Daikon Radish Pancakes (MuJeon)

I am loving Asian-inspired breakfasts this winter. I make egg fried "rice" almost every week (will be posting an updated recipe because my new version is better), and I also regularly have some variety of a vegetable-egg pancake. Because fried things are so very good! This morning I tried something new, korean style daikon radish pancakes (Mu Jeon). I modeled them after Mina Park's recipe (which is a video that is quick and useful if you are a visual learner). She says you can substitute lots of things in for/with the daikon, including sweet potato, carrots, or any root veggie. I took that liberally and included some nettles in with my daikon. So far I think I have included nettles in all of my Asian style vegetable pancakes (see Okonomiyaki and Egg Foo Young recipes), except the Korean inspired potato pancakes, which have less egg and flour (Gamjajean). Because, well, I like greens. And because I stored some abundance of nettles in the freezer! All of the recipes above are similar (esp b/c of my greenery in them), but different sauces and slightly different textures.

*I am listing Mina Park's recipe below - she says to use buckwheat flour to be GF, though she used regular flour in hers. When I made them, I reduced things a little, and substituted in the nettles for some of the daikon; I also used tapioca starch instead of potato starch. I made my first pancake too thick - the batter itself is fairly thick - my 2nd one was better. Be sure to press it out (1/2" thick at most, thinner if you can). I don't have a good grater, which I think is less ideal - my julienner means less liquid (see photo below). My daikon was also rather aged, and less watery, so I had to add some (maybe also b/c of the nettles, so I had a few sub-optimal moments. You want a consistency of thick cake batter. You can see in the video that hers is pretty thin, and she slices it up into wedges to eat it. These brown up really nicely, and were so good with the dipping sauce and some kimchi!! yum. I want to make this again, sans nettles.

Batter: too thick here!

Ingredients:

• Daikon radish, shredded (500 g)
• 4-6 green onions
• 1 clove garlic
  
• 1/2 c buckwheat flour
  
• 2 T potato starch
• 1 T toasted sesame oil
• 1 T toasted sesame seeds
• salt/pepper
• 2 eggs 
• oil for frying 

Dipping sauce:

• 1 T tamari
• 1 T rice wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp sesame seeds
• 1 T water
  

1. Grate the radish into a mixing bowl and combine with the remaining ingredients. Adjust the consistency with additional flour or water as necessary. It should be a thick pancake batter. 

2. Test the batter by making one small pancake. Season to taste. 

3. Heat a generous amount of oil in a nonstick pan over medium-high heat and spoon batter into rounds or make one big pancake. When the underside is golden brown, flip and cook the other side for a few minutes. Cook on both sides one more time to crisp the pancake. 

4. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.