Really?? You may think that’s the strangest thing you ever heard…well, just follow my story a little bit…
Warm and sunny spring days are now in full force in our lovely California and I can even feel the summer around the corner. And unlike the last two years, when I dreaded the coming of the hot muggy (OMG, I get hot just thinking about it!) summer in Korea, I am very much looking forward to summer this year. Why? Because summer sun means my vegetables and fruits will be growing by leaps and bounds in my garden! Growing and picking your own fruits and vegetables makes me sooo happy. If only we had enough water in California…
Anyway, I was looking around my garden the last week and saw all my beautiful herbs in addition to my veggies and thought…what if I used these amazing herbs in making hotteok!!?? Why not??
I started to experiment and believe it or not they all actually work!! Some better than others because herbs with robust flavors needed to be used sparingly. But Oh MY… I was SO HAPPY that it worked and equally happy that I could take these pretty photos of Korean hotteok/hoddeok/ hottok with these beautiful fresh herbs.
So first, what herbs come from my garden? I’m sure you probably don’t need help with identifying these most common herbs that can be easily grown in your garden: rosemary, basil, mint, sage and lavender. But I bought this slate board and chalk recently….and I always wanted to do something like this :) – so here it is! Whether you need it or not – haha.
In order to make my herb Hotteok/Hoddeok/Hottok (Korean sweet dessert pancake) all you need to do is chop rosemary, slice mint, basil and sage very thinly. For lavender, take off the tiny flower blossoms and buds from the lavender flower. Add each of these herbs with the sugar filling.
When cooking hotteok in the pan, put herb to the uncooked side before turning it over. And you will have a very pretty and colorful hotteok with delicate flavors.
Now you ask – what’s my favorite? I would say it’s the basil. I ate the basil hotteok with some extra fresh basil on top and it was really amazing!! Well, I hope make these with your loved ones this weekend (or next) and like them as much as I did :)
Enjoy!
JinJoo
