An Indian take on Pajeon, a Korean Spring Onion Pancake

I was searching for ideas to make vegetable pancakes and came across this Korean Spring Onion Pancake featured on maangchi.com. This Spring Onion pancake is similar to the Indian paratha where a vegetable and flour are the main ingredients. My pancake is a little of the Pajeon and a little of the Paratha recipe. The Pajeon uses all purpose flour and soybean paste and since I try and avoid all purpose flour and did not have soybean paste, I substituted these with whole wheat flour and a little salt. I am sure the pancake lost on the soybean paste flavor which I will try some time if I lay my hands on it here.

 

Any recipe including green vegetables is apt for this time of the year since the markets are currently flush with fresh greens. The green onions that are currently available are the tender with small bulbs and are just apt for this pancake. Do try this recipe, it is very healthy due to the amount of greens that go into each pancake.

Ingredients

Spring / Green Onions / Scallion - a handful

Whole wheat flour - 1/2 cup

Water as required

Salt as per taste

Oil to apply on pan

Use only the tender greens stalk and the small thin bulbs for this recipe. I had selected a mix of small and medium sized bulbs from the vendor and realized that not all the stalks are the tender green kinds that this pancake needs. So I sifted through them and got the ones I wanted.

 

Wash the stalks and bulbs thoroughly in water and peel off any wilting layer from the bulb. Line these up on the cutting board and cut them evenly into 2 inch long pieces. If the bulb are a little thick slice them lengthwise. Mix the whole wheat flour with salt and as much water as needed to make a flowing batter.

Now heat a pan and spoon a few drops of oil and spread with a spatula. Keep the heat on low and Lay the spring onions and the bulbs on the pan lengthwise so you have veggies arranged in a column forming a rectangle shape. Then slowly pour the batter little by little all over the veggies and with the spatula help to spread the batter all over the veggies and push and tuck the batter around the veggies to maintain the rectangle shape. When it firms up and the bottom is golden brown, flip it over and let it cook. Keep the heat on low initially so the pancake cooks through and then raise it to medium heat to brown and crisp both sides.

 

Serve steaming hot Spring Onion Pancakes with the hot and tangy dip.

 

My Spring Onion Pancake goes to -

- Eat seasonal food, fresh, originally hosted by Jagruthi

 



Radish and Onion in Lentil Pancake

This is a lovely pancake to have on a cool winter morning. Use seasonal vegetables or greens to make different pancakes.

Ingredients (makes 2)
Moong dal / split Mung bean - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1, small
Radish - 1, small
Green chilli - 2
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Salt as per taster
Oil to make the pancakes

Slice the onions into medium thick pieces and cut the radish into 1.5inch slightly thick sticks.  

Soak the moong dal for an hour in plenty of water. Wash and drain the dal and grind it to a fine paste along with the green chilli, asafoetida and salt. The batter should be medium thick and easily pourable.

Grease a pan lightly then pour a little batter and spread it into a square shape. Quickly lay the onion slices and radish sticks on the whole pancake. Add liberal quantities of the veges, this is a vegetable heavy pancake. Pour some more batter in a zigzag manner on top of the onion and radish and spread to cover the vegetables completely. Spoon some oil around the pancake and let it set. Lift the edges of the pancake to check if set and if golden. Flip over and cook the other side. Flip over to crisp both sides. This pancake should be crisp on the outside, the inside remains slightly soft because its a lentil batter.

 

Serve it hot.

Whole Wheat Pancakes with apple compote

I have been impatient to make pancakes from the day I put that apple and pear compote (recipe here) in the refrigerator. This pancake recipe had very good reviews and I decided to try it out. The only thing I changed was to substitute the all purpose flour with whole wheat flour. Try this recipe for whole wheat pancakes once and you will never go back to the white flour recipe. The pancakes were nice and fluffy and the flavor of the wheat flour came through beautifully. A good thing about this recipe is, it is made without buttermilk, yes, a no buttermilk pancake using readily available ingredients.

Cooking the pancakes is easy, there is no need to spread it and worry about getting a circular shape. Pour a ladle of pancake batter in the center of the griddle and let it spread on its own. The batter spreads on it own into a nice round shape.

This method reminds me of the dosa that you get in old Kerala chayakkada (tea house) during breakfast time. It is not spread thin like in the restaurants nowadays. A large ladleful of the dosa batter is poured on an iron griddle and the ladle is used to spread the batter very cursorily and the dosa is almost half an inch thick! But they are amazingly soft with the texture more like the middle of an appam. And when the chutney is poured on these dosas they soak it up like a sponge. I remember as a child when we visited Kerala, I would absolutely refuse to eat these thick dosas there.

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour - 3/4 cup

Milk - 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp

Egg - 1/2

Sugar - 1.5 tsp

Butter - 1.5 tbsp

Baking powder - 1 3/4 tsp

Vanilla essence - a couple of drops (optional)

Salt - a pinch (if using unsalted butter)

Ensure all ingredients are at room temperature.

Take a bowl and mix the whole wheat flour, sugar, salt (if using) and baking powder and sift them together two times.

In another bowl, beat the egg and keep only half the quantity of the beaten egg and discard the rest. Then add the butter into it and beat it again only till it is blended together. Add the milk and the vanilla essence (if using) and beat. I did not add vanilla essence to my batter and it was good without any of that eggy smell. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients and mix together.

Heat a griddle, I used the iron griddle that I use for making my dosa and uttapam. Typically, an iron griddle is used to make pancakes in American homes. Pour a ladleful of the batter right in the center and leave it. The batter spreads a little on its own into a clean circle. The top starts breaking out in bubbles and slowly turns opaque as it cooks. When the base firms up, flip the pancake over and cook the other side. Take it out when done.

I served these pancakes with a blob of butter, a little honey and my sweet and spicy apple compote. Try getting your hands on some maple syrup and drizzle some syrup over buttered pancakes. Or go the sinful way, stack a couple of pancakes top with a blob of butter and syrup then add some chopped fruit and cover with whipped cream! Then slice through the stack to get a bit of everything and just pop it into your mouth and enjoy this sweet mouthful!