Buckwheat Pancake (Memil Jeon 메밀전) is a special local food in the province where the 2018 Winter Olympics is being held. Ready in just 20 min!
Buckwheat pancake Korean style! You may have heard of Buckwheat crepes and Buckwheat breakfast pancakes but you probably have not heard about this Korean buckwheat pancake. It is a specialty in the area of Bongpyeong, Gangwon province, which is also where this years’ Winter Olympics is being held.
If you asked a Korean, they will probably associate Bongpyeong with Memil Jeon, Memil Guksu 메밀 국수 (Buckwheat noodles aka soba noodles) and Memil Muk 메밀묵 (Buckwheat Jelly). Because Bongpyeong produces the majority of Korean buckwheat. And I just found out that this area is only 30 minutes away from Pyeongchang 평창(where olympic village is). You can read my past post Buckwheat or Soba noodle salad to learn more about our visit to the area and their buckwheat festival that we got to see while we were there.
Before we go on, I need to share an almost fading memory I have about Memil Muk (Buckwheat Jelly).
My Memories of Buckwheat Jelly
I’m sure some of you may know the most common type of muk made is from acorns (Dotori Muk) and mungbeans (Cheongpo Muk or Nokdu Muk). Well, when I was a kid living in Seoul, sometimes in the darkness of night, you would hear a song that starts from a far away and then getting closer and closer —
“Me-mil~🎶 Muuuk ~🎶”
“Chapssal~🎶 Tteoo~ok ~🎶”
“Me-mil~🎶 Muuuuk ~🎶”
It was a song sung at the top of his lungs, by a street vendor trying to sell his remaining inventory so he could go home to his family. These street vendors walked around in the neighborhood at night, beckoning you to buy their yummy “mu~uuuk~” for a late evening snack. If you are old like me 😜, you may remember hearing these vendors singing in the dark, hanging around outside your door…hoping and wishing that someone would come out and buy their food. Oh boy… writing about those days are evoking a certain feeling of nostalgia as I am suddenly singing their song in my head. 😍 We mostly thought it was annoying at the time but now I kind of long for those days of less machines and less convenience… a memory is always more beautiful than reality, right?? HAHAHA…
A restaurant that’s in my Top 13 Best Seoul Restaurant list, Nurungji Baeksuk 누릉지 백숙 Restaurant in Donamdong 돈암동, serves Baeksuk and Nurungi (burnt rice porridge) and my favorite version of Memil Jeon. The most traditional Ganwondo version of memil jeon has napa cabbage and green onions in them and is served with a soy dipping sauce. That’s the recipe I’m sharing today. There’s another version that uses rinsed sour kimchi instead of fresh cabbage. And then there’s this restaurant’s version which I especially love and I have included that recipe here too! So you are getting two recipe versions for the price(?? yeah, maybe your price of having to endure my ads.. haha..) of one!! This lovely buckwheat pancake is served with some fresh buckwheat sprouts and dolnamul (sedum, stonecrop) on top with some sweet and sour gochujang drizzled on top. I just LOVE the combination.
These little green gems adds freshness and a wonderfully crunchy texture. The chogochujang brings a zing and a zang (my word for a spicy kick!) that just brightens up all the flavors as you enjoy the contrast of the nutty smooth taste of the pancake with the fresh little crisp salad.
Is Buckwheat Pancake (Memil Jeon) gluten free and vegan?
YES and YES!!! My recipe only uses buckwheat flour, water and salt for the batter mix which makes it naturally gluten free. And then only vegetables are added so it’s also vegan!
Can I substitute American buckwheat flour instead of Korean to make buckwheat pancake?
While testing this recipe, I found that the buckwheat flour sold at Korean store and buckwheat flour I bought from Amazon are different. Note, I just tested one organic brand. Korean buckwheat flour is much more fine ground and works perfectly for my recipe but the American buckwheat flour ended up being a little gummy when I used buckwheat flour only. So I ended up mixing in some flour to make it work. I am not sure if it’s because of the particular organic American made buckwheat flour or if that’s the case for all American buckwheat.
Korean Buckwheat Pancake (Memil Jeon) Recipe – GF, Vegan
Makes: 2 pancakes (10″) Cooking Time: 20 min Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Korean buckwheat flour (see my notes)
- 1/2 cup + 1 Tbs water (total 9 Tbs)
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- vegetable oil
- topping
- 2 napa cabbage leaves
- 5 green onions
- handful buckwheat sprouts or other sprouts (optional)
- sweet and sour gochujang sauce
- 1 Tbs Korean Gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
- 1 Tbs vinegar (rice wine or white) or 1 Tbs lemon juice
- 1 tsp water
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- sesame soy dipping sauce
- 1 Tbs soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- sesame seeds
- Mix buckwheat flour and water with a whisk until everything is well blended. Consistency should be a bit runny pancake batter.
