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(Experiment 247) Japchae

Japchae is another Korean classic that was highly recommended and could one dare to say it’s the pad Thai equivalent for Korea?

While I do love this meal, I can’t say I am a fan of those noodles, the texture is kind of weird at least to me. I personally prefer to do it with rice noodles.

You need

  • ~200g potato starch noodles
  • 1-2 green onions cut in ~1″ long piece
  • 125g shiitake mushrooms, cut in strip
  • 1 carrot cut in matchstick
  • 2 cups of baby spinach
  • (optional) slices of beef
  • 1 bell pepper ( I use half a red and half a yellow) sliced thinly
  • 1/2 yellow onion sliced thinly
  • 4tbps soy sauce
  • 2tbps sesame oil
  • 2tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 minced garlic clove
  • 1tbs sesame seeds

Instructions

  1. The first thing to prepare is the sauce, combine the sesame oil, sugar and soy sauce, stir until there is no sugar left then add the garlic and sesame seeds and give it a final stir, reserve.
  2. Next, prepare all the ingredients and try to cut everything the same size so you get even cooking. Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch your spinach for 30 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon and dump into a bowl with cold water to stop the cooking.
  3. In the same pot with boiling water put your noodle and cook them for 8 minutes or until soft ( check the cooking instruction on your bag as cooking time vary). Strain and put in a large bowl, add about 1/3 of the sauce and stir. Note that you want a large bowl as we will be dumping more cooked ingredients in it.
  1. It’s time to cook the vegetables, heat up a pan over medium-high heat, add a little bit of oil and add the onion and soften them for about 2 minutes, toss them in the noodle bowl. Add a little bit more oil if needed and stir fry the mushroom for 30 seconds then add the carrots and peppers. Keep cooking for another 90 seconds and also dump into the noodle bowl. Put the green onion in the pan for about 20 seconds and also toss it in the bowl.
  2. If you opted for meat, stir fry it and transfer it into the bowl.
  3. Add the remaining sauce into the noodle bowl and mix

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