KOREAN FOOOOOOOOOOD!!! PART TWWOOOOO!

Kimchi Buchimgae (Kimchi Pancake)

Hi! For this post I'm going to be making "Kimchi Buchimgae,"(using the book Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes by Robin Ha). As the name sort of reveals, one of the main ingredients to this meal is kimchi. Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish consisting of various seasoned and fermented vegetables. One big trait about kimchi is its smell. It is very pungent and takes a little getting used to. Buchimgae translates into pancake, although this one is a little different than what might be your everyday breakfast (Ha 158).

Ingredients

So the ingredients that you will need to make this meal are...

• 1 cup of all-purpose flour,
• 1 cup of water,
• 1/3 cup of kimchi juice,
• 1 1/2 cups of kimchi,
• 1/4 cup ground pork (or meat of choice),
• and olive oil (Ha 158)
• OPTIONAL: Korean green chili pepper.

Materials

Here are some materials you might want to have to make this meal (weren't listed in the book).

• A whisk,
• a mixing bowl (or any bowl),
• a knife,
• a pan,
• a ladle, 
• a plate (to serve?),
• a spatula,
• a cup (measuring).
• and a cutting board.

Hopefully your whisk doesn't look like this.

Steps

1. First of all, you might want to lay out your ingredients and materials near you or so that they are readily available.
2. After laying those things out, take you mixing bowl and put in the flour, water, and kimchi juice. Whisk these together until there are no clumps. This will be the batter (Ha 158).
3. Then cut your kimchi into small pieces and add it to the batter, along with the ground pork (Ha 158). I didn't have ground pork so I just chopped some, and cooked them beforehand. 
4. Prepare your pan by placing it on a stove at high heat and adding oil. 
5. Pour a "ladleful" of batter on to the pan, spread it evenly with your ladle, and turn down you hear to medium. Let is cook for about 5 minutes. (Ha 159)
6. "When the bottom of the pancake has formed a golden brown crust, flip it with a spatula" (Ha 159).
7. Drizzle a little oil around the edges and shake your pan to spread the oil. Cook until the second side is also crispy, and then turn your heat to low (Ha 159).
8. Now you've made a kimchi pancake! Place it onto a plate and serve.

Looks kinda gross...

My not so hot flipping skills

Final product

How do you eat it?

You could probably eat this like you would a normal pancake. There isn't really any "way." You could eat with your hand, with chopsticks, forks, sporks, or whatever and however you want to. The book actually says "a cold beer or makgeolli (unfiltered rice wine) goes great with this dish!" (Ha 159). So you could eat these pancakes with that as well I guess (if your old enough).

How does it taste?

One good thing (I think) about kimchi buchimgae/pancakes is that it hides most of the pungent smells of kimchi. Even though it's something I grew up with, the it's still not my favorite smell in the world. Generally kimchi pancakes are crispy and as the recipe book describes it, "rich" (Ha 158). I think more of you would probably prefer this over seaweed soup, which I made last time, or maybe neither.

Summary

All in all, this is a simple little Korean dish you could make pretty fast and easily. I liked this recipe because it was pretty easy, simple, and straightforward. At the same time it was pretty thorough, and even gave tips for some things. One thing I would change is that I would put a little less kimchi juice and a little more flour into the batter as at first the batter was pretty watery, and the pancakes were just a little bit salty. However, it really depends on the kimchi, since some might be saltier than others. Well thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed, seeeeeyaaaaa next time! (and have a Happy New Year!!!)

Here are a few questions:

• Would you try or make this dish?
• Have you ever tried kimchi?
• Is there another dish you'd like to see me post about?

          Ha, Robin. Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2016. Print.