Switch up your usual breakfast routine with this herbaceous, and savory pancake with a yummy dipping sauce. This mouth-watering recipe takes the chive pancake to a new level by adding dried mushrooms and shrimp for a lot of umami richness. Once you learn this recipe, you can even customize it to suit your unique tastes!
Chive Pancakes Around the World
You can find different versions of chive pancakes throughout Asia, from the simple pan-fried Buchujeon of Korea to Thailand’s Kanom Gui Chai Thod – which is first steamed, then pan-fried for a chewy on the inside, crispy on the outside texture.
The version I’m making today is based on the ones eaten in Taiwan, China, and parts of Malaysia. Dried shrimps and mushrooms are used to bring more savoriness to the dish and complement the delicate, garlicky flavor of the chives. I’ve also included a recipe for a light dipping sauce similar to what’s served with Korean chive pancakes. So delicious!
Chive Pancake vs. Scallion Pancake
It’s really easy to confuse chive pancakes and scallion pancakes because they look so similar. Both kinds of pancake come out golden brown with little slivers of vibrant green studded throughout the dough. But they taste very different from one another!
Chinese chives – or garlic chives – have a delicate, garlicky flavor while scallions – or green onions – have a distinct onion flavor. Chive pancakes are also a lot greener, since chive has a mild flavor so you need to use a lot. While you can substitute one for the other in a pinch, don’t expect the outcome to taste the same (though you can definitely expect it to taste delicious).
Also take note that I’m using Chinese chives for this recipe and not onion chives, which taste a lot more like scallions.
Where to Find Chinese Chive Pancake Ingredients
Some of the ingredients for this recipe are very easy to source, like the flour and eggs. In fact, if that’s all you have right now (along with the chives), you can make a classic Korean Buchujeon! As for the rest of the ingredients, you can easily find them online or in Asian markets.
The best thing about the dried mushrooms and shrimp I use in this recipe is that they keep for a very long time. Which means you can store them in your pantry and add umami richness to your recipes whenever you want! Try adding your dried shrimps to soup or your dried mushroom to gravy. Mushroom powder is my secret ingredient for umami – like in my Hawaiian Loco Moco recipe.
Customize Your Chinese Chive Pancake
Once you’ve got this recipe down, you can change it up to suit your unique tastes or needs! Like fried rice, you can experiment with adding whatever ingredients you have around your house to the chive pancake batter. You can think of it as an “Empty the Fridge” kind of recipe. Delicious and economical.
In different parts of China, you might see people adding sesame seeds and sugar or anchovies and onions. See what other kinds of combinations you can come up with! This recipe is just as tasty as it is fun to make.
Chinese Chive Pancake with Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
- 100 grams Flour
- 200 ml Water
- 1 Egg
- 1 Dried Shirataki Mushroom
- 2 tbsp Dried Shrimp
- 1 small bundle of Chives approximately 50 grams
- 1 small Carrot
- Pinch of Black Pepper
- 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
- ¼ tsp Kosher Salt / Himalayan Pink Salt
- ¼ tsp Black Pepper
- 1 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
- 1 tbsp Rice Vinegar
- 1 tbsp Water
- ¼ tsp Sesame Oil
- Chives – finely chopped
Instructions
- Soak dried shrimps and shirataki mushrooms in200 ml of warm water for 15- 20 minutes.
- Cut chives into ½ inch long pieces.
- Shred carrot.
- Sieve 100 grams of flour.
- Add 200 ml water that was used to re-hydrate dried shrimps and Shirataki mushroom.
- Diced re-hydrated Shirataki mushroom.
- Pound re-hydrated dried shrimp in mortar &pester. If no mortar & pester, just chop finely.
- To bring out the aroma and the flavor of the dried shrimps, fry them in a pan without any oil for a few minutes. Add to pancake mixture.
- Now add cut chives and carrots to pancake mixture and mix.
- Pan-fry pancake over medium heat.
- Serve with dipping sauce on the side.