Try This Indo-Korean

Kimchi Uttapam

Recipe Featuring Kimchi Cooked Into A Pancake

Uttapam recipe gets a fusion makeover with the gut-health boosting Korean kimchi, and it might be an unusual combination until you try it. This recipe takes the thick, savoury South Indian pancake and folds in Korea's most essential fermented staple instead of the usual onion and tomato topping. Among fusion recipes built around Indian breakfast staples, this is one of the more natural pairings, as the uttapam is already formulated and cooked in a way that it seamlessly carries a tangy, textured topping, and kimchi's funky flavours is a surprisingly natural fit for that role. As for kimchi, it holds an almost sacred place in Korean households, with most families making their own, passed down through generations, and buying a jar instead is apparently a quiet faux pas in traditional circles. If you want, you can make it at home too, but it is a labour-intensive process. Kimchi is a fermented dish made from vegetables, most commonly napa cabbage, and is used as a side dish, dishes like kimchi fried rice, kimchi stew, kimchi dumplings and kimchi wraps. That fermentation is also what gives kimchi its reputation as a healthy addition to a meal. The uttapam base here is unlike that of the all-purpose flour base, used in a Korean kimchi pancake, and instead features rava, rice flour, and a little besan to help bind. Rava and rice flour make the uttapam noticeably crispier, with better sturdiness and texture. The batter consistency also has to be just right, keeping in mind the moisture coming from the kimchi and raw vegetables used in the uttapam recipe. An old kitchen trick you can use here, is rubbing a cut onion over the hot, oiled tava before pouring the batter helps keep the surface naturally non-stick, to keep the pancakes from sticking.