I’ve been wanting to make Korean pancakes for a long long time. It’s been years since I’ve eaten Korean food out in a restaurant and this is one of the foods that I miss dearly. There are a few varieties of Korean pancakes and I tend to like the mung bean variety which is called Bindae Duk. No wheat, dairy or eggs. I based my interpretation on a recipe from Gourmet’s Diary of a Foodie. I couldn’t be bothered with going to the store to get special ingredients nor did I want to make them spicy since my 2 year old would be eating them too. So I used whatever was in my fridge but there is a lot of creative license if you stick with the base ingredients of split mung beans and rice. Also I declined to make dipping sauce both out of laziness and not wanting to use MSG but I’m sure it definitely would have enhanced the flavor.
Ingredients:
2 cups dried peeled yellow split mung beans. These aren’t typically sold at Whole Foods but you can find them in Korean and Indian markets. I got organic ones from Purcell Mountain Farms.
6 tablespoons jasmine rice or other white rice, uncooked. I’m sure you can use brown rice but you’d need to make sure it’s long grain and soaked really well so you don’t burn out your food processor or blender.
1 bunch of finely shredded Tuscan kale, spines removed and cooked. I sauteed them in leftover bacon grease to give it an extra umph in flavor. And by the way, I think a little bacon isn’t bad for you if the pork is sustainably raised and nitrites and nitrates aren’t used. If you’ve never tried Cast Iron Gourmet, then you MUST. It’s a real treat.
1 cup leftover chicken, chopped
3 green onions, minced
Instructions:
Soak mung beans and rice in filtered water and cover by an inch in a bowl. Refrigerate this and allow it to sit overnight or at least 5 hours.
Strain in a colander and save the soaking liquid. Puree half of the mixture with 1 cup of soaking liquid in blender or food processor until smooth then transfer to a bowl. Repeat with remaining bean and water mixture.
Add the kale, chicken and green onions to the bean mixture along with 2 teaspoons of salt. Mix well.
To cook this I used my cast iron pan. If you’re not a fan of Teflon like I am, you’ll need a lot of oil. You’ll need to use medium to high heat so I decided to use an oil that is stable – I had some leftover chicken fat from a steamed chicken for one batch and then I used butter for another batch. There was less sticking action with the butter.
Work in batches of 4 and scoop out enough to make about 3.5 inch pancakes. You’ll want the bottom to be a really nice golden brown then flip it and cook until firm.
I was really happy with how these turned out. I can see how kimchi would make these 1000x tastier. Or maybe even sauerkraut? Regardless I’d love to know what you all do with this recipe. Let me know!
