Annyeong!
Are we travelling around or is this going at a certain theme ? Nope. It’s just part of the “Let’s cook Asian food” week.
Japchae is a classic Korean vegetarian stir-fry dish made with sweet potato starch noodles, lots of vegetables and a sesame-soy sauce. It can be eaten hot or even cold. The sweet potato noodles are also known as Korean vermicelli and once boiled, they turned more transparent from their apparent grey appearance. The texture is similar to Glass Noodles (Tang Hoon) which are also made from starch, but mainly mung bean, yam or potato starch. When they are boiled, they turn into a slippery ‘mess’ and it doesn’t stick together like rice vermicelli (Mee Hoon) and has a chewy texture.
The other condiments that goes with this noodles are vegetables like spinach, carrot, capsicum, and shiitake mushrooms for vegetarian or beef slices for non. It’s a good dish to make if you are trying to clear some stuffs from your fridge.
For mine, I had a couple of colourful veg in the fridge to include to this dish. Edible rainbow ? you bet.
I adapted the recipe from Maangchi’s. She’s my to-go-to when I need to make some Korean dishes.
- 1 pc chicken breast cut to 2 inch long strips, or pork shoulder (or beef if you want)
- 4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 2 to 3 hours, cut into thin strips
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 bunch long leaf spinach, washed and drained
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 60g sweet potato noodles
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 spring onions, cut crosswise into 2 inch long pieces
- ½ yellow onion, sliced thinly
- ½ carrot, cut into matchsticks
- ½ red capsicum, cut into thin strips
- vegetable oil
- 1 minced garlic clove
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
- ground black pepper
- salt
- Crack egg in a bowl and season with a pinch of salt. Whisk the egg with a fork lightly. On a heated pan, add in 1 tsp oil. Pour eggs on top and let it cook for 1 minute. Flip over the other side and cook for another minute or until cooked through. Remove from pan, set aside. Once it is cooled, cut into strips.
- Marinade chicken and mushroom with the stated ingredients while you cut the other vegetables. Cover and set in the fridge
- Bring a pot of water to boil.
- Add in spinach and blanch for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Use a strainer to remove the spinach and rinse thru cold water. Squeeze dry, add into a big mixing bowl (it should be big enough to fit in all the ingredients) Cut the spinach with a scissors 2-3 times. Mix in 1 tsp soy sauce and 1tsp sesame oil.
- With the same pot of water, add in the sweet potato noodles. Stir with a wooden spoon so it doesn't stick together. Boil for 7 minutes.
- While the noodles are boiling, cook the vegetable.
- Heat a pan and add in 1 tbsp vegetable oil.
- Add in chicken and mushroom (from Step 1) and onion and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add in carrots, capsicum and spring onion and cook for another 2 minutes.
- Season with some salt and pepper. Turn off heat and leave it on the pan.
- Once the noodles are cooked, remove from stove, drain the noodles in a colander and add into the mixing bowl with spinach. Optional to cut the noodles to shorter strands. Add in 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp sugar to the noodles. Stir with a chopstick or wooden spoon.
- Add in the cooked vegetable and chicken into the same mixing bowl. Add in the egg strips (cooked earlier). Add in the dressing and toss everything. Using a chopstick and a wooden spoon makes the job easier. Or, with your fingers.
- Serve with a sprinkle of sesame seeds on top.
