Vegetarian Jap Chae

Audrey has been begging me to make Jap Chae for weeks.  It is her birthday week so my mom and I made this and the Chicken with Pineapple fried rice for her birthday dinner.  

Jap chae is a Korean dish that dates back to the 17th century.  It is made of sweet potato noodles (dangmyeon) stir fried in sesame oil with various vegetables flavored with soy sauce and sweetened with sugar.  It is usually garnished with sesame seeds.  The hardest part about making this is cutting the carrots into little matchsticks.  I think the carrots are the best part though.  Crunchy and sweet.  It is really important to stir fry all of the vegetables separately even though it is tempting to throw them all into the pan together.  You want to keep the flavors and colors of each vegetable to themselves until you mix them with the noodles.  The noodles are a Korean glass noodles and almost disappear into the water when they are boiling.  Its pretty neat to see (or not to see haha).  Hope you love it! 

Ingredients:

1 bundle of potato starch cellophane noodles (at the Asian market it is called dangmyeon)
5 oz of fresh spinach
1/2 medium yellow onion, julienned
2 carrots, peeled and cut into match sticks
1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
8-10 fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced
2 stalks green onions, sliced in 1.5” slices (green parts only)
2 cloves garlic, minced
Canola oil  (amounts will vary, please see directions)
soy sauce  (amounts will vary, please see directions)
sesame oil (amounts will vary, please see directions)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Make the noodles:  Boil one bundle of noodles for 5 minutes until they are al dente.  Drain the noodles and do not rinse.  Add noodles to a large mixing bowl and cut them three or four times with kitchen shears.  Add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and two tablespoons of sesame seed oil to the noodles and toss until the sauce is evenly distributed and set aside.
Using the same pot as the noodles, add just a little bit of water (2 inches or so) and boil the spinach for 1 minute.  Drain the spinach and let it cool just enough and then squeeze as much water out as possible.

 Massage the spinach with 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Really massage it don't be afraid to get your hands dirty here.  Add spinach to the large noodle filled bowl.

Heat a wok or large frying pan on high.  Add 1 teaspoon of canola oil and cook sliced onions for 2 minutes stirring them as they start to turn translucent.  Season with a 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Add the onions to the bowl of noodles.  Repeat the same process as the onions except reduce cooking times to 1  minute for the carrots, 2 minutes for the bell red pepper, 1 minute for the shiitake mushrooms, and 10 seconds for the green onions.

Add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, and 2 tablespoons of sugar, and ½ teaspoon of ground pepper to the noodle bowl and use your hands to mix everything together.

Add 1 tablespoon of canola oil to the hot wok and add minced garlic.  Allow garlic to cook for a few seconds and add the entire bowl of  noodles and vegetables to the wok/pan.  Stir-fry everything for 2-3 minutes.  

Transfer noodles to a large serving platter and sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top.  Serve warm or cold.  Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from  herbivoracious.com