

Very interesting and unique combo. Looks and sounds delicious.

Archana said...

Wow this is unique. Love it and bookmarking it.

Sneha's Recipe said...

Delicious Potato pancakes, well made.

Chef Mireille said...

really interesting way to make potato pancakes - seems like a lot of work but they look great