It’s oyster season in Korea and there is a wide range of delicious dishes made with oysters. Let’s look at gul-jeon, one of the simplest way to relish the delectable flavor of oysters.
Ingredients:
300g large oysters
Flour to coat oysters
2 eggs
Cooking oil
Direction:
1. Wash oysters gently in salt water. Get rid of shells and let it drain completely.
2. Coat oysters lightly in flour. Dust off excess flour.
3. Dip the floured oysters in egg batter.
4. Pan-fry the batter-dipped oysters in an oiled frying pan on medium heat. Remember that you are not deep-frying oysters, so use a moderate amount of oil, just enough to coat the frying pan. Turn over the oyster pieces when one side turns golden in color.
Tips:
1. When choosing oysters for gul-geon, it’s better to use large-sized oysters rather than smaller ones. If only small ones are available, use 2 or 3 oysters together to make one jeon.
2. If you are not all that crazy about the fishy smell of oysters, coat them in sesame seed oil, garlic powder and pepper before tossing them in flour.
3. There can be many variations of jeon, like fish jeon, using cod, Pollack, catfish or sole fillets, or shrimp jeon. Jeon is a blanket term for any ingredient that’s been coated in flour, dipped in egg batter and pan-fried. For fish jeon, cut fish fillet into 1/2 centimeter thick slices and drain completely. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste and follow the steps shown above.