Buckwheat Pancake batter - Rinse and clean napa cabbage leaves and green onions. Pat cabbage leaves dry. Keep the cabbage leaves whole.
- Cut 3 green onions into 3-4 inch lengths. Cut 2 green onions into slivers to make pachae. Pachae is optional.
- Heat a 10″ frying pan on medium heat with a drizzle of oil (about 1 Tbs).
- Once the oil is hot, pour 1/2 of the batter onto the frying pan. Spread the pancake to make a thin pancake. Much thinner than common Korean green onion pancake. A tiny bit thicker than a crepe. Pick up the pan and kind of swirl it around or use a ladle to spread it.
- Lower heat to med low, quickly add cabbage leaf, then the green onion pieces.
Buckwheat Pancake cabbage green onions - Let it all cook for 2 min or so until most of the batter looks cooked through.
- Flip pancake over. Add another swirl of oil around the pancake.
- Press the pancake with a spatula so the pancake evenly cooks on the under side. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until both sides are nicely brown.
- And this is how it looks!
- Repeat to make another pancake.
- While the pancakes are cooking, make 2 sauces above and serve them with your pancakes. See which one tastes better to you!
- Enjoy!!
Now, here’s one that’s similar to the Nurungi Baeksuk restaurant’s version. Instead of adding cabbage to the pan, I simply added some green onions into the batter itself. This is lot simpler to do :).
And then because I had no buckwheat sprouts, I thought I would simulate the addition of fresh greens by making some pachae (green onion slivers) and then drizzling some chogochujang sauce on it. It was not the same but pretty and delicious!!
Buckwheat Pancakes (Korean Memil Jeon) - Vegan
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
- 9 Tbsp water
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- vegetable oil
topping
- 2 napa cabbage leaves
- 5 green onions
- handful buckwheat sprouts (optional)
sweet and sour gochujang sauce (more for drizzling)
- 1 Tbsp Korean Gochujang (Korean red pepper paste)
- 1 Tbsp vinegar (rice wine or white or 1 Tbsp lemon juice)
- 1 tsp water
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
sesame soy dipping sauce
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- sesame seeds
Instructions
- Mix buckwheat flour, flour and water with a whisk until everything is well blended. Consistency should be a bit runny.
- Rinse napa cabbage leaves and green onions in water. Pat cabbage leaves dry. Keep the cabbage leaves whole.
- Cut green onions into 3-4 inch lengths but leave two or more to cut into slivers to make pachae if you want.
- Heat a 10" frying pan on medium heat with a drizzle of oil (about 1 Tbs).
- Once the oil is hot, pour batter onto the frying pan. Spread the pancake to make a very thin pancake. Pick up the pan and kind of swirl it around or use a ladle to spread it.
- Lower heat to low, quickly add cabbage, then green onion pieces.
- Let it all cook for 2 min or so until most of the batter looks cooked through.
- Turn it over. Add another swirl of oil around the pancake.
- Press the pancake with a spatula so the pancake evenly cooks on the under side. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until both sides are nicely brown.
- Repeat to make more pancakes.
- While the pancakes are cooking, make 2 sauces above and serve them with your pancakes. See which one tastes better to you!
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Notes
- Basically I have shown 2 different ways to make Korean buckwheat pancakes.
- The most traditional – buckwheat batter + cabbage + green onions, served with sesame oil soy dipping sauce.
- The more flavorful – buckwheat batter + green onions, garnished with fresh green onion slivers, drizzled with sweet and sour gochujang (chogochujang) sauce.
- American vs Korean Buckwheat flour
- I discussed above that one Americna buckwheat flour I tested is coarser and more gummy tasting. Korean buckwheat pancake should NOT be gummy tasting at all. If this is the case, try mixing buckwheat and regular flour 2 to 1. So 1/2 cup american buckwheat + 1/4 cup flour. It comes out pretty good but I have to say that it’s just not as perfect tasting as the Korean buckwheat flour.
- Variation
- Instead of fresh cabbage, rinse old sour kimchi and add that to your pancake!
Well, I hope you get to enjoy the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics with these Korean gluten-free buckwheat pancakes!!
XOXO ❤️
JinJoo
I’ve grown up eating (and LOVING) all Korean pancakes but I’ve never even heard of buckwheat pancakes until this post!!
Thanks so much for introducing this… I wonder what else besides buckwheat noodles I can make with this? Some kind of rice cake or would it be pliable enough to make a mandoo wrapper with? I’d hate to buy a whole bag and not know what to do with the rest.
Yes, it’s not a very common kind of pancake but certainly popular in some regions. You can certainly try making mandu wrapper with it, you can make sujebi, also just use it mixed with flour in many recipes to increase fiber and protein content. You can also do buckwheat pancakes and crepes – even tho it’s not Korean.. 😉