Bacon and Kimchi Pancakes

At Revel in Seattle, chef Rachel Yang offers ever-changing twists on tradition, from sweet corn pancakes (crusted with corn flakes, natch) in the summer to everything bagel-spiced pancakes with whitefish in the winter. The perennial favorite there, though, and at Revelry in Portland, Oregon, is a funky, spicy, porky pancake — a kimchi-studded classic embedded with strips of braised pork belly.

Served steaming hot from the pan and sliced into fat wedges, it's a great way to turn a dinner into a party. People reach and giggle and fight over the last piece of earthy pancake, which, in turn, typically leads to someone flagging down a server for round two.

What they don't tell you at Rachel Yang's restaurants — and what I learned writing My Rice Bowl: Korean Cooking Outside the Lines with her — is that Korean pancakes make for almost infinitely flexible dinner options, and they're really quite simple to make. Start with the base, which is just a mixture of soaked mung beans and water that's been blended until it looks like regular pancake batter with a slightly yellow hue (that's right — no flour!), then add what you want and fry it up.

I make a quicker version of her pork belly variety by substituting regular bacon for the pork belly, but honestly you should think of the pancakes as a blank slate for any leftovers that aren't too juicy. Leftover curried squash slices? Throw them in. Shrimp and poblano peppers from last night's fajitas? Perfect. As Rachel is fond of saying, the easiest Korean dish is the one whose ingredients you already have in the fridge.

I usually soak the beans while I land at home, unpack the day, and have a glass of wine, but you could also make the bean base on the weekend, when you have more time, so you can literally have dinner on the table within 20 minutes. It's a lot more exciting than Bisquick.

Bacon and Kimchi Pancakes

Makes 4 (6- to 7-inch) pancakes

For the mung bean base:
1 cup split yellow dried mung beans
2 1/2 cups cold tap water, divided

For the batter:
1 cup loosely packed bean sprouts
1 cup packed coarsely chopped Napa cabbage kimchi
4 scallions (white and light-green parts only), chopped
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons coarse Korean chile flakes
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt

For frying:
1/2 cup canola oil, divided, plus more if needed
4 slices bacon or pancetta, halved, cooked through but still soft

Soak and blend the mung beans: Place the beans and 2 cups of the water in a medium bowl and soak for 1 hour. They should increase in volume by about 50 percent.