South Korea: Jap Chae

Despite the Italian/ Irish /Polish prevalence in my hometown, I developed an insatiable love of Asian food at a very early age. Most girls around me requested cookies or pizza for their birthday... I wanted hibachi. 

When first learning to cook, I made stir fry constantly. It seemed so easy to me to fry everything up together in one big pan, and it yielded such great results. Now that I've expanded my cooking repertoire, there's still something about the flavors in a stir fry that keep me coming back consistently.

Anyway, my friend Kim sent me this recipe for a Korean stir fry, Jap Chae, so of course I had to make it immediately.

Serves 4

Ingredients

6 ounces uncooked sweet potato noodles (If you can't find, substitute rice vermicelli)

4 oz. spinach

4 oz. shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 carrot, thinly sliced

.5 onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1-2 green onions, cut into inch long pieces

1.5 tablespoons oil for frying

5 tablespoons soy sauce

2.5 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Toasted sesame seeds

Step 1: Whisk together soy sauce and sugar. Set aside.

Step 2: Boil noodles for about 5 minutes until cooked through.

Step 2: Drain and run under cold water. 

Step 3: Cut noodles to (approximately) 6 inches in length. Set aside.

Step 4: Boil more water and blanche spinach for 1 minute. 

Step 5: Drain and run under cold water.

Step 6: Form spinach into a tight ball to remove excess water.

Step 7: Cut the spinach ball in half and set aside.

Step 8: Heat oil and add carrots, garlic, onion and mushrooms. Cook for about 2 minutes. (Carrots should still be crisp).

Step 9: Add green onion and cook for an additional minute.

Step 10: Turn off heat and add noodles, spinach, soy sauce/ sugar mixture, sesame oil, and optional Sriracha. Mix well.

Step 11: Top generously with sesame seeds. Serve at room temperature. 

(I also like to top generously with Sriracha)