Korean
Japchae 잡채
Thirteen steps, layered in thirds, cooked under a lid on the lowest heat. This is a weekend dish, and the one most people ask her to bring.
- Serves
- 4 as a side, 2 as a meal
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 30 min
Ingredients
- Glass noodles ~200g
- 1 carrot
- 2 onions
- 1 red bell pepper
- Spinach ~200g
- Wood ear mushroom
Beef
- 300g beef, japchae-cut
- Sugar 1 tbsp
- Pepper ¼ tsp
- Salt ¼ tsp
- Soy 2 tbsp
- Oyster sauce 1 tbsp
- Cooking wine 1 tbsp
- Garlic 1 tbsp
Sauce
- Water 5 tbsp
- Sugar 2 tbsp
- Pepper 1 tsp
- Garlic 3 tbsp
- Cooking wine 3 tbsp
- Soy 4 tbsp
- Oyster sauce 1 tbsp
- Sesame oil 1 tbsp
- Olive oil 2 tbsp
Method
- Soak the noodles in cold water for 3 hours or more, then cut them with scissors. Soak the wood ear mushroom for 30 minutes.
- Marinate the beef. This can be done the day before.
- Mix the sauce. Julienne the vegetables.
- Heat a wide lidded pan on low for 3 to 4 minutes, then coat it with oil.
- Layer: a third of the onion, a third of the noodles, then the beef, then the carrot and mushrooms. Repeat three times.
- Pour over half the sauce. Cover and cook 20 minutes on the lowest heat, with the edges sealed.
- Toss. Add the greens, the pepper and the remaining sauce, then cover for 5 more minutes. Finish with sesame seeds.
The noodles are soaked, not boiled. Three hours in cold water does what six minutes in boiling water cannot, and it is the reason these strands stay springy instead of going soft in the pan.
Nothing is fried separately here. The whole dish is built in layers and left alone under a lid, which is why the edges need to seal and the heat needs to stay low.