In the middle of the night, they took the princess – out of the palace, carrying her on their backs until they reached the horses, and then they were galloping through the forest in a devil night devoid of moonlight. The princess was alert, her eyes and ears open, trying to catch sight of the men in front of and behind her, trying to memorize her surroundings so she would recognize the trail if she escaped. But she had never been out of the palace, except to hunt, and they had already passed the boundaries of the royal hunting grounds. They moved through rocky, unfamiliar terrain, climbing up hills with steep drop-offs which quickly faded into black.
Exhausted from the blood pumping in her temple, she dozed off, only to awake when the horses stopped. Several men and women helped her off the saddle, guiding her into a series of caves whose candle-lit walls seemed bright to her night-fogged eyes.
They unbound her and ushered her onto a pile of blankets where she sat, unused to the roughness of reed mats after the silk of her royal chambers. She pulled her legs up around her and shivered, refusing the jacket one woman offered her.
As the group of men and women trailed into the cave, she stood up to address them.
“I do not know for what purpose you have taken me here or who you represent – one of our rival families, brigands, a neighbouring kingdom – I do not know.
“I do know that the king will not stop looking for me. And he will burn a path of death and destruction to all of you, who will suffer terribly – unless you return me immediately.” She spoke clearly, hiding the exhaustion in her voice, her tones echoing out into the cavern over the heads of the common faces watching her.
A young man stepped out of the group and turned to her. His eyes were set and determined, but the edges of his mouth were turned up in a smile.
“Dear princess, please understand us. We mean you no harm. But the people are starving, thanks to the corrupt practices of the officials under your father’s reign. We intend to make you our ally – by removing you from your royal shelter and letting you see, first hand, how your people live. We will facilitate your return when we have achieved our mission.”
The princess scoffed. “If you think kidnapping me will make me your champion, you are very foolish.”
The boy looked at her and laughed. “I think you will come to forgive us, in time.” She stared at him, shocked that he had dropped the formal tense.
“Here, have some food,” said the young man, bringing her a plate with a fresh scallion pancake and some kimchi on the side. She lifted her chin and stared steadfastly at an indeterminate spot on the wall.
“Suit yourself,” he said. “It’s no banquet like you’re used to – we don’t get twenty dishes at every meal.”
They left then, taking the candles with them, leaving her in the dark with nothing but the comforting scent of the warm pajeon next to her. Too curious to stop herself, she brought one of the crispy pieces up to her mouth, and took a small bite. She heard a laugh in the darkness and immediately threw the pancake on the floor.
“Please don’t do that,” said the voice of the young man. “We don’t waste food here.”
He moved next to her and picked up the piece of the pancake she had discarded, eating it and making low-class sounds of enjoyment.
“Disgusting,” she said, turning her head away from the sounds of his eating.
“Actually, it’s very good,” said the young man. “But don’t worry, you won’t have to eat it again.” He whisked the rest of the pancake away, and the princess was left alone.
Click below for next episodes in the Princess & Rebel series!
- The Princess & the Rebel Part 2: Mandoo at the Village
- The Princess & the Rebel Part 3: Mandooguk in the Woods
- The Princess & the Rebel Part 4: Kalbi Tang in the Mountains
- The Princess & the Rebel Part 5: Deep Fried Beef Tendon in the South
- The Princess & the Rebel Part 6: Kimchi on the Coast
- 1.5 cups cassava flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 - 2.5 cups cold water (if batter is hard to mix/spread, adjust liquid amount - batter should be easy to spoon & spread out in the pan but not runny)
- 1-2 tbs olive oil
- 1 bunch scallions, cut lengthwise
- 1 julienned/sliced carrot
- 1 julienned/sliced zucchini
- 2-3 cloves chopped garlic
- 1 tb apple cider vinegar
- For cooking:
- Several tbs coconut or avocado oil
- Heat up a skillet or good flat-bottomed pan on medium heat.
- Mix all the ingredients in the order listed to form batter.
- Oil pan with about 1 tb of coconut, avocado or olive oil (higher smoke point = better).
- Spoon about 1 cup of batter onto hot pan and spread it out evenly.
- Cook for around 5 minutes/until brown, then flip and repeat. Add more oil as needed.
- When done, cut into wedges, serve with chopped scallions and enjoy!
This recipe features in Phoenix Helix’s Paleo AIP Recipe Roundtable.
Oh, this is so happening tonight! I have been looking for a tasty quick flatbread recipe, this sounds like it will work wonerfully!
Haha great, I hope you like it! Alternatively if you have grated cassava, this is my personal favorite flatbread (super easy too): https://www.flashfictionkitchen.com/the-best-bread-ever/ 😉
This is on my “to Try” list, as soon As I find cassava root to grate or find pre-grated. Thought I saw someone mention that white sweet potatoes may also work.
Yes I still have to try it with root alternatives! Using sweet potatoes kinda makes me think of latkes…Another fun recipe 😉
I tried a sweet version using apples and cinnamon. Turned out fantastic and reminds me of apple fritters.
That sounds amazing! Apple fritters are a great idea 🙂
Hi Julie. This popped up in my FB feed last night so thought Breakfast! And so breakfast today it was . Absolutely delicious, and even the non-AIP hubby loved it. I semi-cooked the veggies first and added kale to the mix too. I did really struggle with the liquid content though, I ended up more than doubling the amount of water to get close to a pancake consistency. This will be happening again though for sure 🙂
Thanks Amanda! I will retest and check/adjust the liquid measurements (can I ask what brand of cassava flour you’re using?) Pajeon for breakfast = great idea, glad it worked out! 😉
It’s the otto’s cassava flour Julie, the only brand I’ve come across here in Australia though I’m sure there are variants in the Asian stores
Ah ok good to know, thanks Amanda!
