Bindae-tteok

Korean fried mung bean pancake

Bindae tteok (hangul=빈대떡), or mung bean pancake, is a type of buchimgae (Korean pancake) that originated in the Pyongan Province. It is made by grinding soaked mung beans, adding vegetables and meat and pan frying it into a round, flat shape.

Bindae tteok first appears under the name binja (빈쟈) in the Guidebook of Homemade Food and Drinks, a 1670 cookbook written by Jang Gye hyang. The word appears to be derived from bingjya (빙쟈), the Middle Korean transcription of the hanja word , whose first character is pronounced bǐng and means "round and flat pancake like food". The pronunciation and the meaning of the second letter are unknown. Tteok (떡) means a steamed, boiled, or pan fried cake; usually a rice cake but in this case a pancake. During the Joseon era (1392–1897), richer households would dispense bindae tteok to poorer people gathered outside the South Great Gate of Seoul during times of hardship. Bindaetteok was often eaten in the northwestern part of Hwanghae do and Pyeongan do.

Bindae tteok is made with mung bean batter with a filling made of bracken, pork, mung bean sprouts, and baechu kimchi (napa cabbage kimchi). To make the filling for bindae tteok, soaked bracken is cut into short pieces, mixed with ground pork, and seasoned with soy sauce, chopped scallions, minced garlic, ground black pepper, and sesame oil. Mung bean sprouts are washed, blanched, cut into short pieces and seasoned with salt and sesame oil. Kimchi is unstuffed and squeezed to remove its fillings and excess juice, then cut into small pieces. The ingredients are then mixed. Washed, soaked, and husked mung beans are ground with water and seasoned with salt to make the batter. The mung bean batter is ladled on a hot frying pan greased with a considerable amount of cooking oil, topped with the filling, and followed by another layer of the batter poured over the top of the filling. Finally, the bindae tteok is topped with pieces of diagonally sliced green and red chili pepper. The pancakes are pan fried on both sides, and served with a dipping sauce consisting of soy sauce, vinegar, water, and ground pine nuts.