Gujeolpan: Platter of 9 Delicacies

This year has been a strange one. Covid19 has caused the travel industry to come to a halt, and many restaurants had to shift to delivery and take-out in order to survive. Since we can’t travel overseas this year, I’ve decided to bring the world onto my plate. For the past few months I’ve been cooking meals from different countries. It’s not different from what I do regularly in the pre-Covid days, but now I cook them with an extra sprinkle of gusto. This is especially true of dishes that aren’t easily available outside of their countries.

This brings us to the gorgeous dish of gujeolpan, the platter of nine delicacies. A royal court dish served during the Yi Dynasty, the platter consists of eight fillings that are served with a small thin pancake. A celebratory dish, gujeolpan is typically served during Lunar New Year and other special occasions.

I caught a glimpse of this dish while watching a Korean drama and was instantly intrigued. None of the Korean restaurants in my city serves it so I rolled up my sleeves and found a recipe from Korean chef extraordinaire, Maangchi.

Maangchi’s gujeolpan recipe was very detailed and she even has an accompanying video to help guide you through the process. It was really helpful having the visual guide to check if my food has the right consistency. If you want to attempt it, make sure you have a good 3 to 4 hours set aside. The individual fillings are not difficult to make but everything required a delicate touch so it can be time consuming. Gujeolpan is usually served as an appetizer/side dish but I can assure you that it will be the only dish you will make given the time and effort put into it! It’s very filling and can serve up to 4 to 5 people.

Here are some tips if you are making Maangchi’s gujeolpan recipe:

1. Buy enough eggs for at least two attempts. The recipe calls for 3 eggs, and the whites and yolks are separated, beaten and pan fried into a thin crepe-like shape. However it’s much trickier getting the pan frying right and it’s possible you will mess up your first attempt like I did. Make sure you wipe off excess oil on the pan and that you take it off the heat before adding the eggs. The pan can’t be too oily or too hot (or cold).
2. If you can’t find Korean mustard powder, a good substitute is Korean honey mustard salad dressing. It went very well with the vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil.
3. Use Korean soy sauce if possible. It’s just not the same substituting it with other Asian soy sauce.
4. Instead of pan frying the cucumber and carrot matchsticks, I served them up fresh. At first it was because I was running out of time (to be perfectly honest!) but it ended up giving a nice fresh crunch to the wrap.
5. Maangchi used rock ear mushrooms which I’ve never seen before. I served up wood ear mushrooms that are more readily available in Asian markets. You may substitute with shiitake instead.
6. It was difficult finding the special gujeolpan platter online so I went with something I already own. It only had 5 containers so I had to double up the ingredients side by side. Other people have used large plates or trays so you don’t need a special platter for the dish.

You don’t need a special celebration to treat yourself and your family like royalty. An ordinary dinner can be made extraordinary by this platter of delicious treasures.