← Nouns Cooking · Korean

Ingredients

• 150 g Garlic chives, cut into 5 cm lengths
• ¼ Onion, thinly sliced
• 1 Red chilli, thinly sliced (optional)
• 120 g plain flour (or Korean pancake mix)
• 1 tbsp potato starch or cornflour
• 200 ml ice-cold water
• ½ tsp Salt
• 4 tbsp oil, for frying
• 2 tbsp Soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Rice vinegar
• ½ tsp Gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes)
• ½ tsp Sesame seeds

Method

1. Mix the dipping sauce. Whisk the flour, cornflour, salt and cold water into a thin batter, about as runny as single cream.
2. Add the chives, onion and chilli and fold until the batter just coats them; there should be far more chives than batter.
3. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Spread half the mixture thinly across the pan and press it flat with a spatula.
4. Fry for 3–4 min, until the bottom is golden and crisp, then flip and fry for 3 min more, pressing down and adding a little more oil around the edge. Repeat with the rest.
5. Cut into wedges and serve hot with the dipping sauce.

Tips

• Ice-cold water and a hot, well-oiled pan are the secret to crisp edges.
• Korean pancake mix (buchimgaru) is seasoned and often contains egg powder, so check the label if it needs to stay vegan.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Korean Bapsang Kimchimari