For todays blog I decided to do something little different. Instead of showing you guys how to make a recipe from me, lets try out a recipe we find on Pinterest!
I was in the mood for some glass noodles also known as Japchae and decided to try to make some on my own as an experiment. I was able to gather all my Japchae ingredients for less than 20$ and this lasted me a full week, I am a college student and live on my own, so I usually meal prep for the week, this was a great recipe to do just that.
Japchae is a stir fry of Korean glass noodles with various vegetables along with your meat of choosing, this is optional. The noodles used in this recipe is a very unique as it is translucent and made from sweet potato starch.
Today we will be following a recipe posted on Pinterest by Sue, she is also a fellow food blogger, her blog is called My Korean Kitchen, where she posts about her love for Korean fusion foods. I found her recipe to be very simple and easy to follow.
Here is the link the recipe I will be trying to recreate. https://mykoreankitchen.com/korean-glass-noodle-stir-fry-japchae/
With recipes like this, it is very interchangeable. For example this recipe calls for bell peppers, but I am not too fond of bell peppers so I omitted that from my stir fry.
This recipe also uses beef but this week I was craving chicken, so I substituted the beef with chicken.
What I am trying to say is, with any recipe you try at home you are able to change and substitute ingredients for other ingredients. Whether it be because you dislike that ingredient or you just don’t have that ingredient on hand.
LETS BEGIN!
These are the original ingredients needed for the stir fry, I will input what I did differently down below after the original ingredients needed.
INGREDIENTS FOR JAPCHAE (6 TO 8 SERVINGS)
MAIN
- 250g (8.8 ounces) Korean sweet potato starch noodles (dangmyeon,당면)
- 100g (3.5 ounces) rib eye fillet
- 1 medium carrots (120g, 4.2 ounces) – rinsed, peeled & julienned
- 110g (3.9 ounces) baby spinach – rinsed and drained
- 1/4 small red capsicum (bell pepper) (50g, 1.8 ounces) – rinsed and julienned
- 1/2 large yellow onion (105g, 3.7 ounces) – peeled, rinsed, thinly sliced
- 100g (3.5 ounces) fresh shiitake mushroom – cleaned, stems removed and thinly sliced
SPINACH SEASONING
- 1/4 tsp fine salt
- 1/2 tsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp sesame oil
BEEF MARINADE
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp rice wine (mirin)
- 1/2 tsp minced garlic
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp sesame oil
NOODLES & MUSHROOM MARINADE – MIX THESE IN A SMALL BOWL
- 4 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
FINISHING TOUCH
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- (Optional) 1 extra large egg – rinsed, egg white and yolk separated
OTHER
- Cooking oil – I used rice brain oil
- Fine sea salt
- Water to boil the spinach and the noodles
——————————————-CREDITS TO: mykoreankitchen.com————————————-
WHAT I DID DIFFERENTLY
- Instead of using 100g (3.5 ounces) of rib eye fillet, I used two chicken breasts.
- I omitted the 1/4 small red capsicum (bell pepper) (50g, 1.8 ounces) because I am not a fan of bell peppers
- Instead of using 1 Tbsp sesame seeds, I just ended up omitting that as well.
- I used 4-5 dried shiitake mushrooms in stead of the 100g (3.5 ounces) fresh shiitake mushroom, because I was unable to find them at my local grocery store.
STEPS FOR MY VERSION: (you can also follow Sue’s recipe on the link provide above)
1. Cut chicken into strips and putting it in a large bowl, then add the beef marinate; 1 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp rice wine (mirin), 1/2 tsp minced garlic, 1/4 tsp ground black pepper, 1 tsp sesame oil. Stir until well combined.
Then wrap up the chicken and set in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Prepare all the vegetables. Cut carrots to small thin strips and thinly slice the onions.
3. As for the mushrooms, boil 4 cups of water and submerge the dried shiitake mushrooms in the water, cover and let sit for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes, take out and rinse thoroughly. Squeeze any excess water from the mushrooms, and slice thinly.
4. Add sliced shiitake mushrooms in a bowl and add 1 Tbsp of the “noodle and mushroom marinade,” MIX and let it sit for 20 minutes.
5. Next boil water in a large pot to cook the spinach. Dip the spinach in the boiled water for 10 seconds and drain, run cold water on the leaves until cooled. Squeeze any extra water out.
6. Add “spinach seasoning” to the spinach in a bowl and mix lightly and evenly.
7. Boil a large pot of water, large enough to fit the glass noodles. Boil for 7 minutes in medium to high heat, test the texture of the noodles as it hits the 7 minute mark and leave in longer if you prefer the noodles to be more soft. Drain and run noodles under cold water. Cut the noodle 3-4 times then add “noodle and mushroom marinade,” mix and let sit.
8. Begin with cooking the egg white and yolk. Separate the yolk from the egg white beat both in separate bowls and cook both separately with a little oil on the pan. Once cooked, slice into thin strips.
9. In the same pan add a little more oil, put on medium heat and cook the sliced onions. cook until translucent with a pinch of salt usually around 5 minutes on medium heat. (Depending on how you like your onions, you can take them out earlier for more of a bite or cook them longer for a more flexible texture.) Take onions out and set aside in a small bowl.
10. With the same pan cook the julienned carrots with a tad of oil to coat the pan. Add a pinch of salt and cook until your desired softness, for me it was around 5 minutes on medium to low heat.
11. Then take the marinaded shiitake mushrooms and in the same pan with a dash of oil and cook for 3 minutes.
12. Cook the marinated chicken on medium heat with a little oil coating the same pan. Cook for 7 minutes until cooked through.
13. Now stir fry the marinated glass noodles for 3 minutes.
14. In a large bowl mix all ingredients together. Mix in noodles, carrots, onions, mushrooms, chicken, and spinach until well combined.
15. ENJOY THIS YUMMY DISH!! 🙂
HERE IS AN IMAGE OF HOW MINES TURNED OUT!
StoryOfMyLife 