Thursday, November 6, 2008

No Pajeon Purist...

In addition to learning how to cook, Girl is also trying to learn Korean in order to facilitate her Korean Drama watching habits...
Sometimes when Girl goes to the Korean restaurant near her house, she is served a crispy pancake with bits of squid, shrimp and veges in it as a side dish. Yumminess! So Girl decides to try to make Korean pancake (Pa Jeon 파전) herself. She gets herself a bag of pancake mix from the Korean shop (Buchimgaru 부침가루) and follows the instructions on the back of the bag religiously...


Her pancakes turn out awful...


Girl is deeply disappointed at her Pa Jeon making failure...She re-reads the instructions and yes, her Korean is crap, but they are accompanied by pictures and those she understands. Girl is a little puzzled and gives up making Pa Jeon, thinking them beyond her abilities. Until one day...she stumbles across a blog which features a Korean making Pa Jeon with...*gasp* eggs! Eureka!!! The mystery is solved! Eggs, Girl's Pa Jeon lacks! (BTW, eggs do not feature in the pictures on the back of the Buchimgaru packet)

Now, Girl chops up spring onion and garlic shoots with renewed zest, slices fish cake and sausages gleefully, grates carrot and cabbage and tosses them together in a bowl with some salt. She tips in some flour, cracks two eggs into the bowl and puts some water into the mixture. She stirs for a few minutes to combine the ingredients and then fries spoonfuls of it in a screaming hot frying pan.

The result? Pa Jeon that satisfies Girl's cravings for something oily and fried and yet is at least 50% vegetables to still her conscience.

Girl is no Pa Jeon Purist...

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