I’m going to introduce these 2 kinds of Korean style squash pancakes to you today: zucchini pancake and butternut squash pancake.
Unlike zucchini, butternut squash is an unusual ingredient in Korean cuisine. When I saw butternut squash for the first time in my life in USA, I asked my friend Jenny to give me her butternut squash recipe.
She told me that she usually cooked it in the microwave or in the oven with some brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon on top. I baked my butternut squash as she told me to, and it was very delicious! I found the texture, sweetness, and even the orange color to be almost the same as the squash that I used to make my hobakjuk in Korea!
Ever since then, buying some good quality of butternut squash in the fall is a regular seasonal activity for me. I stack them in the corner of my kitchen or living room. They are not only edible but also decorative!
My favorite squashes are: acorn squash, goblin squash, zucchini, and butternut squash.
Make your doenjangjjigae with acorn squash! It’s unbelievably delicious. : ) And bake a goblin squash in the oven with some honey, butter, and cinnamon. I love it!
Ok let’s start cooking!
Butternut squash pancake
Yield:
2 medium sized pancakes.
Ingredients
Butternut squash, kosher salt, flour, vegetable oil.
This is very unique style of pancake because you don’t use water!
Directions
- Cut a butternut squash in half and remove the seeds with a spoon.
- Peel the skin with a potato peeler.
- Julienne the butternut squash.
- Place 2 cups of butternut squash strips into a bowl.
- Mix it with ¼ ts kosher salt by hand, and set it aside.
- In abut 20 minutes the butternut strips will be a little wet due to the process of osmosis.
- Add 3-4 tbs flour and mix it slightly by hand or with a spoon.
- Heat up a pan with 1 tbs olive oil.
- Spoon half the butternut squash mixture on to the hot pan
- Spread the batter thinly, smooth it out with your spoon, and cook for a few minutes over medium heat.
- When the bottom of the pancake is lightly golden brown, flip it over.
- Keep pressing the pancake gently and add more vegetable oil to make it crispier.
- Serve it hot.
Zucchini pancake
Yield:
1 large pancake, for sharing.
Ingredients
Zucchini, kosher salt, water, flour, toasted sesame oil, vegetable oil.
I learned this recipe from my friend Heykyung’s mom, when I was in high school. I went to her house one day and her mother made this pancake for us. The taste was much better than any zucchini pancake that I had ever eaten. I found out the trick was just a little bit of toasted sesame oil, in the right spot, at the right time! Actually her recipe used more flour and water, and a little bit of sugar in the batter. I modified her recipe to my taste by cutting down the flour and cutting out the sugar.
Directions
- Julienne a small zucchini. Put 1½ cups of zucchini strips into a bowl.
- Add ½ cup flour, ½ ts kosher salt, ½ cup water and mix it well with a spoon.
- On a heated pan, place about 2 tbs vegetable oil and put the batter on to the pan.
- Spread the batter evenly and thinly to make a large circular pancake.
- About 1 minute later, when the bottom part sets firm, add 1 tbs toasted sesame oil on the pan, along the edge of the pancake.
- Tilt and shake the pan so that sesame oil spreads underneath the pancake.
- Cook another minute until the bottom turns light golden brown and crispy.
*tip: keep pressing it down with a spoon or spatula while cooking - Turn over the pancake with a spatula, or flip it if you can.
- Add more vegetable oil if you want to make it more crispy. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Transfer the pancake to a large serving plate and serve with dipping sauce.
Dipping sauce:
- In a small glass bowl add 2 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs vinegar, 1 tbs chopped onion, 1 clove of minced garlic, and 1 sliced green chili pepper.
- Mix it up with a spoon.
Buy this recipe's ingredients online
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I made the zucchini pancake tonight and it was so delicious! One of my favorite foods is deep fried zucchini and this tastes so much like it and is so much healthier! It’s extra tasty with the dipping sauce! Thank you, Maangchi!
Thank you for your update! Hobakjeon is very delicious and easy to make!
Dear Maangchi,
I am interested to learn about Korean vegetarian croquette. Do you have the recipe?
Yes, it’s included in the list of my upcoming recipes. Thanks! https://www.maangchi.com/talk/topic/korean-croquette
i made this today it was amazing although i didn’t use the dipping sauce too much for me, but it was good i ate it all :0
awesome!
Here’s a picture of the zucchini pancake I made tonight! :-)
Fantastic! Let’s twit about your delicious hobakjeon photo! : )
It was delcious and the dipping sauce went so well with it. :-)
Oops, I mean ‘delicious’! :-)
Hi Maangchi!
I haven’t been try the butternut squash pancake but I know that will be a must to try too!
I already try the zucchini pancake 2-3 times a week , I love it!
