Sadly, Season 2 of Culinary Class Wars has come to an end.

And— SEMI SPOILER— who I was rooting for, didn’t win.

I was CERTAIN her extended screen time meant something!! I digress.

It was evident though, that the last meal she prepared was super close to winning over the judges. Yes, I am referring to Brewmaster Yun!

Her mega thick and cheesy Gamjajeon had me drooling. As you’d expect, here is my recreation!
I want to think this is likely the easiest thing to recreate from the show, but still remains impressive— with less than 10 ingredients!

Let’s make it.

Recipe:

Makes 1 pancake

Special Equipment:

mandolin
kitchen towel

Cheese Gamjajeon:

2 Russet Potatoes (roughly 400g)
10g coarse salt
water
20g potato starch (sub corn starch)
5g kosher salt
15g unsalted butter, melted
40g vegetable oil
1 slice cheddar cheese
40g shredded mozzarella
15g parmesan cheese

Wash and peel your potatoes. Discard the scraps.

Using a mandolin, slice the potatoes into thin rounds.
Stack about 8 slices, and proceed to julienne the potatoes. Go slowly, ensuring even 1/4” thickness.

Transfer the julienned potatoes to a bowl of cold water. Swish them around to clean off excess starch and prevent browning.
Discard the starchy potato water and replace with new, cold water. Add 10g of coarse salt, and stir to dissolve. Let the potatoes sit in the water for at least 20 minutes, or even overnight.

Once the potatoes have had enough time to soak, remove them from the water and place them on a clean kitchen towel. Squeeze to get rid of moisture, splay them out and let them air dry for 10 or so minutes.
Transfer the semi dry potato to a large bowl. Add your potato starch, salt and melted butter. Stir to coat the potato in the starch. This will help achieve a crispy pancake!

Preheat a medium sized frying pan over medium low heat. Add 40g of vegetable oil.
When the oil is fairly hot (not at all close to smoking) drop in your potato shreds. Arrange them to form a even circle—about 1.5 inches thick!

Let the jeon fry on low for about 8 minutes. Check the underside to see how brown it is before flipping.
Allow it to fry on both sides until mostly golden in colour. Close to a total of 15 minutes.

Next, we will add the cheese to one side, and fold the Jeon in half! Press down on the gamjajeon to seal the pancake sides together and flatten it a bit.

Fry the Jeon for another few minutes on each side to give it that nice final crispy exterior. Then remove from the pan and transfer to a wire rack to let the oil drip.

Top the finished Gamjajeon with freshly grated parmesan cheese.Serve right away with soy dipping sauce! See Below!

Soy Dipping Sauce:

2 tbsp light soy sauce
1.5 tbsp rice vinegar
1.5 tbsp brown sugar (sub granulated sugar or monkfruit sweetener)
1/2 tsp gochugaru
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp water
roughly chopped white onion

Combine all the above ingredients in a small bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

Serve alongside your jeon!