Korean recipes: Japchae stir-fried noodles

Japchae is one of the most popular menu items on the Korean table. It’s made from potato starch noodles stir-fried with mixed vegetables and seasoned with soy sauce and other toppings.

Japchae is the most served dish at most celebratory occasions or during traditional holidays. It was originally a court dish cooked with cucumbers, radish, bean sprouts and bellflower roots.

This delicious noodle dish is quite popular among non-Koreans, too, as it can take on various tastes depending on the ingredients used in the recipe. Thanks to the rising popularity of Korean pop music and soap operas, and the growing interest around the world in Korean cuisine, many non-Koreans have fallen in love with japchae. Once they try the dish, many of them think japchae is one-of-a-kind, as it tastes quite different from Italian pasta even though it might be broadly similar.

Depending on the desired flavor and the different country or region, different ingredients can be added tojapchae, such as eels, seafood or mushrooms.

Japchae also pleases the eye as it has a combination of five colors: green, red, yellow, white and black. These are the five colors of Korean food, known as the obangsaek. Japchae has green cucumbers, yellow egg yolk strips, “red,” or orange, carrots, black mushrooms and white onions and bellflower roots. For this reason, japchaeis visually stunning and also very nutritious.

Japchae is made from various vegetables and meat all stir-fried together with potato starch noodles.

** Ingredients
50 grams beef, top round, 10 grams (2 sheets) of brown oak mushrooms, 3 grams wood ear mushrooms
First seasoning sauce:
9 grams (0.5 tbsp) soy sauce
2 grams (0.5 tsp) sugar
2.3 grams (0.5 tsp) minced green onion
1.4 grams (0.25 tsp) minced garlic
1 grams (0.5 tsp) sesame salt
2 grams (0.5 tsp) sesame oil
0.1 grams ground black pepper
70 grams (0.33 ea) cucumber
0.5 grams (0.125 tsp) salt
30 grams carrots
0.5 g (0.125 tsp) salt
30 grams skinned bellflower roots
2 grams (0.5 tsp) salt
150 grams (1 head) onion
30 grams mung bean sprouts
400 grams (2 cups) water
1 grams (0.25 tsp) salt

mung bean sprout seasoning:
0.5 grams (0.125 tsp) salt
2 grams (0.5 tsp) sesame oil
60 grams (1) egg
0.5 grams (0.125 tsp) salt
60 grams potato starch noodles
400 grams (2 cups) boiling water

Second seasoning sauce:
18 grams (1 tbsp) soy sauce
12 grams (1 tbsp) sugar
6.5 grams (0.5 tbsp) sesame oil
3.5 grams (0.5 tbsp) sesame seeds
1 grams (0.25 tsp) salt
26 grams (2 tbsp) edible oil

Japchae is made from potato starch noodles, onions, carrots, beef, eggs, mushrooms, green onions, bean sprouts, bellflower roots and garlic.

** Preparation
1. Clean the blood off the beef with a cotton cloth. Shred it into thin strips 6 centimeters long and 0.3 centimeters wide and thick. Season them with half of the first seasoning sauce.
2. Soak the mushrooms in water for about 1 hour. Remove the stems of the brown oak mushrooms and cut them into strips that are 0.3 centimeter wide and thick. Separate the wood ear mushrooms by sheet. Season them with remaining half of the first seasoning sauce.
3. Wash the cucumber by rubbing it. Cut it into strips that are 5-6 centimeters long and 0.3 centimeters wide and thick. Wash the carrots and peel them. Cut and slice the carrots, too, into strips that are 5-6 centimeters long and 0.3 centimeters wide and thick. Marinate them separately in salt for 5 minutes each and wipe away the water with a cotton cloth.
4. Cut the bellflower roots into similarly sized strips as the cucumber. Wash them in salt for 1 minute to draw out any “bitter” taste. Peel and wash the onion. Slice it into similarly sized strips, as the cucumber. Remove the heads and tails of the mung bean sprouts.
5. Separate the egg yolks and whites. Mix all the yolks together and all the whites together, separately. Fry them each into a pancake-like disc. Slice them into long strips, either yellow or white.

To get a more delicious taste and more vibrant colors, all the ingredients should be fried quickly over high heat.

** Instructions
1. Preheat the frying pan and oil. Stir-fry the beef, brown oak mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms separately for about 2 minutes over medium heat.
2. Preheat the frying pan and oil. Stir-fry the cucumbers and carrots separately for 30 seconds over high heat. Stir-fry the bellflower roots and onions separately for 2 minutes over medium heat.
3. Pour water into a pot. Heat it up for 2 minutes over high heat. When it boils, scald the mung bean sprouts with salt for 2 minutes. Drain off the water through a strainer. Mix them with the mung bean sprout seasoning.
4. Pour water into the pot and heat it for 2 minutes over high heat. When it boils, add the potato starch noodles and boil it for 8 minutes. Take out the noodles and drain off the water. Cut them into 20-centimeter lengths and mix them with the second seasoning sauce.
5. Preheat the frying pan and oil. Stir-fry the noodles for 2 minutes over medium heat.
6. Mix the noodles and the other ingredients together and top with the yellow and white egg strips.

Pork, spinach, oyster mushrooms and other ingredients may be added to japchae. It’s served with the noodles mixed with the other ingredients and topped with yellow and white egg strips.

Managed by Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writer
In cooperation with the Institute of Traditional Korean Food (ITKF)
Content from “The Beauty of Korean Food: 100 Best-Loved Recipes”
arete@korea.kr