Korean Seafood Pancakes 🇰🇷

Korean food is most often associated with its popular restaurant-type barbecue, lots of side dishes and kimchi.  Explore a little further and you'll find many delicious, easy to prepare dishes in their cuisine for the home cook, like these seafood pancakes that are served as a starter, snack, or with rice as a meal.  I use prawns and squid, diced up so they cook quickly and evenly in the batter.  Clams and scallops also work if you can get them.    The addition of potato flour to the mixture helps make the pancakes nice and crispy.  The promising aroma arising from pancakes sizzling in the pan is enough to make your mouth water.

Makes 12

INGREDIENTS

• 250g / 9oz raw prawns, shelled and deveined, diced
• 200g / 7oz raw squid rings, diced
• 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon carrot, finely chopped
• 2-3 spring onions, finely chopped
• ½ cup plain flour
• ½ cup potato flour (can be substituted with plain flour)
• 1 egg
• ½ cup water
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 4 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
• a handful of shredded lettuce leaves, for lining the serving plate (optional)

METHOD

1. Line a serving plate with a handful of shredded lettuce leaves (optional).
2. In a large bowl, combine prawn, squid, green chilli, carrot, spring onion, plain flour, potato flour, egg, water, fish sauce, sesame oil, salt and pepper.  Mix them together with a spoon to form a batter.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat and swirl it around to coat evenly.  Drop a dollop of the batter into the pan and shape it into a round pancake about 1.5cm / ½" thick and 7.5cm / 3" in diameter.  Cook 4 pancakes at a time so the pan is not overcrowded (see photo above).  Make 3 batches until the batter is used up.  Drizzle 1 tablespoon of oil around the pan as you begin cooking each new batch.
4. Cook the pancakes for about 2 minutes on one side until their bottoms start to turn golden brown, then flip them over to cook the other side for another 2 minutes.
5. Flip the pancakes over again before transferring them to the serving plate.

Source (with adaptations): Maangchi.com