Korean Mung Bean Pancake with Ground Meat and Kimchi
A very kind friend has recently offered me Our Korean Kitchen, a beautifully illustrated home cookery book written by Jordan Bourke and Rejina Pyo, an Irish-Korean couple. It’s not my first Korean cookery book, but in this one everything looks appetising and effortless at the same time, so I couldn’t wait more than one day to put it into practice. A mung bean-based pancake batter sounded particularly intriguing, quite different from all the Korean dishes I know and I happened to have every single ingredient, so the choice was easy. The pancake was rich and filling, but didn’t feel heavy at all and I loved the idea of a healthier, not wheat flour- but bean-based pancake. It might not look very exciting, but I promise it was absolutely delicious!
As usually, I have slightly modified the recipe (e.g. used a mixture of pork & beef I prefer instead of beef alone or adding baking powder), so check the original recipe in Our Korean Kitchen which is a fantastic source to have a peek into easy and delicious Korean home cooking.
TIPS: Dried mung beans are small, have a green khaki colour and are slightly oval in shape. They can be found now in many “normal” supermarkets, but you can look for them in organic or Asian shops, and of course, online.
The cooking process is really easy, though you have to plan the pancake a day ahead (the beans must be soaked overnight) or at least in the morning, if you want to have the pancake for the dinner. The only tricky part is frying this thick pancake without burning it and without leaving it raw inside (especially if you use pork or chicken). I did it on low heat with a cover on so that the top of the pancake cooked a bit too before the flipping over.
The baking powder is my own idea because I believe it makes such a filling pancake a bit fluffier (it does the same to the Japanese okonomiyaki). You can skip it of course.
The whole batter (apart from the meat) can be made ahead and wait one or two days in the fridge before the addition of meat and frying process.
The recipe calls for chopped kimchi (preferably from an old batch), but if you don’t have it, you can add some Korean medium-hot powdered chilli, an additional crushed garlic clove and an equal amount of a chopped cucumber, courgette or bok choy. It won’t really be a substitution, but it will lighten the pancake and add some spicy kick to it.
Even though this recipe calls for minced meat, I can easily imagine other proteins such as shrimp, mushrooms or cheese… and why not some vegetables ?
Preparation: about 40 minutes+overnight (beans soaking time)
Ingredients (serves two if eaten with several kinds of pickles and/or a green salad):
150g/about 5.3 oz mung beans
100g/3.5 oz Chinese cabbage kimchi (at least several weeks old) + 2 tablespoons kimchi juice
50 g-60g/about 1.7-2.1 oz minced meat (I have used pork and beef, but you can use any meat of your choice) mixed with 1/4 teaspoon salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
several tablespoons of spring onion leaves, chopped + some more to sprinkle on top before serving
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce (or less if you use normal soy sauce)
1 cm/0.4 in grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons glutinous rice flour or wheat flour
1 flat teaspoon baking powder
(sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds or Japanese garlic and chilli oil)
Soak the beans overnight.
Drain them and mix in a food processor with the kimchi juice, adding some water (about 50 – 70 ml) until you obtain a thick batter. (My batter was quite smooth, but it had still some bits of mung beans and I liked it a lot).
Combine with the remaining ingredients (apart from the sesame oil or taberu rayu, if using).
Heat some oil in a pan and spread a 1.5cm – 2 cm layer of batter (you might need to adapt the pan’s size, but don’t make the pancake too thin, 1.5 cm is a minimum; I have used the smallest pan I have).
Cover the pan and fry the pancake at low heat until it becomes golden brown at the bottom. It took me about ten minutes.
Flip the pancake over and increase the heat to medium.
Fry the second side for about 5 minutes (check with a fork if the batter is fully cooked, especially the meat).
Repeat the frying process with the remaining batter.
Serve cut up into pieces (if eating with chopsticks), with some green onion, sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds on top. I thought it was fantastic with some Japanese garlic and chilli oil (taberu rayu).
Sounds tasty.
Thank you.
I am intrigued, a bean based pancake sounds quite interesting indeed. I have seen mung beans, I did a recipe treat with them a few years ago. I don’t mind soaking beans either. We are embarking on a no carb diet next week, I need to get my belly straightened out and I have a suspicion that carbs are the culprit! I’m going to give this wonderful pancake a try! Thanks Sissi.
Thank you so much, Eva. Good luck with your diet!
Anything that contains beans is a favorite of mine! I love the idea of using them as basis for pancakes!
Thanks a lot, Katerina.
Well what a lovely gift! I’m sure you will continue to discover many wonders inside that cookbook. I must say it has never occurred to me to enjoy these ingredients in a pancake; kimchi and beans are part of my regular rotation but this is such a unique and extraordinary way to prepare them; I must try. Oh yes, some chili oil for serving (and, is it just me, I want to land a giant dollop of sour cream on top too!).
Thank you so much, Kelly. I would never think of a bean-based pancake either! I really liked this change from stews and curries I usually put beans into.
Oh wow, this is really an interesting recipe. I don’t know much about Korean food (except Kimchi), but I would love to try this! And I wish I could get such a cookbook as a present, friends keep insisting in giving me Dr. Ötker cookbooks… 🙂
Thank you, Adina. I have been cooking Korean quite a lot, but this was a huge surprise for me too! I hope you will get more exotic cookery books in the future. (Though I have heard Dr Oetker’s recipes always work 😉 ).
I love making cakes, patties, pancakes – anything like what I’m see here. This pancake looks so good…healthy and quite hearty and new flavors for me. I’ve never cooked mung beans before and not sure if I’ve even eaten them. Sounds like I need to give them a try. Nice recipe Sissi!
Thank you so much, MJ. I’m sure you would love this one. The mung bean taste is quite neutral, I’d say, so I’m sure they’d be great also in your delicious southern dishes! Here they are sold in organic shops, so I guess you can buy them in the US in same kind of shops or online.