Skewered pancakes with vegetables and beef Pasanjeok 파산적

Pasanjeok is one of the dishes that Koreans make usually on festival days. Pan-fried skewered pancake with green onion, carrot, and beef!  It already sounds colorful, nutritious, and delicious, doesn’t it?

Pasanjeok remains a happy memory of my childhood. My mother, a school teacher, used to teach and live on an island where our family lived. My father was a businessman in a city on the mainland. When my father sometime came to see us, we had been in festive mood for days before he came. He usually came with some presents for us.

My mother made pasanjeok only when he visited us. I remember how happy she was when she prepared my father’s favorite food. When I saw my mother placing these colorful green onion, carrot, and beef on skewers and cooking, I felt very happy. The happiness came from not only the expectation of eating delicious food, but also I could see my father soon!  So when the word pasanjeok comes up, I can’t help thinking about my father. Pasanjeok and my father are overlapped in my imagination. : )

I added asparagus to the ingredients in the recipe because I found it gives a crunchy texture so that all these colorful  ingredients are well incorporated. Each ingredient is slightly dipped in a light flour batter and cooked. You will enjoy 4-5 different textures and flavors at the same time when you eat it.

As I mentioned in the video, if you use only beef, you can say, “soegogi sanjeok.” If you use mushrooms, you can call it beoseot sanjeok. (beosoeot is mushrooms in Korean)

Enjoy the recipe!

Ingredients

Beef (sirloin steak), soy sauce, honey, garlic, toasted sesame oil, ground black pepper, green onions, carrots, asparagus, kosher salt, flour, and vegetable oil.

Directions

1. Cut about 200 grams (7-8 oz) of sirloin steak into  strips about 5½ inches long (13 cm), ½ inch wide (1.25 cm), and ½ inch thick (1.25 cm)
2. Tenderize by pounding the beef strips against the grain with the back of the blade of your kitchen knife..
3. Put the beef into a bowl and add 1 clove of minced garlic, 1 ts honey, ½ tbs soy sauce, 1ts toasted sesame oil, and ¼ ts ground black pepper. Mix it with a spoon well and refrigerate it.

Prepare your vegetables:

1. Cut 1 large carrot into several strips 4½ inches long, ½ inch wide, and ½ inch thick.
2. Cut 6-7 stalks of asparagus (top leafy part) into 4½ inch long pieces.
3. Cut  6-7 stalks of green onions  into 4½ inch long pieces.
4. Boil 4 cups of water in a pot.
5. Add 1 ts kosher salt to the boiling water and blanch carrot strips, asparagus, and white part of green onions for 1 minute with the lid closed.
   *tip: don’t blanch the green part of the green onions!
6. 1 minute later, strain the vegetables, rinse in cold water, and drain.
   
7. Put green onions, carrot, asparagus, beef strips on the skewers.
   
8. Make batter by mixing ½ cup flour, ½ cup water, and ½ ts kosher salt in a bowl.
9. Drizzle some vegetable oil on a heated non-stick pan. Dip each skewer into the batter and put it on the pan to cook.
   *tip: Control the heat so as not to burn the skewers
   
10. About 1 minute later, turn over the skewers when the bottom part is light golden brown and cook for another minute. Cooking time should only be a few minutes because all hard ingredients are pre-cooked. When the beef strips are cooked, the pancake is done.
    

    soegogi sanjeok (skewered beef pancake)

11. Make dipping sauce by mixing 1 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs vinegar, and ½ tbs chopped green onions.
    

Serve it as appetizers or a side dish.