Hotteok are a Korean street food. They're somewhere between a stuffed, fried bun and a pancake. The dough is yeasted and a bit sweet. The classic filling is apparently a mix of cinnamon sugar and chopped nuts. I would like to try that version sometime but, for right now, I wanted to make a savoury breakfast version. These vegetable hotteok are filled with seasoned glass noodles and minced vegetables and make for a filling and delicious breakfast or snack.

Vegetable Hotteok

Slightly adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

Dough

• 6g instant yeast
• 220g warm water
• 30mL whole (3.25%) milk
• 30g sugar
• 300g hard (strong/bread/high grade) flour
• 4g coarse sea salt
• 15g unsalted butter, melted
• 20mL oil

Filling

• 1 small onion, minced
• 1 medium carrot, minced
• 1/4 c. garlic chives, minced
• 1-2 green onions, minced
• 5 c. water
• 1/2 tsp. dark soy sauce
• 90g glass noodles¹
• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. mirin
• pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Dicrections

Dough

1. Combine the yeast, warm water, milk, and sugar and set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Combine the flour and salt and set aside.
3. Once the yeast mixture is nice and foamy, stir in the melted butter and oil.
4. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour mixture and stir to combine.
5. Continue stirring and folding for five minutes.
6. Cover and set aside for ~1 hour. (Exact time will depend on room temperature, how warm the water was, etc.)
7. Meanwhile, prepare the filling.

Filling

1. Chop all your veggies very fine.
2. Add the dark soy sauce and glass noodles to the water and bring to a boil. Boil for ~5 minutes.
3. Drain noodles and toss with sesame oil.
4. Combine light soy sauce, oyster sauce, suger, mirin, and pepper to make the sauce.
5. Heat wok over medium-low heat and add noodles and sauce. (I also chose to mix in my vegetables at this point so that they'd cook a little bit with the sauce.
6. Cook until all liquid has either evaporated or been absorbed.
7. Use scissors to cut the noodles into short pieces.

Assembly

1. Once dough is well-risen (it should just about double in size), heat a pan over medium heat.
2. Pour a generous amount of oil into the pan. Set out another bowl with more oil in it.
3. Dip your hands into the oil in the bowl and make sure they are well-coated.
4. Grab a chunk of the dough and tear it off.
5. Press it into a flat disc. (I do not recommend putting it down. Just do all the shaping in your well-oiled hands.)
6. Place a generous amount of the noodle filling in the centre of the disc.
7. Grab the sides an stretch them up and over the filling.
8. Place the the stuffed dough in the pan and repeat with a few more pieces of dough until the pan is full.
9. Once the underside has browned, flip the hotteok over.
10. Press down firmly and continue cooking until the other side is browned.

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¹ Ideally you want Korean glass noodles for this. These are long, thin noodles made from sweet potato starch. I didn't have any Korean glass noodles, but I did have a ridiculous surplus of mung bean glass noodles, so I used them instead. The texture is a bit different, but I was still quite happy with the end result. And I think the mung bean noodles make it a bit more filling than the potato starch noodles would. As Aaron always says, "Use what you have!" ^Back