How to make Korean Seafood Pancake (Haemul Pajeon)

Today is my last day in the Korean Reserve Army .

So for all Korean males , we have to do roughly two years in the Korean military .

And after you finish , you're enrolled for eight years in the Reserve Army .

So my friends from the States always ask me .

So how is the Reserve Army training ?

I want to tell them like , get down to the type of training , but in reality , it's more of like waiting in line waiting for your time , trying not to fall asleep .

Just a whole lot of waiting .

And uh it's pretty chill .

That's why right before the training , I'm thinking about making some Korean seafood pancakes just for you .

Right , guys , we're gonna start off with some green onions .

So take a look at this diameter about the size of a wooden chopstick and definitely not the size of a spring onion , right ?

Spring onion , bad green onion , smaller good .

And we're gonna cut them in half .

We'll put them here .

What I like to do is I like to just take half of the stems , put them like this , half of the other stems and then just reverse it like this as well .

That way when you eat and someone's eating from one side , they're not just eating the white part .

They get a balance in flavor .

Next .

We have 1/4 of an onion .

Just make thin slices , finished two peppers .

This red one here is mostly for color .

It's not that spicy .

It's called the green one brings the ruckus .

It's called pepper .

It's the Korean green chili peppers .

We'll just cut these at a slight angle .

Set this aside .

Crack one egg .

I saw this in a cooking show .

But this lady used the scissors and she said that that's gonna make the egg uh bind easier .

And I want to try interesting .

That made it easier .

So guys , look at all this beautiful seafood here .

I have fresh squid that's been cleaned .

I have 10 shrimps been deveined , fresh chucked clams .

This is about half cups worth .

I forgot to mention the beginning .

But we're gonna make two large pancakes with all of these ingredients .

So the only thing I need to do extra here is cut up this squid .

So this is your first time with squid .

You're gonna probably buy it like this .

You're gonna pull this part out and then a lot of its innards are gonna come out .

You're gonna just yank that off and then you're gonna be left with it's tentacles .

Now , this part is so delicious .

I love it .

But you have to be careful for this beak .

That's right in between this is what it's eating me , me .

Right .

So we're gonna chop that part off .

You can then start separating each tentacle , right ?

I chop the ends off because that's like a squid's toenails .

You don't wanna be eating on toenails , get your index finger , measure up to here and then make cuts uh to that size .

OK ?

That looks good .

Chop this in half .

It doesn't have to be exact .

Then you can simply cut this down the middle .

You can cut off this thin part .

We're gonna eat that too and just make small chops and try to go for a size about this .

If it's too big , it's too much chewing .

Your grandpa is gonna lose a tooth .

By the way , some people like to take the skin off .

I think it's just extra process .

It makes no difference in taste .

So if you wanna do it just for the fun of it , what you can do is use a paper towel , try to get one inch to come up good .

You just hold on with the paper towel and it should come off pretty easily .

And then you can also use that upper fin part too .

Tastes good taste the same .

We're gonna be using some Korean pancake mix .

Now don't make any blueberry pancakes out of this .

It has a variety of spices in it , including some onions , some garlic powder in it .

So it , it's pretty tasty .

You can find this at the Korean Mart .

And if you can't find it , I'll put an Amazon link in our description below .

We need one cup of this in and one cup of water , put some ice cubes in so it stays extra cold .

All right , we're gonna mix this baby around .

Let's do two tablespoons of soy sauce , one and two and then a teaspoon of vinegar .

A splash of sesame oil just a little bit .

And if you have some Korean red chili flakes left over , this is totally optional .

Just put this in and just borrow a few sliced onions that you cut up earlier .

Give it a slight mix .

Oh mama , that's what I'm talking about .

I put this on a medium heat .

Let's warm this up .

The super easy way is just to dump this stuff into the batter and pour it in like a regular pancake .

But guys , we're learning here , we wanna have a good balance between ingredients and batter .

So let me show you how to do that .

Half of the green onions , mix the batter around one more time .

Five spoonfuls over the green onions , just coat them five good and then just get in there with your hands and then just make sure all of them are coated .

By the way , all of these ingredients are for two pancakes .

So just grab half , we're going to put a good amount of oil in .

So it doesn't stick , twirl it around and then we'll place our green onions in and move them around a little bit so that you have some surface area to work with and let this cook for one minute .

Then we're going to put about five spoonfuls of our batter over the green onions so that it stays together .

You can do one more .

It doesn't have to be exactly five just enough .

Then I'm gonna put about five shrimp nice next our squid .

Oh man .

Put as much or as little as you want right next .

Some of our clams , our onions .

Then we're gonna add some more batter to lock that in about three or four spoonfuls .

All right , then add the green and red peppers .

Oh mama .

And then we want to add about half the egg to finish it off .

This is gonna lock everything in and by now it should be ready to flip .

Put this to a low heat .

So we're gonna flip it .

Wow .

And right when you flip it , you want to add some more oil .

Guys , add some more oil and move it around .

So it doesn't get stuck .

And on this low heat , we're gonna let it cook for three more minutes .

So that way everything gets cooked through .

I think it's good .

We'll turn off the heat and we'll flip it .

Oh my gosh .

I almost wrecked it .

Wow , guys .

There it goes .

I almost dropped this baby at the end .

My God .

I thank God that was not a blue .

I I cried and boom , Bob's your uncle .

I'm gonna open it up like this .

Oh my goodness .

There's the shrimp .

There's some of the squid .

What I like to do .

I like to wrap one piece like this .

You get some into that dipping sauce and then you take a , oh my God .

Oh my gosh .

Mission accomplished .

Mission accomplished .

See you guys .