I post the recipe today on my blog :
http://www.foodbuzz.com/recipes/4061705-zucchini-pancake-
Tq for ur lovely & amazing recipe – all of them! ;)
*Loves*
Elies
Wow, yours looks very yummy! As you said on your blog, this pancake is very easy to make! I love your blog!
TQ!
Well… I love ur blog even more… haha ha! ;)
maangchi eonni annyeong haseyo…thank u so much for sharing your recipes,,i tried zucchini pancakes and it turned out great! my husband is korean and he loved it so much….kamsahamnida eonni…
Good news! Your delicious food will make all your family happy!
Maangchi i tried this twice but they didn’t turn out like yours mine is mushy and i couldn’t flip it coz it stick to the bottom it didn’t stick together it end up scramble ,why is that ?i followed the recipe. i used the zucchini.:-(.
No problem! Use a non-stick pan which is very important to make crunchy hobakjeon . And add more vegetable oil to the heated pan before placing the batter.
One suggestion is to make sure your pan is not too hot. A lot of people use high heat to get the pan hot, but usually it’s too hot. Only medium heat is necessary. If the oil is running around like fast water, probably too hot. :)
And maangchi? This is the next dish I’m going to make for my brothers. They will go crazy over it, I know it! xD
“They will go crazy over it, I know it! ” aww! It sounds like fun!”
So maangchi, i made it for my brothers. They liked it but they didn’t LOVE it. Something did go wrong. First, I think when the zucchini was cooking in the pan, I think it released a lot of its own liquid and made the pancake kind of soggy. Also for the butternut squash, I don’t think it was fully ripened. How do I know that the butternut squash is ripe? (still delicious, but could be better. I want to try again!)
Hi, wonderful pancake recipes I’m going to make very soon! Maangchi, thank you for being so generous with your books.
Zucchini pancake was delicious and great. I made it with yangnyeom tongdak for a really fun meal!
http://ikkin-bot.blogspot.com/2011/06/cooking-korean-yangnyeom-tongdak.html
I love it~ thank y0u ~ you are an awesome cook~ I love cooking Korean food even more than before~ love ya~
love ya, too!
got some butternut pumpkin, having this for lunch tomorrow! Yum!!! Thankyou Maangchi !
I hope your butternut squash pancake turned out great!
Maangchi, thank you so much for sharing your recipes & cooking know how! Can you tell me what kind of 호박 you used in Korea? I live in South Korea & I can’t get butternut squash. Also, can I use 부침가루 instead of flour?
I’ve answered my own questions by just giving the 부침가루 & 단호박 (small green squash with bright orange flesh) a try. The resulting pancakes were delicious. :)
You answered your question! Great! ^^
Hi Maangchi, I’ve just made the zucchini/courgette pancake a second time, I like it even better than battered courgette slices/hobakjeon. My husband the chef can flip it. It’s nice to have a few good pancake side dishes to have a variety of banchan. When winter squash comes in season we’ll try the first pancake. Thanks for your recipes!
“My husband the chef can flip it” awesome!
:( Maangchi help .. every time i try to make these the pancakes turn out as mush! they brown on both sides but still end up mushy. I make them thin but still… whats wrong with it? Aren’t yours crispy?
No problem! : ) Add more flour to the batter then.
Hey Maangchi, I love this recipe, it’s so easy to make. But in the Zuchinni recipe, are you actually using zuchinni? Or do you mean cucumber?
zucchini! that’s what I used. : ) I never use cucumber to make a pancake.
Really easy to make! Great quick snack… I loved it. I didn’t have any problems this time! Next time I’m going to use squash instead of zucchini. :)
Next time I’ll use a better camera… my phone just doesn’t take great pics =/
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/7197/hobakjeon.jpg
wow, it looks very crispy! delicious! Email me the photos of korean dishes that you make at [email protected]
oops! ok i’ll email them from now on
Hi Maangchi,
Merry Christmas! (Early Greetings from Singapore)
I plan to make Kimchi pancake this Christmas and would like to know whether the way to make it is the same as what you have taught?
Please kindly advice.
Love all your receipes and have been cooking them for my hubby who is a Korean.
Cheers,
Maangchi, you have expanded my husband’s ability to cook from just regular pancakes to zucchini pancakes! He really loves this dish, and I love it too because it only needs 3 ingredients. So delicious, just like childhood, *sigh*
I’m so happy to hear that you and your husband cook together! : )
Thank you so much for making this website! I am married to a Korean man and we have a little boy. Its so much easier to make Korean food than trying to translate from a Korean cookbook. But I would like to ask is there anything I can do to get my little boy to eat more food? I would like to make Korean food for him but he doesnt eat anything and I am alittle worried. I know Korean mothers worry so much about their children eating well and I would like my son to have a taste for Korean food. Is there any recipes that you know of that Korean children love? Please let me know!
