Simple potato pancake

Today I’m going to show you an easy way to make a delicious potato pancake, called gamjajeon (감자전) in Korean. I posted a recipe and video showing how to make traditional gamjajeon years ago, but this version uses a few shortcuts and is much simpler. In the traditional way, we grate the potatoes, then drain and capture the starch to use in the pancake mixture to make it thick. In this simpler version, we add potato starch powder directly, and we use the whole potato.

When you feel like a snack, you can whip this up in minutes. The inside is chewy and soft, and the outside is a little crispy and crunchy like a french fry. The grated onion totally makes it: onion and potato is a good combination! If your children come home from school hungry, this is a perfect snack before dinner. If you have a potato, just grate and make and serve with a glass of milk!

It’s also much better with the sauce, which is optional, but I highly recommend it.

This is the last in my series of videos filmed in Montauk, after my fried flatfish recipe and my scallops doenjang-jjigae recipe. I was planning on filming this one on the beach, but it was too windy down there, so I filmed it on the deck at sunset. I really enjoyed my time in Montauk, some day I’ll go again.

Enjoy the recipe! Everybody can cook this! If you have a potato at home, time to make a pancake!

Ingredients

(2 servings)

• 1 large potato (8 ounces), peeled and grated
• ¼ cup grated onion
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ cup potato starch
• ¼ cup grape seed oil (or vegetable oil)

For dipping sauce

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice (or vinegar)
• 1 green onion, chopped
• ¼ cup thinly sliced onion
• 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
• ½ teaspoon sugar

Directions

1. To make the dipping sauce, combine soy sauce, lime juice, green onion, onion, jalapeno pepper, and sugar in a small bowl and mix it together until the sugar is melted. Set aside.
2. Put the grated potato and onion in a bowl. Add salt, potato starch and mix it together.
3. Heat up a 9 to 12 inch nonstick pan over medium-high heat.
4. Add 2 tablespoons grape seed oil and swirl the pan around to coat it evenly. Add the potato mixture and spread it thinly on the pan.
5. Cook a few minutes until the bottom of the pancake turns crispy and a light golden brown.
6. Turn it over with a spatula or flip it. Add the rest of the grape seed oil to the edge of the pancake. Shake the pan and tilt it so that oil spreads underneath the pancake. Let it cook until the bottom of the pancake turns golden brown.
7. Keep turning it over and cooking until both sides are crispy and light golden brown, usually about 8 to 10 minutes.
8. Transfer it to a plate and serve hot with the sauce.