Chefs' Recipes

Moon Park's hobak jeon (zucchini and mussels pancake)

Australian Gourmet Traveller Korean recipe for zucchini pancake (hobak jeon) by Moon Park in Sydney.

By Eun Hee An & Ben Sears
  • 30 mins preparation
  • 35 mins cooking plus standing
  • Serves 6
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Zucchini pancake (hobak jeon)
"Zucchini pancake isn't common in Korea," says Eun Hee An. "Normally this would be made with batons of spring onion, but my grandmother, Young Son Be, replaces the spring onion with zucchini and I prefer it that way. She's a great cook, and growing up with her taught me a lot about traditional Korean cooking. We use her kimchi recipes at Moon Park."

Ingredients

  • 1 kg black mussels, scrubbed
  • 3 large zucchini (about 770gm)
  • 225 gm (1½ cups) plain flour
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 1 bunch Chinese chives, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp gochugaru (dried chilli flakes)
  • For shallow frying: grapeseed oil

Method

Main
  • 1
    Heat a large saucepan until hot, add mussels with 100ml hot water, cover with a lid and cook, removing mussels with tongs as they open (2-3 minutes). Strain pan juice through a fine sieve, reserving 350ml and ensuring there's no shell or grit. Remove mussels from shells, de-beard and coarsely chop the mussel meat, then refrigerate the juice and chopped meat separately.
  • 2
    Coarsely grate zucchini into a bowl, add 1 tsp salt, toss to coat and stand for 10 minutes, then rinse off the salt and squeeze out as much water as you can. Combine zucchini with the mussel meat, mussel juice, flour, garlic, chives and gochugaru and refrigerate until required (this can be refrigerated a day ahead).
  • 3
    Heat enough grapeseed oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat to just cover the base (about 5mm deep). Add a third of the batter, spread out to a thickness of roughly 1cm and fry until base is crisp (5-7 minutes), then carefully flip it and cook until the pancake is crisp and cooked through (4-6 minutes). Repeat with remaining batter. Transfer pancakes to plates, cut into bite-size pieces and serve immediately.

Notes

Drink Suggestion: The Slint Vineyard 2013 Ochota Barrels Chardonnay or Korean moonbaesool soju. Drink suggestion by Ned Brooks

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  • undefined: Eun Hee An & Ben Sears