made in MyKitchen | vegetarian japchae / korean stir fried glass noodles
Korean steamed white rice is very starchy and can fill the tummy up pretty quickly, so much so that sometimes, i prefer to order japchae, or Korean stir fried glass noodles instead, to go with other dishes..
japchae is a dish consisting of glass noodles (made of either mung bean or sweet potato) stir fried in sesame oil with vegetables and meat, and seasoned with soy sauce or other seasonings.. it’s a really simple and easy dish to whip up and very easy on the palate as well.. its mild flavors makes it less intimidating compared to most other spicy Korean dishes and is suitable as a starter dish for those getting their taste buds introduced to Korean food for the first time.. 
glass noodles, or dangmyeon in Korean is gluten free and looks like translucent jelly strings when cooked.. in Chinese (Hokkien), it’s called tang hoon, and can be easily found in most shops selling dried food items.. it’s also referred to as cellophane noodles, due to its translucence .. it’s very similar to the common vermicelli, or bee hoon which is made of rice flour which turns an opaque color when cooked.. it’s easy to mistake one for the other.. however, if you take a closer look at the two, you’ll quickly notice that dried glass noodles look really translucent, almost like dried thin jelly strips..
just like vermicelli, it needs to be soaked in water for at least an hour to soften before cooking.. either that, or drop it right into boiling water to soften for about 2-3 minutes.. take the noodles out and rinse it under cold running water for a few seconds to stop the cooking process and it’s ready to be used.. sometimes i add it to stir fried loofa gourd (petola in Malay) with thin tofu sheets, just the way mom cooks it.. it’s also delicious in chicken and dried lily buds soup..
*drifting away*
anyhoo~
today’s recipe is my version of a vegetarian japchae that is a huge favorite of hubs.. just like most types of noodles, glass noodles doesn’t have a taste to it, and needs to be flavored with seasonings..i prefer to use oyster sauce to flavor the noodles, as it’s milder and not as salty as soy sauce.. as the pre-sauteed vegetables are already seasoned with salt, oyster sauce balances everything out just nicely without excess saltiness to it..
you can garnish your japchae with either lightly toasted sesame seeds or, if you don’t have any, chopped spring onions or chives will do just as beautifully..
VEGETARIAN JAPCHAE / KOREAN STIR FRIED GLASS NOODLES
Ingredients :
- tang hoon/glass noodles, soaked in water to soften
- dried/fresh shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced
- carrot, sliced into match sticks
- traffic light capsicums, thinly sliced
- garlic, chopped
- oyster sauce
- fine sea salt
- a dash of ground black pepper
- a bit of sesame oil
Method :
- heat up some vegetable oil+sesame oil and saute half of the garlic until fragrant
- add in carrot sticks and stir fry. add salt to taste
- when done, scoop stir fried carrot sticks out onto a plate
- in the same wok/pan, stir fry traffic light capsicums and mushrooms individually, the same way as carrot sticks
- when done, arrange (or not, doesn’t really matter) each stir fried veg component on the plate. set aside
- in the same wok/pan, heat up more oil if needed and saute the rest of the garlic until fragrant
- add in some water, oyster sauce and a dash of ground black pepper
- when the mixture starts to boil, add in softened glass noodles and stir fry until all the liquid is absorbed by the noodles. the noodles should not be wet but nicely dry and springy at this point
- turn the heat off and add in all the stir fried vegetables
- mix everything up evenly
- garnish with either chopped parsley or lightly toasted sesame seeds
- serve, and enjoy
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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