Kimchi Jeon, or Kimchi Pancake, is a savoury pancake from South Korea that is umami-packed and super crispy. This dish is commonly eaten on rainy days due to the sound of rain reminding the people of the sound of oil sizzling when cooking jeon. This recipe is so easy to recreate at home – let me show you how!

There are a few things to note:

1. Kimchi: it’s spicy fermented cabbage (trust me, it tastes better than it sounds) that you can find in Asian grocery stores. Most bigger supermarkets these days also stock them. You want aged kimchi, they tend to be more sour which gives more flavour to the pancakes.
2. Protein: you can be creative here – normally kimchi pancake doesn’t have much other protein but i’ve seen variations with pork belly and seafood.

Ingredients

200g aged kimchi, chopped
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp kimchi brine
2 green onion/scallion, chopped into 4cm/2inch batons
1/2 onion, sliced
1 tsp sugar

Method

1. In a bowl, add in all the ingredients and mix well.
2. Drizzle generously with vegetable oil into a pan and bring it up to medium heat. Add in the batter and spread it out evenly into a circle. Leave to cook and crisp up for 4-5 minutes.
3. Flip the pancake and drizzle some oil along the edges of the pancake. Leave to cook for another 4-5 minutes.
4. Cut into 9 pieces and serve with soy sauce (optional)