This week’s recipe was an attempt to redeem the failed kimchi recipe, from a book I bought at Half Price Books clearance. (edit: The title is “New Asian Cooking” from Confident Cooking series.) It covered most countries of Asia except China and India, and the Vietnamese recipes were authentic to what I know. This split pea pancake recipe was on the opposite page of the kimchi so I thought I’d just try it since I had a bag of split peas that I never found a good recipe for. Previous recipes I tried in this book from other nations had good results, so I’m baffled why both the kimchi and vegetable pancakes failed, maybe Korea was not their best work. The taste was not too bad, but the texture and appearance did not match either the book photos or what I’ve seen on the internet, the insides were still raw, and I did not enjoy as I enjoyed the other recipes.
- spices – garlic, ginger, soy sauce
- split peas, short grain rice
- veggies – carrots, green onion, bell pepper
- flour, oil, egg
Steps Summary – medium difficulty, for the experienced home cook who can flip pancakes and has a food processor
Rinse then boil split peas and rice until soft, puree with flour, egg, and some water into a batter. Mix the sliced veggies into the batter. Heat oil in a pan and drop batter into small pancakes and cook for 3 to 5 minutes each side, then cover and steam for 30 seconds.
Taste Summary – slight ginger heat, taste of peas and vegetables
- Taste is acceptable and I rather like the ginger and garlic flavor and the sweetness of fresh vegetables. Obviously these are a side dish and are recommended to be eaten with a sweet chili sauce, I used the brand we use for eggrolls.
- Texture is where this recipe fails. As usual the first batch of pancakes are awful and undercooked and fell apart, I expected no less, but when I adjusted cooking times for the next batch by adding a minute and thirty seconds, they were still raw on the inside despite being dark brown on the outside. If I turned the heat any higher or cooked any longer, the pancakes would scorch. I’m not really sure how to fix this issue, I thought I did everything right. Were the aged peas too dry and the rice too waterlogged? Did I add in too many vegetables or not julienne them thin enough? If anyone knows what might have gone wrong, comment please!
Convenience Summary – As you can guess, not very convenient or fast. It took a long time to boil the peas, instead of 25 minutes I boiled them for more than 45 minutes and I thought the peas were a little dry on the inside still. Depending on how large your pan is, you can cook two or three pancakes at a time, and the entire batch makes 15 pancakes, so it would take 50 minutes to cook the entire batch unless you have 2 pans going. I consider myself a pretty okay cook, but couldn’t figure out the right temperature/cook time to get fully cooked pancakes with the half batch I made, don’t know if I ever will. I don’t think they would reheat too well, but they could probably last a few meals for me alongside a main course. (Currently I’m eating Burmese sour leaf shrimp with rice from a local Burmese restaurant.) Update: I did reheat them and they were a little less floppy and raw but still not great to me.
Would I make this again? Uhh…. no, lol. Even plain pancakes or crepes are very time consuming and require dexterity to flip without breaking them apart, so I don’t make them despite liking pancakes and crepes. But I saw some videos on Korean pancakes and they looked good, so I’m glad I tried this recipe, even if the book didn’t redeem itself exactly. I might check back in if I achieve success with another new recipe, but I will move onto another cookbook for now.