Japchae

Have you heard of Japchae or eaten it before in any Korean shops or restaurants? If you haven't, you need to try it. The fragrance of sesame oil and all the essential seasoning totally invades your sense of smell even before you eat it. That to me is, absolutely delectable and it beckons to me even before I could put it in my mouth ;)

When I saw this recipe from Holly, I immediately bookmarked it. A few years later, I never expected to be able to make this dish. And the best part is, I wanted to bang my head for not even wanting to attempt this much earlier. It's seriously not that difficult and even before you are done, your whole kitchen smells of sesame oil perfume ;P Awesome!!

See my modifications in blue below.

Ingredients

10 oz (300g) dangmyun (or otherwise known as Korean glass noodles)

1/3 lb lean cut of beef pork or chicken, cut into 2" long and 1/4" thick sticks

1 bunch spinach, trimmed and cleaned

1 medium carrot, cut into 2" long and 1/8" thick sticks

1 small onion, thinly sliced

6 shitaki mushrooms, sliced

1/4 lb oyster mushrooms, sliced

For the beef meat marinade :

1 tbsp soy sauce(low sodium)

1/2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp rice wine 

1 tsp chopped garlic 

1 tsp sesame oil 

1/4 tsp pepper

For the mushroom seasoning :

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 tsp sesame oil

For the spinach seasoning:

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar 

1 tsp sesame oil

For the noodle seasoning :

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp sesame seeds(roasted)

1 tsp pepper

Method:

1. Mix beef your choice of meat in the marinade. Set aside.
2. Boil water in a pot. Blanch mushrooms first for 2 seconds. Take them out and rinse them in the cold water. Squeeze out excess water. place in a bowl.
3. In the same boiling water, add spinach, blanch for 3 seconds. rinse in the cold water as well. squeeze out excess water and place in a bowl.
4. Season mushrooms and spinach each with their seasoning ingredients separately.
5. Saute onions and carrots separately with some salt and sugar to taste over medium heat.
6. Saute beef your choice of meat and cook until done. Reserve the juice from the meat in the pan. Set the meat aside.
7. Meanwhile, boil water in a pot. Add the noodles and stir them first. Cook for about 6 minutes or follow package direction.
8. Rinse them under cold water. Drain the noodles. Cut the noodles if you desire.
9. Cook noodles in the pan with reserved meat juice over medium heat. Add the noodle seasoning and toss them well. Let all the ingredients to cool down to room temp.
10. Toss noodles with beef, spinach, mushrooms, onions, carrots with hand. Adjust seasoning for your taste. Serve in a room temperature. Enjoy.

Check out my rendition of my favourite Japchae. I totally heart this and I will definitely make this again. See my cheat tip below.

Cheat tips

• After marinating the various ingredients with their seasoning ingredients separately, I began to saute the onion, mushrooms and meat together before dishing it up. Thereafter, I tossed the noodles into the pot, noodle seasoning and then put the spinach and the rest of the ingredients back into the pot.

I'm submitting this dish to Aspiring Bakers #37: Korean - Feast of Hansik (November 2013) hosted by Grace(Life can be simple).