Last week I made the Kimchi or Sauerkraut Buchimgae (Korean-Style Pancakes) recipe from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. These are savory pan-fried pancakes.

The ingredients are nothing unusual this far in the cookbook. Kimchi and gochugaru are the two that might be hardest to find Western groceries, but I know even our Publix has kimchi. Kenji even offers sauerkraut as a substitute, noting that he’s found kimchi and sauerkraut pretty much interchangeable in general.

The batter is made of thinly sliced kimchi, onions, and scallions, kimchi juice, water, flour, sugar, gochugaru, and cornstarch or potato starch. I used potato starch because I had some sitting in the panty for a long time (from making this agedashi tofu recipe). That is all stirred together just until there’s no more dry flour.

A bit of oil is heated in the wok and then half the batter goes in and spread out into a thin pancake. It cooks without moving for about two minutes and then continues to cook while swirling ntil the bottom is well browned. The pancake is flipped and cooked on the second side until well browned, too.

The finished pancakes are sliced into wedges and served with the Pancake Dipping Sauce.

I served these pancakes as a side for a meal. Megan was sick when I made these so didn’t eat dinner with us, and the kids didn’t try them. I thought they were good. I think they would make good “hanging with friends” snacks and can see how they would go well with a beer.

I am cooking my way through J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s The Wok cookbook. Read more about it.