Jap Chae

 (Adapted from Steamy Kitchen)

Jap Chae is a Korean dish, made using glass noodles. These vermicelli type noodles are made from sweet potato starch.  When I think vermicelli, my mind goes directly to the rice kind, often used in Vietnamese dishes, so I was excited to try this sweet potato version.  Pretty easy to make, Jap Chae was an instant hit in this house hold.

Here's a little history. History is always pretty interesting....
Japchae was first made in the early 17th century, when the Joseon Dynasty was reigning in the Korean peninsula. When King Gwanghaegun hosted a big party at his palace, one of his lieges, Yi Chung, created this dish to please the king’s palate. The king liked this dish so much that he rewarded his liege by promoting him to the position of hojo panseo (hangul: 호조판서, hanja: 戶曹判書, equivalent to the Secretary of the Treasury).^[1] At the time, japchae was made with vegetables and mushrooms, such as sliced cucumber, shredded mu, and pyogo (shiitake) mushroom. Since the early 20th century, dangmyeon (cellophane noodles made from sweet potato starch) has become an integral and primary ingredient of this variety of japchae.
(Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japchae)


INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 pound dried Korean sweet potato noodles - found at any Asian market.
• 2 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3/4 cup thinly sliced onions
• 2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 stalks scallions, cut into 1″ lengths
• 1/2 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced - I used Wood Ear.
• 1/2 lb spinach - I used pre-bagged to be simple.
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS:

 Boil the noodles for approx. 5 minutes.  Drain, rinse with cold water, drain again and toss with 1 teaspoon of the sesame oil - this helps prevent sticking.

Chop all your vegetables.  I was able to find fresh wood ear mushrooms at the Asian market. If you can't, you can always grab some of the dried ones, or even some shitake.  For the dried ones, you'll have to soak them in water for about 15 minutes, drain them and then they'll be ready to cook.

Mix the soy sauce and sugar and set aside.

Fire up your wok.  Add the tablespoon of oil in and swirl it around to coat the wok.

Start with the carrots and onions. You'll want to stir fry them until they are soft.

Next, toss in the garlic, scallions, and mushrooms. Stir fry for half a minute.

Now add the spinach, noodles, soy sauce, and sugar.  Mix it all together and stir fry until the spinach has wilted, and the noodles are heated through. 

Turn off heat, toss with sesame seeds and remaining 1 1/2 tsp of sesame oil.

Eat like a king.

**  I added some tofu to the dish. **  

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 package of firm tofu
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice wine or sake
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 - 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Drain and cut tofu into bite sized cubes.
2. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and set aside - except the oil. Taste it.. add more sugar if you want it sweeter.
3. Heat the oil in a skillet until hot, but not smoking.  
4. Add the tofu, turning gently until its coated with the oil. Shake the pan from time to time so nothing sticks. Fry the tofu until it turns yellow, but not crispy and brown.
5. Add the sauce and stir gently to blend.
6. Cover the skillet and turn the heat down. Let it set for about 5 minutes or so.  You can add a spoon or two of water if the sauce dries up.
7. Add to your Jap Chae when ready to serve.

Pork Belly Buns

Holy goodness in a palm sized sandwich.  This recipe here takes a handful of my favorite things and slaps it all together into a three (sometimes two) bite devour.  I love pork belly (think bacon) and Vietnamese Thit Kho/Thit Ba Roi, I love steamed buns (think Banh Bao), I love Hoisin sauce, and I love crunchy cucumbers and carrots.


To make this as quick and simple as possible so that I wouldn't have to wait hours to eat it, I grabbed a pack of pre-made buns from the Korean grocery store. Pop those babies in the microwave for 45 seconds and you've got steamed buns.  The longest process, if that, was cooking the meat, which then I had to refrain from eating all of. It was that good and reminded me of moms cooking.  Assembly took a few moments, eating took less. I never made it to the dining table and my five year old, who I usually have to coax to eat, gobbled three of them - which to me means mega success all around.


