My first Korean - Jap Chae

I've always imagined Korean food to be a lot like chinese food, only more beefier! Maybe it was due to my sheer ignorance or due the scores of Korean BBQ restaurants lining Buford Highway with neon lights flashing the word beef, that I was under this impression. Come to think of it , its strange how I never had Korean food even once in Singapore!! (hmmm....). It wasn't until recently when my advisor thought that since we have a relatively multicultural research group, we should try out restaurants authentic to each person's hometown/country, that I discovered Korean food.

One of the first things that made me happy was...this restaurant we went to, had more than one vegetarian entree. I didnt really believe Yijin when she said that Koreans ate spicy food...until I tried it myself. It was great..just the right amount of spice I liked (I like spicy food!!!). When my order came to the table...it looked very colorful and I felt like I was being served a Korean Thali! There were at least 5-6 sides along with white rice, and I thoroughly enjoyed the flavor of the food. Yijin, my Korean friend then told me, that almost all Korean food can be made vegetarian (yay! more reason to celebrate...)

Anyway, we've been making these plans to teach each other to cook Korean and her favorite palak paneer for a while. Finally last week after one of our classes, we decided to skip the next class (who attends regression course anyway!!) and head to the asian market (H-mart) to gather the necessary ingredients for a Korean meal. She was gonna teach me to make Jap Chae, stir fried vermicelli with mixed vegetables.

















Jap Chae (stir fried vermicelli with mixed vegetables)

It turns out, that a lot of dishes can be made if you have 3 specific sauces - chilli sauce, pepper sauce and soya sauce. Here's a picture of the dish-specific ingredients I bought. In addition to these, I also got a variety of oriental mushrooms to make the Jap Chae. Make sure you get the right noodles to get the perfect taste.





















Sweet Potato noodles, Soya Sauce, Sesame Oil, Red Chili paste


















Clockwise - Enoki mushroom (white, long, slender), King Oyster/Trumpet mushroom (a first in my kitchen), and Shiitake mushrooms

I'm told that Jap Chae literally translates to 'various vegetables' and it is a festive dish. Maybe I will submit this as part of the 'Festival foods' virtual food competition. [Tagged with: VCC: VCC Q3 2006].

***Special thanks to Yijin for translating an authentic Jap-chae recipe (her mum's) from Korean to English, just for me. Thanks Gal! ☺

Ingredients:

Sweet Potato noodles - 300 g
Onion - 1 (100g)
Carrot - ¼- ½
Chives (oriental) or spinach - 100 g
Mushrooms - 200 g
Eggs - 2

For the Jap-Chae sauce:

Minced green onion (scallion) - 2 tsp
Ground garlic - 1 tsp
Soy Sauce - 7 tsp
Sugar - 4 tsp
Sesame oil - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds (white) - 1 tsp
Pepper
Salt

For the marinade for vegetables or meat:

Salt
Pepper
Soya sauce - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Sesame oil - 1 tsp
Cooking oil - 2 tsp

Method:
















Medley of cooked ingredients

• Boil plenty of water and cook the noodles in it. When the noodles turn transparent, remove from the water and run under cold water. Drain the water thoroughly using a sieve.
• In a skillet, put the vegetable oil , stir fry the drained noodles and set aside.
• Wash chives( or spinach) thoroughly and parboil with a pinch of salt for 2 minutes. Once cooked, wash with cold water and drain.
• Mix the drained chives with a pinch of salt and sesame oil and set aside.
• Slice onion and stir fry with oil, salt and pepper.
• Julienne the carrot and stir fry them with oil, salt and pepper.
• Cut all the mushrooms, marinate them with the mushroom sauce for abt 20 mts and stir fry them.

(By now you must've used up half the utensils in the kitchen!! ) - I did!!

• Beat eggs, with salt and make an omelette, cooking both sides. Once it cools, cut the omlette into strips.
• In a big bowl, put together all ingredients except the eggs and mix it with jap-chae sauce.
• Top it off with sliced eggs and ENJOY with a side of the red-chilli paste!!

Jap-chae served



※ Tip:

You can use any vegetable, meat, chicken or seafood for this dish. Just pre-cook separately with salt and pepper before mixing together with other ingredients.