Japchae (잡채)

Japchae originates from Joseon Dynasty.
It was originally made to please a king.
At first the food consisted of only vegetables but sweet potato noodles became an ingredient in early 20C.

- Ingredients

(for 2 servings)

 1/4 pound dried Korean sweet potato noodles
sesame oil
cooking oil
pork(200g/ thin strips)
1 thinly sliced onion
5 shiitake mushrooms(thinly sliced)
1 carrot( " )
a handful of spinach
1.5 Tbs of soy sauce
1 tbs of sugar
2 cloves of garlic(minced)
sesame seeds, sesame oil


- Recipe

1.Boil water and put sweet potato noodles. After cooking it for 5 minutes, rinse with cold water and drain it. Cut the noodle 2 times.

2.Repeat the following procedure for carrot, onion, mushrooms
-Fry it with some cooking oil, salt for about a minute.

3.Stir fry pork strips with 1/2 Tbs of soy sauce, 1 clove of minced garlic, a pinch of sugar, a bit of cooking oil.

4.Put 1 Tbs of cooking oil on a pan and fry the drained noodle with 1 Tbs of soy sauce.

5. Put fried noodles, vegetables, and pork into a big bowl and mix all with 1 clove of minced garlic, ground black pepper, 1 tbs of sugar, 1 tbs of sesame oil and sesame seeds.

6. If it tastes flat, put some more soy sauce and sugar up to your taste.