Gamja Jeon (Potato Pancake)

Potatoes (gamja) are a relatively recent arrival in Korea. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture cites the 19th-century scholar Yi Gyu-gyeong's Oju yeonmun jangjeon sango, which says potatoes first came in from the far northeast around 1824–1825, and a separate account of seed potatoes handed out by a missionary aboard a British ship off the Jeolla coast in 1832. Unlike sweet potatoes, they spread across the country within a few decades and became an important famine food in places such as Wonju and Cheorwon.

The mountainous province of Gangwon became the heartland of Korean potato cooking. The encyclopedia lists potatoes, corn, buckwheat and acorns as the province's signature products, notes that its potatoes are floury rather than waxy, and singles out a distinctive local habit: grating potatoes and drawing out their starch rather than cooking them whole, which gives dishes a pleasantly chewy texture. Gamja-buchimgae (potato pancake) appears in its list of Gangwon dishes.

The Korean Food Promotion Institute says Gangwon people have long made gamja-jeon as a snack and that the classic Gangwon version contains nothing but grated potato — no wheat flour or pancake mix. It also describes an older rural method in which potatoes were left to rot in water for days on end, with frequent changes of water, until only the starch remained, which was then fried into an especially chewy jeon; the smell was so strong the work was done beside streams. Today's version, made from fresh grated potato, takes minutes.

• Potassium: potatoes are a good source of potassium, and a serving of gamja-jeon supplies a meaningful share of daily needs.
• Vitamin C and B6: potatoes also contribute vitamin C and vitamin B6, though some vitamin C is lost when the liquid is drained and the pancakes are cooked.
• Naturally wheat-free: made the Gangwon way, with potato alone, the pancake contains no flour or egg — useful for people avoiding wheat or egg (check the dipping sauce).

• Gangwon style: grated potato and its settled starch only, sometimes with a little salt and a slice of chili pressed on top.
• With onion or flour: many home cooks grate in some onion for sweetness, or add a spoonful of flour or starch to make the batter easier to handle.
• Shredded potato jeon: julienned potato bound with a little starch gives a lacy, crisp version, sometimes mixed with buchu (garlic chives).
• Fermented-starch jeon: the traditional Gangwon method of fermenting potatoes in water until only starch is left, now rarely made at home.