Please copy and paste your question here so that you could get some good advice from my other readers. https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/general-discussion
Hi Maangchi
Thx for your recipe again. the pumkin pancakes turned out very tasty. the recipe is easy to follow. my bloggers made positive comments.
http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/London-samwei/article?mid=18083
wow, you must be a great cook! Your squash pancake looks more delicious than mine!
I wish I can flip the pancakes like you…I tried to do it and next thing I know, it was on the floor. :[ But I used the spatula to flip for the rest and it was very tasty. ^_^
: ) actually flipping is very easy. All you can do is to practice more. Thank you!
Hi Maangchi! I love youre recipes! Do you think I can use this with leftover pumpkin? I hate to see my pumpkin go to waste when I carve it.
If it’s edible, why not?
Oh my goodness, the butternut squash pancakes are so easy to make and incredibly delicious! I love the crispy texture and the nutty sweetness reminds me of roast sweet potatos. Thank you so much for teaching us this recipe. Your video was very helpful for me to see how you cut the squash into matchsticks so quickly.
You looked adorable in your costume :) Happy Halloween!
Wow, it sounds like you made delicious squash pancake! Wonderful!
I made the zucchini pancake and it was delicious, love it. Do you think making a sweet potatoe one will turn out good? And if I should sprinkle salt on it as with the butternut squash. Maangchi, thanks so much for all the wonderful recipes.
yes, I think so. If you use sweet potato, let me know how it turns out.
I tried it without reading the comments. The sweet potato one was YUMMY, But then again I am a sweet tater fan :)
Your Halloween costume is very cute! Where did you learn to chop veggies like that? Do you have any pointers for me? I would love to be able to chop veggies like you!!!
Anyways… lol I will be trying this recipe soon! Thank you!
Thank you! Chopping skill? Practice chop chop chop! : )
I’ve noticed that the knife hand, you hold the blade rather than the handle of the knife. My mom also does this. Don’t know if holding the blade gives you more steady control as you chop. but something i just noticed. but i agree, it’s all practice.
Pixie, holding the blade rather that the handle is a technique all trained chefs use. If you watch, say ‘Top Chef’ or ‘The Food Network’ you’ll notice all the chefs holding the knives in that way, except for Emeril…?? Anyhow, it gives you more control.
Mmmmm I LOVE hobakjeon. Koreans make everything into wonderful pancakes. When I was in Korea, I would visit a local temple where I was friends with the Sunim. And the woman there would make us really delicious buchujeon and kkaennipjeon. Ohhh I miss those…
yeah, basically you can make pancakes with so many different kinds of ingredients. “sunim” is monk.
Can you add an egg in the batter?
yes, you can, but I don’t use egg in this recipe. If you use egg, you will have to use less water.
These are great recipes to get my kids to eat vegetables! I did a “pancake trio” for breakfast this morning (added a chive/seafood pa-jeon-style to your two) and my normally carnivorous kids voted the zucchini one in first!
pancake trio! It sounds like a good name of dish! lol carnivorous kids, cute!
Hi Maangchi!
AH! I’m going to make it a goal in life to be able to flip pancakes like you!! That was sooo cool!! 8D I’m definitely going to make zuchinni pancakes this weekend!
Oh, and I wanted to ask, can I use kabocha squash (the round green squash) instead of butternut squash? Or is that the same as goblin squash? LOL XD
kabocha squash? : ) That could be my next project about squash dish. I don’t know what it looks like.
it looks like this! http://zionmarket.com/freeshop/img/item/1391_s.jpg
I think it is a squash of the Japanese variety =D In the dishes that I’ve tried it in, it has a sweet potato flavor! =DD Actually, when I saw your hobakjuk recipe, this was the squash that I was going to cook it with ><!
you are so great. You are my new favorite web personality plus savior to my korean food heartaches!!!
Thanks a lot!
lol, the flipping was pretty fantastic :P
I always love your recipes- Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween! Make this pancake on Halloween day and think about me. ; )
How hot should the pan be for the zucchini pancake? I think this will be the first recipe i’ll try (since it requires very little ingredients) Cant wait! =)
difficult question. : )
just not hot enough to burn it..
Does Butternut squash only in the market during fall?
If I can only get it in the fall, how long can keep it?
please copy and paste your question here. I would like to learn about it, too. https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/general-discussion
That looks so good! I have two butternut squash sitting in my kitchen, I will have to try this very soon!
Let me know how it turns out. One of my readers already made it and post the photo here. I just posted the recipe about 3 hours ago! http://www.flickr.com/photos/43768377@N05/4030169055/in/pool-maangchi
I never seen a lady-bug flip a pancake in slow motion :)
That blond wig really did the trick :p
Great recipies!
lol, thank you!