Korean pancakes come in both savory and sweet types. “Jeon” is the generic term for savory pancakes that can include kimchi, seafood, green onions — and here, garlic chives.

Garlic chives can be a pain to clean if you get them from a farmer, as I do. But once cleaned of dirt, they are amazingly resilient. Back when I used to travel a lot (Travel? What’s that?), I had cleaned a bunch but hadn’t had time to use them. I threw them into the freezer, and now with the COVID-19 shelter-in-place order, I defrosted them, then promptly forgot about them for a week. I threw them in some jeon dipped in (gluten-free) soy sauce, and it was a great lunch.

This recipe is (1) the way I cook, basically flinging things together and (2) dependent on the amount of garlic chives you have. You can use a jeon mix, but I’m gluten-free and came up with my own.

What you need

• Sweet rice flour (also called glutinous rice)
• Water
• Tapioca flour (esp if you like a chewier texture)
• Salt
• Baking soda
• 1 egg
• Garlic chives left long, maybe cut in half once

Clean the chives and put in a large bowl along with flours (3/4 rice flour, 1/4 tapioca flour ratio), a dash of salt to taste, 1/2-1 teaspoon baking soda. Stir in egg. The trick is to have LESS batter, like a tempura. It should be mostly chives dusted with flour. If it’s too thick (if it's not like pancake batter), add egg. It should be a hair thicker than pancake batter, more like a paste so that it can keep the veggies together. 

Oil a skillet with a neutral oil (I use avocado) on medium high, and cook until slightly golden brown. Flip, repeat. Mine aren't round because my pan is small, so I make them whatever shape to fit. But they still taste great!

Sauce: plain soy sauce, coconut aminos, a mix of sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, toasted sesame seeds on top. Or make a dipping sauce for the lazy with half soy sauce and half X’ian Famous Food’s chili oil. Enjoy!