Sha Bang's Kitchen: Crispy Kimchi and Shrimp Pancakes-Kimchi Jun 김치전

Kimchi Pancake,

Oh, how I love thee. Let me count the ways. Never forget...

You is savory.
You is crispy.
You is important.

Sorry, folks. If you haven't caught on by now, I'm a bit of a crazy person.

Hey. Did you know that Korean cuisine has a whole line of SAVORY pancakes. We don't call them pancakes. We actually call them jeon/jjun/jun/전 or buchim/bucheem/부침.

They are nothing like the pancakes we have in America for breakfast. Think of them as pan fried circles of yummy, savory stuff like kimchi, tofu, meat, seafood, green onions....Sounds incredible, right?!

I learned how to make kimchi pancakes from my mom. This version of kimchi pancakes uses shrimp. I'd never had them with shrimp for most of my life, but a few years ago, I spent 6 weeks in Korea and my aunt chopped up raw shrimp and added it to the batter. At first I was like, "What???". But then I tasted them and I was like, "WHUT!!!!". And then I made her make them for me almost every day while I was there.

My aunt told me that Koreans eat jun on rainy days. I think they associate the sound of rain falling on the roof with the sound of sizzling oil when making jun. Whatever the reason, it's freaking brilliant. Luckily, I was in Korea for the monsoon season so it rained almost every day. But guess what? You don't have to wait for a rainy day (especially since it hardly rains in So. Cal). Let's eat!

You don't have to use shrimp, but you should. I also love them with shredded Krab (remember crab with a "k" is not real crab, but the stuff made to taste like crab using fish).

Adding shrimp or krab adds an occasional bite of sweet among the spicy, salty kimchi and I actually won't make kimchi pancakes unless I have shrimp or krab on hand.

Here's the spread:

kimchi

jalapeno (optional)

shrimp or krab (optional)

jun powder

fry powder

water

oil for frying

So, here's the big secret to making your kimchi pancakes crispy......

Use fry powder AND pancake powder. You can get both at any Korean market. I don't really stick to one brand. I happened to have purchased the Bear brand recently. There's also Ottogi brand and a bunch of others. Make sure you read the label carefully and get one of each. I used to just use the pancake mix and fry longer, but that doesn't make your jun crispy. They just get burnt.

The next part of making really good kimchi pancakes is to use older more pickled kimchi. I mentioned using more fermented kimchi makes for better kimchi fried rice in this post. Remember, when you buy your kimchi from the store, it will most likely be on the newer side so plan ahead so you can give it time to ripen up before using in this recipe.

I must confess that I'm not one for measuring things out. I just eyeballed things. So for this post, I actually measured as I went along so that if you're trying this recipe, you can follow the measurements. If you make this enough, you won't need to measure as you get better and get a hang of the how thick your batter should be to ensure a good, crispy kimchi jun.

I used one cup of kimchi for this recipe.

Rather than get the kimchi juice all over my cutting board, I simply use kitchen scissors to cut up my kimchi into nice bite sized pieces like this:

After I'm done, it looks like this. Remember to cut all the pieces on the bottom too.

I used a dozen medium sized shrimp. After removing the tails, I used the same scissors to cut up into bite sized pieces.

Like this...

I love to use jalapeno in my kimchi pancakes. You certainly don't have to. I really enjoy the added bite of jalapeno spice and flavor. For this batch, I used half of a medium sized jalapeno.

Slice the jalapeno in half lengthwise. I removed some of the capsaicin (the white membrane part that houses the seeds and the HEAT) because this particular jalapeno was mean, mean spicy. To test the spiciness of a jalapeno, simply lick the stem that you cut away. Just a little lick will give you an instant idea of how spicy it is or isn't.

Finely mince the jalapeno into tiny pieces.

Now, it's batter time. BATTER UP!

I used a cup and half of BOTH pancake mix and fry mix. So 3 cups in total. To that, I added 1 cup of cold water. If your batter seems overly thin, you can add more pancake and fry mix. Or if it's seems too thick, add more water. But just add a little bit at a time so you can get the right consistency.

I put in less water to start because your kimchi adds liquid too. So wait until you add your kimchi before you decide if you need more water.

To your batter, add in your finely diced jalapeno, chopped shrimp and the cut up kimchi.

I use a large spoon to mix it all up and it will look like this:

The consistency of the batter should be like this:

Add more water of pancake/fry mix as necessary.

It's time to cook them up!

I use a large non-stick frying pan for this job. I also use olive oil to fry my kimchi jun, but you can also use canola or vegetable oil.

Over medium to medium high heat, I add a generous amount of oil to my frying pan. Another really important part of getting your jun crispy is to not skimp on the oil. I have tried to use less oil thinking it would make them "healthier", but all it left me was with flat, disappointing kimchi jun.

You've got some choices here. Make large pancakes or smaller pancakes. I like to make smaller ones because obviously you end up with more crispy edges. You can go large and just use scissors to cut them into more manageable pieces for eating. I'll be honest, if the weather is warmer then I usually make larger ones to get done faster. There's nothing worse to spending all this effort to make these delicious jun and then getting too hot and sweaty to eat them. Sometimes, I'll start out making small and then make large ones when I start getting sweaty and cranky. Since it's a nice cool night here in LA, I opted to make the smaller sized pancakes.

For making smaller pancakes, I use a large spoon and spoon about two or three scoops of batter for each pancake. Use the spoon to spread the kimchi and shrimp around. Sizzzzzzzzle.

The edges will eventually begin to look less pink. Flip them over when they start to look like this: