Korean Recipe - Mung Bean Pancake

One of my fondest memories in Korea is the Gwangjang Market - eating street food, mung bean pancakes (빈대꺽 - bindae-tteok). While mine will never quite compare to sitting in the restaurant, makgeolli in hand, chopsticks in the other, I gave it my best go. We measure with our heart here! But for the sake of recreatability, I've provided measurements. Below is my recipe.

Ingredients (makes roughly 5 pancakes):

1 cup mung beans (split)

1/4 cup sweet rice

3/4 cup water

1 Tbsp table salt

1 Tbsp potato starch

Cooking oil (your preference)

Optional:

Hefty handful of mung bean sprouts (see picture)

1/4 cup green onion (mostly whites)

1/4 cup kimchi (rinsed and chopped)

1/4 cup pork (minced or cubed)

Dipping Sauce:

1/4 cup soy sauce

A couple dashes of sesame oil

Sesame seeds to your liking

Instructions:

1. Put 1 cup mung beans and 1/4 cup sweet rice in a pot. Stir and rinse 3 times then fill well over the beans/rice and let sit for 6 to 8 hours.

2. Drain water from the pot.

3. Put mung beans and sweet rice in a blender. Add 3/4 cup water. Pureé (roughly 2 minutes).

4. Optional: transfer mixture to a bigger bowl to add in mix-ins. We're done blending.

5. Add the 1 Tbsp table salt and 1 Tbsp potato starch.

6. Rinse the mung bean sprouts. I prefer cutting mine into halves or thirds (roughly) before adding it to the mix.

7. Cut your green onion into thin slices. We're going to use just the whites and some of the white green parts. If you'd like the use the whole thing, you could, too. Add it to the mix.

8. Rinse kimchi to your liking. If you want more of the kimchi flavor, don't rinse it as much or at all. Squeeze the kimchi when you're done rinsing it, cut it into smaller pieces, and add to the mix.

9. Pre-cook your pork. Add the cooked, small pieces of pork to the mix.

10. Take a non-stick pan and just barely cover the base with your choice of oil. I used canola oil. Turn on the stove to a medium-high heat and wait a minute.

11. Pour your mixture onto it until it forms about a 5 inch diameter circle.

12. Let it cook until you see a nice golden browning of the edges, then flip (being careful not to splash hot oil). Cook for roughly the same amount of time then remove from the pan. Add more oil as necessary for the next.

13. Enjoy!