Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

Trader Joe’s Korean Scallion Pancakes are savory pancakes made primarily with scallions (green onions) as well as other vegetables.

These are a bit similar to TJ’s popular TAIWANESE GREEN ONION PANCAKES but different. These KOREAN SCALLION PANCAKES, (known as “PaJeon” in Korean) contain a lot more scallions than Trader Joe’s Taiwanese scallion pancakes plus other vegetables – onions, leeks, scallions, carrots, king oyster mushrooms and other goodies. As you can see in the picture these have a lot going on veggie-wise.

Trader Joe’s version of these, which are made in Korea, are pretty good! OK, not as good perhaps as your Korean grandma makes but probably more convenient for those of us who don’t have one.

To make these PaJeon in general, you make a batter with and add vegetables. These are ladled into a pan and are pan fried till crispy. They are served with a dipping sauce. If you’ve had them in a Korean restaurant, you know they can be really good. I’ve have had them many times in Korean restaurants. Those are delicious, and really crispy. Naturally I can’t compare Trader Joe’s frozen scallion pancakes to the restaurants version but still these frozen ones are really good.

Trader Joe’s frozen PAJEON are quite tasty. Even my wife, who is Korean/Japanese, loves when we make these frozen ones at home. She says they were good for a frozen version.

You will enjoy these, especially if you can get them really crispy – which is the trick to making good pajeon.

The package suggests defrosting them before cooking doing either an overnight defrost in the fridge, or you can leave them out on the counter for a 1/2 hour or so, which is what I did. In a pinch they say you could do them from frozen. I didn’t try that way. If you can, plan a little bit ahead. In a pinch even if you take them out and leave them on the counter for at least 30 minutes to defrost, try that.

The bag does say leave overnight in fridge to defrost, or about 30 minutes out on the counter. Meaning you should cook defrosted if possible for the best results.

HOW TO COOK TRADER JOE’S SCALLION PANCAKES: Add good tablespoon of a neutral oil to a non stickpan or a cast iron pan or any heavy skillet. If you happen to have a bottle of toasted sesame oil use some for 1/2 the oil, for the most authentic Korean taste.

Get the oil hot on medium heat then carefully add your (defrosted) pancakes. Let them cook for about 2-3 minutes on the first side checking the bottom occasionally to see how brown they are. You want to get them as golden brown as possible. You can press them gently with a spatula to help get them browned everywhere.

When the first side looks ready, flip them over carefully and cook the other side, again getting the PaJeon as golden brown as possible, maybe another 2-3 minutes.

When they look done, remove and drain off excess oil on a paper towel.

Eat them asap while they are hot and crispy.

Other Methods: The package says you can bake them in the oven as well but I didn’t try that method yet. Perhaps then these can be done in an Air Fryer? I don’t have one so can’t say.

To serve these, cut the pancakes into quarters or slices (I actually cut the pancakes up before I cooked them as you can see above). Either way works. You want to eat these with a nice Asian dipping sauce, so get that prepped before you start cooking these. If you have some Gochujang , sesame oil and garlic in the sauce that will give you a real Korean flavor however any Asian dumpling sauce will work.

Additions: You could even top them with a fried egg. Or you could put some cooked shrimp on top. So be creative. Pajeon are hugely popular in Korean cuisine and can also be made with additional ingredients such as shrimp, beef, pork, tofu, seaweed, and other vegetables.  Seafood pajeon are called haemul pajeon, kimchi pajeon are known as kimchijeon.

What to enjoy along with these to make a full meal? We ate them with fried rice and these go well with that. Maybe TJ’s Japanese Fried Rice or Bulgogi Fried Rice? Eat with KIMCHI on the side.

All in all, I found these SCALLION PANCAKES quite tasty. I would buy them again. They are about $4 for 4 pancakes. A bit more than the plainer Taiwan pancakes but these have way more ingredients and are more substantial.

https://thefoodietakesflight.com/dumpling-dipping-sauce/