Pajeon


Pajeon is a variety of jeon with scallion as its prominent ingredient, as pa means scallion. It is a Korean dish made from a batter of eggs, wheat flour, rice flour, scallions, and often other ingredients depending on the variety. Beef, pork, kimchi, shellfish, and other seafood are mostly used. If one of these ingredients, such as squid, dominates the jeon, the name will reflect that; ojing'eo jeon is 'squid jeon'.
Pajeon is usually recognizable by the highly visible scallions. It is similar to a Chinese scallion pancake in appearance but is less dense in texture and not made from a dough.

Preparation

It is made by placing jjokpa scallions parallely on a hot pan with vegetable oil, pan-frying them, then ladling onto them the batter made by mixing wheat flour, water, soybean paste, and sugar. The pancake is turned over when the bottom holds together and is golden-brown. It is usually served with a dipping sauce made of soy sauce.

Type

Some varieties of pajeon, with the shape of scallions preserved as in dongnae pajeon are typical jeon. Some other varieties, with the scallions cut and mixed into the batter, are closer to buchimgae.

Seafood ''pajeon''

In Korean, a seafood pajeon is called haemul pajeon. Various seafood are used in the batter and toppings, e.g., oysters, shrimp, squid, clams.

Dongrae ''pajeon''

Dongrae pajeon is named after Dongraesung, a former fortress in the Joseon Dynasty and now a district in the city of Busan. Dongrae was a prominent battleground during the Imjin War and legend says the people of Dongrae threw scallions while defeating the invading Japanese soldiers. Dongrae pajeon was made in honor of the victory.
The dish was also presented at the king's table and became popular when the Dongrae market flourished in the Joseon era.
Dongrae pajeon is usually made from a batter of rice flour, glutinous rice flour, eggs, and gochujang. Soft scallions, beef, clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp and other seafood are added.

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