Cheesy Tofu and Kimchi Pancake
Dubu Kimchijeon
I have loved to have pancakes for breakfast, they are easy to prepare. Among all types of pancakes, I particularly prefer Korean savoury pancakes, such as kimchi pancake, chive pancake, green onion pancake, seafood pancake. They are not choosy on ingredients. I usually look for ingredients in my fridge, some frozen vegetable, ham, egg, give them some chopping then mix with flour. And there are no complicated cooking technique and precise measurement needed. Generally speaking there are no rules in making such savoury pancakes.
Here’s one I make recently, tofu and kimchi pancake. Being a bit lazy to shop for breakfast on the previous Saturday morning, I look for ideas from my fridge. There are always a jar of kimchi in my fridge for pork belly stew or kimchi soup, tofu also. They can be kept in fridge for quite a long time. While preparing the batter, I added a bit more flour than usual kimchi pancake because tofu is moist and would be easily break apart if there is not enough flour to glue the ingredients together.
Ingredients – for 2 serving
- Firm tofu, 1 piece, about 250g, better use firm tofu, it’s less moist
- Ham, 1/2 cup, for vegetarian, skip this or replace dried shiitake mushroom
- Kimchi, 1/2 cup
- Sweetcorn, 1/2 cup
- Shredded cheese, 1/2 cup, any type
- Green onion, 1 cup
- Egg, 1
- All purpose flour, 1 cup
- Sugar, 1tsp
How to do –
1. Kimchi, green onion, ham, roughly chopped; dry the tofu with kitchen towel or wrap the tofu with kitchen cloth, squeeze some liquid out; mash the tofu roughly with a folk;
2. Except green onion, put all ingredient in. They are salty enough so no need to season with salt, a teaspoon of sugar would be good enough; mix flour in. For how much flour needed it depends on how moist the ingredients are. I mixed in one cup to make the batter barely runny; mix in the green onion at last;
3. Now let’s pan-fry the pancake. In order to make the pancake crispier, more oil is suggested. Heat 2tbsp of olive oil in hot pan, put one big spoon of batter in, shape and flat with specula. If you are not good at flipping pancake, don’t make them too big, palm size or even smaller should be nice. In medium heat, pan-fry one side till golden, then flip to pan-fry the other side till golden also; then turn up to high heat, pan-fry both sides for a few more seconds till crispy. In this way, the pancake would be cooked thoroughly, crispy on the edges and not very greasy;
4. Sprinkle a pinch of toasted sesame seeds on top when serving. Better serve hot, they are soft inside and crispy on the edges when serving hot right away from the pan. I sometimes even put a portable hob on dinningtable, pan-fry and eat at the same time.
芝士豆腐泡菜饼（2人份）
用料 –
- 硬豆腐 1块，约250克
- 火腿 半量杯，吃素的朋友用香菇代替
- 泡菜 半量杯
- 玉米粒 半量杯
- 芝士粒 半量杯
- 葱 3根
- 鸡蛋 1个
- 面粉 1量杯
- 糖 1茶匙
做法 –
- 泡菜切小块，火腿切粒，葱切段。材料的分量不需要一丝不苟，基本上是爱吃什么放什么。芝士选自己喜欢的就可以；豆腐用厨房纸印干表面水分，或者用料理用棉布包起来挤一下水，放搅拌碗里，压碎，不需要压得太细；
- 除了葱段以外，把所有材料都放入搅拌碗里，打一个鸡蛋，一茶匙糖调味，泡菜、火腿和芝士都有咸味，我就没有再加盐了；放入约一量杯面粉，面粉分次加入。视乎材料水分的多少来决定放多少面粉。比起其他类型的韩式煎饼，加了豆腐的煎饼需要更多面粉去定型，搅拌好的面糊是几乎不流动的粘稠状态。搅拌均匀后加入葱段稍微搅拌进去就好了；
- 煎饼的大小随个人喜好，如果怕太大不好翻面的话，煎成巴掌大会比较好操作。热锅放油，油可以稍微放多点，油热放一汤勺面糊，用硅胶铲调整形状，稍微压平压薄，用中火煎；中火煎至至一面金黄后翻另一面也煎至金黄。然后转大火，两面快速各煎约10秒把表面煎脆，把油逼出来。就是中火把里面煎熟，大火把表面煎脆这样的原理；
- 表面撒点炒芝麻，趁热吃是外脆内软的。最好是一边煎一边吃。
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