What You'll Need:
2 pounds of Pork Belly (skinless/boneless) - you can buy it
   pre sliced to size, or cut it yourself into 1/2 " pieces.
3 tbs Sugar 
2 tbs Fish Sauce
1/2 cup of Warm Water
Fine Black Pepper
1/2 Onion - chopped
2 Thai Chilis - chopped
1 Cucumber - sliced
1 Carrot - shredded
Hoisin Sauce
Pre-made Lotus Leaf Steamed Buns (you can make them yourself.. but that borders on too fancy for me).

Directions:
Put the pork belly in a large frying pan and cook over medium/high heat.  I do not use oil because the meat will provide plenty for you. 


Once the meat starts to cook, add the onions (minced garlic too if you want) and give it a few stirs here and then add the sugar and fish sauce.  


When the sugar has dissolved, stir again to coat the meat and then do not stir the meat for awhile to let it caramelize. About 6 mins or so.  


Once this happens, you can add 1/2 cup of water and stir.  At this point turn down the heat to medium and let it simmer. Stir occasionally. 

While the meat is simmering, cut the cucumber slices, and shred the carrots.

Steam the buns in the microwave, approx 45 seconds under a wet paper towel.  You can also use a steamer - instructions are on the package. And yes, I did steal two and eat them.

By now the meat should look like this and you'll want to add some green onions and red chilis to it along with the black pepper. Stir it well.


You could stop at this point and just eat this with rice, and depending on how many buns you end up eating, you may have leftovers to do just that.

Yum yum yum, now its time to assemble and eat!
Squirt a little hoisin sauce on the bottom bun and place a few shreds of carrot over it. Next place a piece of meat followed by a cucumber slice. Thats it!  And awesome little flavorful Bao.

Hobak Jeon ~ Korean Zucchini Pancakes

By NO means do I claim to
know what the heck i'm doing here with this recipe but I decided I'd give it a shot and well, it all turned out A-OK.  Probably totally laughable by an expert.....or even semi-expert, but it was tasty and thats really all I care about.  I had grabbed this bag of Korean pancake mix from the Korean market awhile back because the picture looked so yummy and the instructions looked easy enough.  I could have done all of this from scratch, but half the recipe was in a bag.... I'm lazy.

                              


You Will Need:
1 large zucchini.
2-3 large carrots.
1 large onion.
1 bag of pancake mix - 500g (easily found in the Korean grocery).
3 3/4 cups of water.
2 tsp salt.
Oil.

Step 1:

Chop the zucchini into matchstick sized pieces.

Step 2:

Place the matchsticks in a strainer and sprinkle with some salt and let it sit for about 30 minutes.  The zucchini will get soft, the liquid will drain out. 

Step 3:
Grate the carrots and onion.  You may be shocked to know I never grated an onion a day in my life before this.  Grating is pretty cool really. Go ahead and laugh, but I was excited.
Shut up.

Step 4:
Mix the water with the entire contents of the bag. Stir until all lumps are gone.

Step 5:

Now you get to add everything to the mix and stir. We're getting closer to the final product! I'm so hungry.

Step 6:
Heat a pan on medium heat and add some oil.  When oil is hot, pour about a cup full of batter into the pan. Add more if needed to fill the pan. Spread everything around evenly.


You'll want to cook until the bottom is brown and then flip it over and brown the other side. The entire bag of mix made more than enough to feed four people with lots of left overs.  You can reheat the leftovers by re-frying or use the lazy method like me - microwave. Its just as tasty I think.

     

Step 7: Dipping Sauce
You gotta make dipping sauce, because well, you gotta. It completes the dish really.


I just mixed soy sauce and rice vinegar together.  The amount depends on how much you'd like to make.
Whatever that is, rice vinegar should be about half of the soy sauce.  So 4tbs soy sauce to 2tbs rice vinegar.
And if you'd like to spice it up, you can add some chili.

And as an accompaniment, I fried up some dumplings. Store bought. Same dipping sauce.  Deeeelishus.