Ahhh, I can’t wait to read the rest of the story! If I were the princess, I’d just hang out there for a while if that’s the kind of food they were feeding me.
Haha thanks Nicole, so would I! Gotta come up with a good next dish for the princess’s kidnappers to tempt her with 😉
Thanks for the recipe. I tried it tonight and I must have done something wrong. I hope you can help me troubleshoot.
I used Otto’s Cassava flour, 1.5 C water, 2 tbsp olive oil and the other ingredients as written in your recipe, except I used carrot, onion, green onion and cilantro for the veggies.
My batter was really thick, like a thick brownie batter. Is the batter supposed to be that thick, or should it be more like a pancake batter? Did you use a non-stick pan? When you measured out 1 cup of batter to cook and then spread it out on your pan, how thick was it? Mine stuck to the pan. I couldn’t flip it at all and I think I used plenty of coconut oil to grease the pan. The part that wasn’t directly on the pan just got really gummy. I ended up throwing it away, but tried to scrap the crispy bits off the pan. What little crispy bits I got off the pan tasted good though! Thanks!
Hi Tasha! Thanks for your feedback! I would say the batter shouldn’t be as thick as brownie batter, you do want to be able to spread it fairly easily – when I measured it out in the pan it was about a centimeter thick at the thickest parts. I used both stick and non-stick pans, non-stick is probably easier but stainless steel or cast iron will get you a better crust (you might have to use a bit more oil). I will troubleshoot the recipe a bit more and make any adjustments in the recipe as needed!
Hi Julie!
Thanks for making the adjustments to the recipe. I tried adding more water to the batter and I used a different pan this time. First time was a well greased cast iron. This time I used a well greased stainless steel. I don’t have any non-stick pans anymore as I got rid of them years ago. My pancake still stuck to the pan and I again couldn’t flip it over. I flipped over what I could and the outsides of the pancake got crispy, but the insides stayed gummy. I can’t seem to get the insides to cook.
Are the insides of your pancakes gummy too? Thanks!
Hmm not that gummy – it’s supposed to be a bit chewy on the inside, similar to the traditional rice flour version – you could try adding some water chestnut or tigernut flour to change the consistency somewhat – sometimes I finish mine in the oven which also makes them crispier/less chewy.
This is divine! The batter was a bit thicker than I expected, but I just kept mixing after each veggie, and then spread it all out in the pan. I cooked it a bit longer so I could get it nice and crisp. I quartered the recipe and that made a huge plateful — and I ate every bite! Thank you so much for creating and perfecting and posting this. I’ve been on the aip diet for a long month and when I find something this delectable, it makes my day so bright!! (I found you through Phoenix Helix.)
Thanks Vicki! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I hope to continue tweaking and will provide a few other variations soon 🙂
I have something called Cassava Futu from Ghana is this usable in this recipe?
What are the ingredients? The only ingredient in cassava flour should be pure cassava. Still, if you’re not following AIP it might work for the recipe!
Ingredient list says just Cassava. It also says Cassava Fufu fermented not Futu, my typing error. I think I will give it a try. I wasn’t sure if it was more of a “starch” than a flour. Thank you!
Oh okay I hope it works out! I bought something that was called ‘cassava fufu’ once, but it had other ingredients/preservatives in there so I didn’t end up using it.
So you use that brand of baking soda , Arm and Hammer ?
I did this time, sometimes I use Trader Joe’s, never notice a big difference.
Unfortunately I am unable to have cassava flour. Is there something I can use as a substitute?
Hmm…what other types of flour can you tolerate/can you do non-AIP flours)? I used to make this recipe with a mixture of almond flour + arrowroot starch/tapioca fl, that worked pretty well. Otherwise, you could try making it with tigernut and some tapioca/arrowroot (but it has a slightly sweeter quality that way). Plantain or water chestnut flour might also be a good alternative.
How much almond flour and arrowroot/tapioca flour?
Here’s my old Paleo recipe: : 1 cup tapioca, (3 flaxseed eggs), 1/3 cup almond flour, 1/2 cup cold water, sea salt, bs, ACV, 1-2 tbs olive oil, scallions
Yesss! Thank you!!!!!
Could i use non-spicy (AIP) water kimchi juice instead of water? I have so much of it… Trying to figure out ways to use it up.
Sure, I don’t see why not? It might make it a little more zesty but I personally love kimchi juice, so I say go for it. 🙂
Hello,
I tried this recipe but mine came out gummy. It was my first time cooking with cassava. What should I do differently? I followed the recipe.
The texture of traditional pajeon is slightly chewy/gummy on the inside, but it can vary depending on how long you cook it and the type of cassava flour you use – it can help to cook the pancakes longer or finish them in the oven, or if you can tolerate other flours, you could try adding some nut or tigernut flour to the mix (which should make it less gummy).
These pancakes were yummy!!! I made them according to the recipe and they turned out great! The only major difference was I misread the recipe and put in my homemade baking powder before I realized the recipe called for baking soda so I actually put a tsp of each. As for frying some people mentioned that the pancakes sticked to the pan. I have found oils to be stickier… I used bacon fat instead of oils and found the stickiness to be nonexistent so that’s an idea and it went well with the savory pancakes! Thank you for the recipe, I will certainly make it again!!!
Ooooh, I really wanted this to work, but mine came out super gummy as well. My partner likes gooey things, so he will eat some, but I think I may throw out the rest of the batter 🙁 I followed the recipe, but only the very edges crisped up and the insides stayed super mushy- even when I tried making them super thin.