Name: Gujeolpan (Platter of Eight Fillings with Wheat Crepes)
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Korean
Ingredients: 100 g plain flour; 200 ml water; 0.3 tsp salt; 1 tbsp pine nuts; 150 g lean beef (round); 4 dried shiitake; 5 g dried wood ear; 3 eggs; 0.5 carrot; 1 cucumber; 150 g Korean radish; 3 tbsp vegetable oil; salt; 1 tbsp prepared hot mustard; 2 tbsp vinegar; 1 tbsp sugar; 0.5 tbsp soy sauce; 1 tbsp water

Ingredients

4servings

Crepes (7cm across, about 24)
plain flour100 g
water200 ml
salt0.3 tsp
pine nuts · to garnish1 tbsp
Fillings
lean beef (round) · finely julienned, seasoned with 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp sugar, garlic and sesame oil150 g
dried shiitake · soaked, julienned, seasoned with a little soy sauce and sesame oil4
dried wood ear · soaked and julienned5 g
eggs · whites and yolks separated3
carrot · in fine 5cm julienne0.5
cucumber · outer green part only, julienned, salted 10 minutes and squeezed1
Korean radish · finely julienned, salted and squeezed150 g
vegetable oil3 tbsp
salt · a little for each
Mustard sauce
prepared hot mustard1 tbsp
vinegar2 tbsp
sugar1 tbsp
soy sauce0.5 tbsp
water1 tbsp

Steps

Whisk the flour, water and salt with no lumps, pass through a sieve and rest 30 minutes. It should be like thin milk.
⏲ 30 min
Put a frying pan over low heat and wipe it with a film of oil. Spoon in a tablespoon of batter at a time and spread it to 7cm.
When the edge is dry and the crepe turns translucent, flip it for a few seconds more. It must not colour. Stack them as they cool.
⏲ 1 min
Wipe the pan and fry thin sheets of the egg white, then the yolk. Cut each into fine strips.
⏲ 5 min
Then cook the fillings from the palest to the darkest: radish, cucumber and carrot, each 30 seconds to a minute with a little salt. Cucumber cooked longer turns olive.
⏲ 3 min
Then the wood ear, the shiitake and last the beef. The soy-seasoned ones come last, so the pan never needs washing between them.
⏲ 5 min
Mix the mustard sauce. Stack the crepes in the centre of the platter with pine nuts on top, and fill the eight sections so the colours alternate.
To eat, lay three or four fillings on a crepe, roll it up and dip it in the mustard sauce.

Variations

Dry gujeolpan. The sections hold chestnuts, jujubes, ginkgo nuts, walnuts and dried beef instead, with no crepes.
Seafood. Julienned prawn or abalone in place of the beef.
Chogochujang. A sweet-sour chilli sauce instead of the mustard sauce.
Vegetables only. Swap the beef for mung bean sprouts or bellflower root.

Tips

Sieve and rest the batter. That is what lets it spread thin.
Keep the crepes white. Low heat, and flip before any colour.
Cut every filling to the same julienne. Each wrap then gets some of everything.
Use only the green outer part of the cucumber. The centre is watery.

More detail and the reasons why (2)

One pan, palest to darkest. Cooking each filling on its own is what bibimbap does with its vegetables, but here the order matters. White radish and green cucumber go first and the soy-seasoned shiitake and beef last, so no colour carries into the next filling even though the pan is not washed between them. The eight colours are the face of the dish, and every one that bleeds is lost.
A brown crepe is a failed crepe. Most things in a frying pan are cooked for colour (browning); this crepe is cooked to avoid it. Barely any oil, low heat and only until one side turns translucent keep it white and soft, so it rolls without cracking. As with goi cuon, the wrapping is done by whoever is eating.

The basics behind this dish

Cooking basics →

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