Weeknight Japchae (잡채 Glass Noodles with Sautéed Vegetables)

First, I'd like to thank you for all the great responses for my first cooking show episode on red bean rice. In less than a month, it has been viewed over 49,000 times on YouTube with many comments, questions and even stories of the viewers' own traditional dishes using red beans. It's amazing to see a variety of responses that can be brought out from a 7-minute video.

In case you missed my first moment of awkwardness, you can check out the video here and my post including the full recipe here.

Today, we're finally releasing the second episode on japchae, one of the most popular Korean dishes.

* You can follow this link to the YouTube site.
* You can follow this link to DramaFever's post on this episode.

Traditionally, japchae - glass noodles with assorted vegetables - is a festive dish with each ingredient cooked separately then mixed together right before serving so that the ingredients maintain their own flavors in the dish. As the title of this post implies, my version of japchae is a simplified version, a one-skillet dish that's still delicious but with fewer steps and much less oil (which also means fewer dishes to wash later).

I soak the dried glass noodles made with sweet potato starch (당면 dang myeon) along with dried shitake mushrooms and season the soaking water. This way, the noodle will soak up flavor while it softens. As you wait for the noodle to soften, prepare vegetables. I go with what I have in the fridge, but try to choose the vegetables that can hold their shape, bite and color in heat. Of course, feel free to add meat or seafood in yours.

Quickly sauté the vegetables, then add the noodle, mushroom and its soaking water. You'll cook the noodles until soft and reduce the liquid at the same time, so keep it uncovered over high heat. You may need to add a bit more water or take out a little bit of the liquid if necessary. When the noodle looks all shiny and soft, eat one and see if it's really soft enough to eat.

Since this requires very little oil during cooking, be generous on sesame oil at the end to toss everything together. The dish will be shiny with the nutty fragrance of sesame oil as if it's cooked in the traditional way. The oil at the end will also help the noodles from sticking and forming a big lump.

Any leftover can be stored in the refrigerator and can be re-heated on the stovetop. You can heat it on a skillet over low heat with very little oil, if at all, just until the noodle turns translucent and glistening.

It's not much different from what I posted a couple of years ago. It works best for making a small amount quickly. I hope with the video and better pictures in this post, it gives you a better motivation to try it yourself. Once you get the hang of it, you can make this for your simple weeknight dinner. Make sure to have everything ready before turning on the heat. It's a fairly quick process. Enjoy!

Glass Noodles with Sautéed Vegetables (잡채 jap chae)
Yield: 2 Main Servings

INGREDIENTS:
4 oz. Glass noodles made with sweet potato starch (당면 dang myeon)
2~4 Dried shitake mushrooms, depending on size
2 cups Warm water
2 tablespoons Soy sauce
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and grated
1/2 teaspoon Ginger, peeled and grated
A pinch Freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon Neutral-tasting cooking oil (canola oil or sunflower seed oil)
1/2 Onion, medium-sized, peeled and sliced thinly
2 Thin carrots, peeled and julienned
1 Red bell pepper, seeds removed and cut to thin slices
A pinch Salt
1 tablespoon Rice vinegar
1/2 bunch Spinach, stems trimmed and washed
1 tablespoon Toasted sesame oil (dark-colored)
1 teaspoon Toasted sesame seeds for garnish

DIRECTIONS:
1. Soak dried shitake mushrooms in 2 cups of warm water for 30 minutes.

2. Make seasoning marinade by adding soy sauce, garlic and ginger to the shitake mushroom soaked water. Soak glass noodles in the liquid.

3. In the meantime, prepare vegetables.

4. When the mushrooms turn soft, squeeze out water and slice thinly. Put mushroom slices back in the seasoning marinade.

5. Heat up a skillet and drizzle cooking oil. Sauté onion, carrot and bell pepper slices with a sprinkle of salt until translucent. Add the soaked sweet potato noodles and mushroom slices along with 1 1/2 cups of the liquid.

6. Turn up the heat to high and cook the noodle until soft and chewy and reduce liquid. Stir occasionally to cook evenly. When the noodles are soft and there is almost no liquid left, reduce heat to low. If necessary, add the remaining 1/2 cup of the marinade liquid to cook through the noodles.

7. Add spinach and mix carefully. Steam from the dish should be enough to wilt spinach. Add vinegar and mix. Remove from heat.

8. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Right before serving, toss everything in toasted sesame oil. Sprinkle sesame seeds for garnish.