Trader Joe’s Korean Pajeon Scallion Pancake. This is another wildly popular item at Trader Joe’s. It’s been in the frozen section for a couple of years but one of those items I just cruised by saying to myself “some day you will try this” and that day was yesterday! If any of you have been following along for the past few years, I have a real soft spot for Asian food. This started a long time ago when my father was stationed at the embassy in Bangkok and as a little kid, I ate mostly Thai food and some Chinese. Later in life, my parents were stationed in Korea at the embassy and my mother loved to cook Korean food. I was an adult at the time and I always wished I had visited her…
Anyway, fast forward to the present day, there are so many options for Asian food these days and Korean food restaurants are very popular. I love some Bibimbap and worked next to a Korean restaurant here in town for a couple of years and at just about everything I could there. For those that don’t know, Pajeon is a Korean staple. It’s essentially a type of savory pancake that incorporates a lot of scallions or green onions into the batter. Pajeon literally translates into green onion pancake. They are eaten with a wide variety of ingredients like seafood, chicken, pork or whatever you want to throw in them. They are like fried rice, just whatever you got. Served with gochujang or soy sauce for dipping. Can be the main part of a meal or a warm up to a bigger meal.
This bag from Trader Joe’s has four pancakes in them. They are frozen it’s best to thaw them out on the counter for a while before you cook them. I did it from frozen and I’m not sure I would do that again. The directions say to put them in a pan and fry them with a little bit of oil, but that made them really oily. The ones I’ve had at restaurants aren’t nearly as oily. I would probably just spray with Trader Joe’s Canola Oil in a can or nothing at all since there is oil already in them. Make sure the pan is smoking hot and fry them one side at a time until each side is nicely browned.
I let them cool on a plate and then cut them up bit and made up some dipping sauce from soy sauce. Other than the oiliness from frying them, they had a decent texture. They were not as good as a good Korean restaurant but will do in a pinch if you are really craving them. These are made in Korea so things are pretty authentic, but you know freezing something like this makes it lose something in translation. If I were to rate these, I would give them 6 Bells, just OK probably not buy them again…
I microwave one for about a minute or let it thaw at room temperature otherwise it takes too long to cook on stove top.
I use medium heat, not smoking hot, let it crisp up a bit
I use NO oil and also dab it with a paper towel to remove oil before eating it
I usually fry an egg and plop the egg on top
Thanks for the tips! I probably need to buy it again and experiment.
I too had been passing these by and finally brought them home. I cooked from frozen in my toaster oven, using a pan lined with just parchment paper (foil would also work) and no added oil. I increased both the temp (425) and cooking time (8 min/side) but that could just be my oven’s necessary adjustment. They came out perfect! Crispy, not at all oily or greasy. I had mine with
TJ’s vegetarian fried rice. Delish! I was thinking I might try with a mushroom brown gravy, almost like an egg fu yung. I thought these were excellent but do not have a basis for comparison so can’t challenge your review other than to suggest you try a different cooking method and see if you get a better result.