Simple Japchae (잡채) - Glass Noodles with Vegetables

I recently started volunteering for City Harvest, which focuses on food rescue and education in New York City. I started out by substituting a chef who couldn't make it to the first couple of an 8-week education program for senior citizens. The 2-hour class consists of healthy cooking plus nutritional education. Although there is a very well-organized set of recipes and lesson plans for each week, I got to choose my own Korean menu for this week.

I wanted to make something festive, fast and representative of Korean food. I made adjustments to the tradtional way of cooking japchae - which is to season and cook every ingredient separately then mix together at the end to bring out each ingredient's flavor - to make it with fewer steps as well as healthy with less oil. With everyone's help, we were able to make japchae for 15 people who attended the class along with tofu-tuna pancakes (두부 참치전 - du bu cham chi jeon), which is my simple home recipe. For most of them, it was the first time they made and tasted japchae, or any Korean food, so it was very gratifying for me. We made enough for everyone and then some, but at the end there was no leftover because everyone wanted to take some home, which made me really happy. ^_^

My City Harvest class has been a lot of fun with lots of laughter every week. Along the way, we all agreed that I'd continue to finish the rest of this program. The chef who was supposed to lead this class would take on another series of classes, since they are always looking for volunteers to help with various programs related to food rescue and education. Maybe you want to get involved too?

Here is what we enjoyed this week, adjusted for 2 portions.

To make 2 Servings of Japchae)

Ingredients:

4 oz. sweet potato starch noodles (당면 - dang myeon)
warm water to soak dangmyeon

2 dried shitake mushrooms (표고 버섯 - pyo go beo seot)
1 C warm water

2 T soy sauce
1 T rice vinegar
1 clove garlic, peeled & grated
1/4 t ginger, peeled & grated
a pinch of freshly ground black pepper

2 t canola oil
1/2 medium-sized onion, peeled & sliced
1 small carrot, peeled & sliced
1/2 bell pepper, seeds removed & sliced

2 stems scallions, trimmed & cut to 2-inch length
1 C spinach, stems picked & washed

1-2 t sesame oil

toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Directions:

Soften dangmyeon by soaking in warm water.

Rinse dried shitake mushroom in cold water, then soak them in 1 cup of warm water for 30 minutes or until soft. Squeeze out water from mushrooms and slice them thinly. Reserve the water.

While the dangmyeon noodles and shitake mushrooms are getting soaked, make seasoning marinade by mixing soy sauce, vinegar, grated garlic and grated ginger. Add in shitake mushroom-soaked water once the mushrooms are soft.

Once dangmyeon becomes soft enough to handle, drain the water. Soak dangmyeon in seasoning marinade.

Heat up a pan and drizzle with canola oil. Sauté onion, carrot and bell pepper slices. Once the onion slices start turning translucent, add shitake mushrooms and stir.

Add the noodles with the marinade liquid to the pan. Cook until the noodles are soft and the liquid is reduced to coat the bottom of the pan.

Add scallions and spinach. Stir to cook scallions and spinach soft, which only takes a minute or so. Remove from heat. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Right before serving, mix in toasted sesame oil. Garnish with sesame seeds. Serve hot.

TIPS!
If you're cooking the amount specified in the recipe above, soaking dangmyeon (당면) in warm water half-way then cooking it soft in the pan will work fine. However, if you're making for a lot of people and need a lot of soft dangmyeon (2+ lbs.) fast, cooking the noodles separately in boiling water will work out much faster and easier, which is what I did for the City Harvest class. Once dangmyeon noodles become soft, drain water. Soak the noodles in the marinade liquid. Mix in the sautéed vegetables.

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