Japche

What do you prefer rice or noodles? I always thought that I like noodles more, but if I had to eat one every day, it would be rice. But noodles are pretty good too.

Tonight I made a very traditional Korean noodle dish called japche. Japche, songpyun (a holiday dessert of sweetly stuffed sticky and soft rice cake) and bulgogi (directly translated as "fire meat") were the first three foods I learned about in Korea. I found out about them while preparing for my first 5th grade lesson titled "Do You Want Some More?"

Do you like bulgogi?

-Yes, I do. I like bulgogi.

Do you want some more?

-No, thanks. I'm full.  

Try and find a way to stretch that into 40 minutes and that should give you an idea of what my job is like.

Anyway, to make japche you should posses the following:

vermicelli noodles
vegetables such as:
a carrot (traditional)
an onion (traditional)
shiitake mushrooms (I used a different kind of mushroom pictured below)
spinach (I didn't use spinach because apparently it is expensive this time of year)
bell pepper(not traditional, but I've seen it)
green onion (if you want)
garlic (ditto)
ground beef (not much, this is supposed to be a noodle/vegetable dish. In fact, I didn't use any meat tonight)
soy sauce
sesame oil
sesame seeds

These are the mushrooms I used instead of shiitakes. They are cheaper and they are the kind my school uses all the time in japche. I am not sure what they are called, but you see them everywhere around here. I think I may have even read them referred to as 'Korean mushrooms.'

To cook japche follow these steps"

Step one: Throw a good handful of vermicelli noodles into boiling water. I didn't throw enough in there at first so when the first batch was finished, I added another. I blame it on our one ridiculously small soup pot. Living frugally does have its drawbacks.

Step two: While waiting for your water to boil, thinly slice all of your veg (I used one onion, one carrot and maybe the equivalent of for shiitakes) except the spinach, then fry it in a all with a little bit of oil (I used canola). Throw the ground beef in there too if you are doing that. Add a little bit of soy sauce and sesame oil. I don't know maybe a tablespoon of soy sauce and a half a tablespoon of sesame oil. Don't overdo it. When the carrot slices have wilted, remove all veg from heat.

Step three: Remove the noodles, but save the water. I just threw them into the frying pan with the veg, heat turned off.

Step four: If you are using spinach, drop it in the boiling water used for the noodles. When it wilts, quickly throw it into a bowl of ice water.

Step five: Season the noodles and veg with a little more soy sauce and sesame oil to taste. Add green onion and chopped garlic if you want. I definitely recommend a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

Step six: Back to that pesky spinach. See why I didn't use it? Remove it from the cold water, wring it dry, season with a tiny pit of sesame oil and soy sauce. Add it to the noodles and veg. I like to turn the heat back on the pan for a minute or so and make sure that all of the flavors really combine. Don't burn the garlic though ok. Oh, and I guess some people add a little sugar in there too, but I didn't and didn't notice anything different.

That's it. Pretty easy right? And darn tasty. Funny thing is that japche is actually on the menu tomorrow at school. I guess I will get a chance to see how mine stacks up.