Next, week I will be in Minneapolis for a conference and because of this I have not been buying groceries. I also wanted to use up the groceries that I already have. I had a bunch of green onions left over from my Korean Stir Fried Noddles. What can I make with these? Green Onion Cakes! I searched the internet and found a recipe I liked at Momofukufor2. I followed the recipe exactly so head over there and take a look. Just a heads up my fat of choice was butter. Yummy Yummy Butter.
Dough ready to go - moist but not sticky.
Whole lot of green onions
Rolled as thin as I could get it . . . .
Coiled up, sorry the picture is bad my camera battery died right after this.
Squashed cakes taken with ipod!
Close up of one ready to be fired.
Out of the pan and on to the paper toweling.
Don't they look yummy!
It is a pretty simple recipe. Just kind of mix and assemble. It was super super easy. I would put your oil a bit lower than suggested (more like medium) to ensure that the cakes cook all the way through and aren't too gummy in the middle. They turned out delicious. I also made a sauce. Equal parts seasoned rice vinegar and soy sauce and a bit to red pepper paste for heat. Yum!
Lets start with my first experience with Kimchi. In college I had two Hawaiian roommates and a number of Hawaiian friends (this is why I eat so much Asian food). Anyway. My roommate IAM-bot loved(s) kimchi. So, when we finally found an Asian grocery story she bought a big vat of it. She said it was fermented cabbage, which she knew I loved as sauerkraut. Then she opened it . . . and I smelled one of the worst smells I have ever smelled. I flatly refused to eat it. That's right, I refused. Based on smell I wasn't going near it. I stayed a way from it to. No matter how much Korean food I ate, I never touched kimchi. I should mention something . . . I have a MS is forensic anthropology, without being too gross . . . I've been around some "strong" smells.
But, over time the number of people who told me it doesn't taste the way it smells began to add up. And then, I made sauerkraut and sausage for a friend who had never had sauerkraut and said . . . it doesn't taste like it smells. I decided I needed to try it. So, this is my first Kimchi experiment. I decided to make Kimchijeon. Why? Because, it is intensely kimchi, but cooked . . . I'm not sure why this makes it better. Maangchi seems to like it and she doesn't usually steer me wrong. So, I decided to use her Kimchijeon recipe. At my last trip to the T&T I picked up a little pot of kimchi - premade. I didn't want to commit to making my own at this point.
If its from Korea it must be good, right?
First, I opened the jar. the hated smell meet my nose. I'm not sure why I hate the smell so much. I like sour cabbage and I like spicy things, but it just hurts. I tasted it anyway. It was fine. I don't think I'll eat it out of the pot with a fork for a snack, but it is edible despite olfactory proof to the contrary. And so we begin with the cooking.
Ludo - SMELL BAD
I followed the recipe pretty exactly. I use a bit more than a cup of kimchi (as my little pot contained a bit over this amount). It also didn't have any kimchi juice . . . so I skipped it. I mixed up the batter and it turned out looking like pancake . . . which is good.
Ready to cook . . . the smell had subsided by this point . . .
I got my pan ready and poured scooped in the batter. I flattened it out and then realized something . . . my pan was too small and steep sided for the flipper to work . . . and I can't do the awesome flip Maangchi did on her video.
So, I divided it up into smaller pancakes in the pan. I soon learned that my kimchi was still a bit large for what I was trying to do, but it more or less worked as I ended up with pancakes!
Big pancake fail . . .
Delicious little pancakes with Ninjas
I had a bite and it was pretty good. I felt it could use a sauce so I used some mayo like I do when I make Japanese pancakes. It went really well together so I feel I can suggest this. In the end, I at about a 1/3 of a pancake and enjoyed it. I don't think I could eat more than that in one sitting, but it is good. I might be convinced to eat kimchi again and just try really hard not to smell it.
Canned pancakes found at Walmart after viewing on Jorge's Blog. I really recommend a visit.
So, it comes in a can with instructions. You just shake it up and spray it in the pan . . .
Like whipped cream . . .
It starts all star shaped
But flattens out (not the cake pops)
This is my favorite cake pop (Fred)
The tip does leak a bit . . . (note the cake pop looking on in horror . . . )
Finally, eat pancakes with maple syrup . . .
They aren't the worst thing in the world . . . but they aren't really good. They are super easy, however. And the can makes a bunch. All things considered I prefer shaker cupcakes . . . (See my other blog for that)
