Japchae (잡채)

• servings: 4
• active time: 25 minutes
• total time: 1 hour

Ingredients

4 oz beef / pork, cut into thin and long strips (shoulder works best)

4 large dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 2-3 hours and cut into thin strips

4 oz sweet potato starch noodles (dangmyeon)

6 oz spinach, washed and drained

1 medium carrot, cut into matchsticks

1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips

1 medium onion, sliced thinly

2-3 green onions, whites cut into 2 in long pieces (reserve the greens for garnish)

4-5 white mushrooms, sliced thinly

2 garlic cloves, minced

2⅓ tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1⅔ tbsp sugar

1 tbsp sesame seeds

Salt & pepper

High heat neutral cooking oil (avocado, vegetable, canola)

Directions

Once the stir frying starts here, there will be many things going on at once. It’s important to have your mise-en-place ready for this recipe, but you can do this step first. Put the sliced beef/pork and shiitake mushrooms into a small bowl with 1 clove of minced garlic, 1 tsp sugar, pinch of black pepper, 2 tsp soy sauce, and 1 tsp sesame oil. Mix until well combined and store in the fridge for 2-3 hours. In a pinch, just allow this to marinate until you need to cook it in a later step.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the spinach and blanch for 30 seconds to 1 minute, then take it out with a slotted spoon (leave the hot water in the pot) and run the spinach under cold water to stop the cooking process. Squeeze it with your hands to remove excess water, then cut it a few times and put it into a large mixing bowl. Add 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil, and mix to combine.

In the same large pot of boiling water, add the noodles in and cook for 4-7 minutes, or until they are soft and chewy to your preference. Stir infrequently to prevent the noodles from sticking to each other. Once they’re done, strain themmand cut them a few times with scissors. Add them to the large mixing bowl with the spinach along with 2 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp soy sauce, and 1 tsp of sugar. Toss to combine with forks or tongs. The oil will help prevent the noodles from clumping up too much.

In a large pan, add about 2 tsp of high heat oil and heat it over medium high heat. Add the onion, green onion whites, and a pinch of salt. Stir-fry until the onion is starting to look translucent, then transfer the onions to the large bowl.

Add another 1 tsp of oil and add in the mushrooms. Stir-fry until softened and add to the large bowl.

Add another 1 tsp of oil and add the carrot. Stir-fry for about 20 seconds, add the red bell pepper for 20 more seconds, then add both to the large bowl.

With another final 1 tsp of oil heated over medium-high, add the marinated beef/pork and mushroom mixture and cook until the meat is fully cooked and the mushrooms are softened, then add to the large bowl.

In the large mixing bowl with all of the ingredients so far, add 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp sesame seeds, pinch of black pepper, and 2 tsp sesame oil (taste before to see what you want to add). Mix everything together and serve hot!

Notes

Originally a royal dish in 15 century Korea, this sweet potato noodle stir fry is now served for all occasions in South Korea. The lightly stir-fried vegetables retain a bit of their crunchy texture and create great textural contrast. The traditional method involves stir-frying all of the ingredients separately and combining at the end, but the recipe listed here streamlines these steps at times. Usually there is an egg garnish called jidan added, but I’ve excluded that here. Feel free to add this or any other form of cooked egg! This noodle dish is a signature Korean dish, with a sesame-oil forward flavor and soy sauce in the background. This is a great potluck meal, and feel free to change out the add-ins for what you have at the time.