Korean Banchan: Pa Jun (Scallion Cakes)

As finals week wraps up and I'm getting ready to flee grad school town for a few weeks, I'm burdened with the task of emptying my fridge of perishables.  Odds and ends ingredients, like a random 1/2 squash, a 3/4 jar of applesauce, and a quart of pink lemonade are among my biggest worries. 

But the number one thing I needed to get rid of was my stash of green onions that have been sitting on my windowsill, growing faithfully for weeks.  Click here to see my post on increasing shelf life of green onions.

I knew the best way to get rid of these was not to use them as garnish, but to use them as the main ingredient. 

I emailed my mom and asked her for a pa jun (literally, green onion pancake) recipe, and she sent me back this recipe.  So i ate this for lunch and it was glorious. 

Ingredients (1 giant cake):

-2 oz green onion, sliced into 2-inch strips
-1/2 cup flour
-2/3 cup water
-1 tsp salt
-1-2 cloves of garlic, pressed


1.  Wash your green onion well.

Then chop them into 2-inch strips.  The thicker shoots might need to get halved longways.

2.  Add to a bowl, then throw in flour...

...water, and salt.  It should look like pancake batter.

3.  Press in your garlic.  If you don't have a garlic press, I am sorry for you.  Get one for Christmas.  For now, you can just mince finely.  Mix well with big spoon.

4.  Heat up a large skillet on medium high and spray well.

5.  Pour mix into pan and spread out using spoon until you get a decently thin layer.

Mine wasn't as thin as i liked, so i added a little water on top.  But I adjusted the recipe so you don't have to do that. 

Moving on!

6.  After about 3-5 minutes, you should be able to slide the cake back and forth when you jiggle the pan. 

At that point, it's ready to flip.  So flip it!  Awwww yah!

Look at that!

7.  Cook another 3-5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Serve hot right away! 

Mmmm.

I think Koreans are among the biggest consumers of the green onion.  Yum yum yum.

 This works really well as a banchan, but it's also a nice appetizer or snack.  My mom makes these (a whole lot better, but...) when we get hungry at night. 

My mom usually serves it with a vinegar-soy sauce mix (1:3 ratio, white vinegar to soy sauce), but I just ate it plain because i was out of soy sauce.  Deal with it, i'm a grad student.

Enjoy!

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.