Hwajeon 화전

Hey guys, here is another dish for this week. I'm kinda sad that I haven't shown you guys a spicy dish in a while. but for the past week I have been having stomach problems so my parents have forbidden me from eating spicy things. Usually I will show you guys what I have eaten, so once again this week it is not spicy.

But something else that I absolutely love is sweet things. So I'm gonna show you guys a sweet Korean dish. This one is quite unique, and I think that it is a really pretty dish. It is not that hard to make, there are only a few steps and if you do it properly it will turn out really nice.

The dish is going to be Hwajeon 화전, or sweet flower pancakes.It is a really great springtime dish to make, which is perfect for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere. I'm sorry for all of you in the Northern part though, I promise there will be something for you later on in this post.

The dish is actually traditionally eaten during hwajeon nori (화전놀이), a traditional custom held since the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392). According to this situation the dish is only eaten in spring, however it can also be eaten in the autumn as long as in-season flowers are used, such as chrysanthemum flowers. However it is then called gukhwajeon (국화전).

I think it about time the history lesson ended and I will start to show you how the dish is made.

Ingredients
Sweet rice flour OR glutinous rice flour
salt
water
sugar
vegetable oil
edible flowers

Method
1. Place 1 cup of sweet rice flour and a pinch of salt in a large bowl.
2. Add ½ cup of hot water little by little. Mix it well with a wooden spoon as you pour in the water.
3. Knead the mixture for 5 minutes.
4. Cut the dough into 12 pieces and roll each piece into a ball.
5. Cover the dough with a wet cloth so it doesn’t dry out. Set it aside.
Make syrup:
6. Place ¼ cup of sugar and ¼ cup of water in a small pot. Simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, then remove from the heat.
7. Heat up a non-stick frying pan over low heat. Drizzle some vegetable oil on it (½ tbs).
8. Press each rice cake ball into a disc about 5 cm in diameter.
9. Place each disc-shaped rice cake on the pan and cook it.
10. When the bottom of the rice cake is cooked, turn it over to cook the other side. It will take about 3-4 minutes to cook.
*tip: flatten it out on the pan with a spatula to make it larger
11. Place an edible flower on the top of the rice cake, then flip it over so that the flower gets slightly cooked and sticks to the cake.
13. Cook each one and put them on a serving plate.
14. Drizzle the syrup on top of the pancakes.
Serve with green tea or rose tea.

NOTE:
There are a couple of points I want to point out about the dish
- It is important you only cook it right before serving
- Be careful about how much oil you use to cook it, it make turn out too oily if you use too much (the hwajeon in the first picture is a bit too oily)





I hope that you guys all enjoy the dish, it does turn out really pretty if you make it right. I hope that you guys have fun making it and eating it. And take care of your bodies because the weather is starting to change.

And now for the Autumn dish that I promised. Next week :) Look forward to it!