Welcome valued customer to the prestigious OneHallyu Food of the Month Club.
Each month we will bring you a different piece of delicious Korean food or drink for your visual pleasure.
Also you can totally then find recipes or places that sell them and try them.
This weeks delicious food is one of my personal favourites, 당면 (Jap Chae).
Jap Chae is just a type of stir-fry and this makes it an incredibly versatile dish. The core ingredients are effectively the sweet potato vermicelli and soy sauce, so feel free to get a bit inventive with the ingredients. Green (dwarf) beans and soya beans both make a great addition to the dish.
If you’re a vegetarian, this one is a great dish because the meat is entirely optional. If you decide to use squashes, sweet potato or pumpkin to bulk out the dish, I would advise boiling them first to soften them.
Meat-eaters can make the dish a bit more interesting by trying different marinades on the meat. Why not try a bulgogi marinade on the beef before it’s used in the Jap Chae? (I’ll try and bring you bulgogi in a future Food of the Month!
Recipe
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
20 Oz/567 G – Sweet potato vermicelli
6 Oz/170 G – Beef tenderloin (any beef frying steak will do)
0.5 Large onion
0.5 Carrot (or one small carrot)
1 Salad pepper (bell pepper)
10 mushrooms (tree ear or shitake are my favourites for this)
4 Spring onions
1 Tbsp Soy sauce (dark)
Pinch of salt
1 Tbsp Sesame oil
2 Tbsp Vegetable oil
Method
1. Soak the vermicelli in water for 12 hours in a refrigerator. ( I have found that in reality these only need soaking for an hour or so, but I would err on the side of caution as it may just be the brand I buy.)
2. Peel and slice carrot into thin strips about 1 inch long.
3. Cut pepper into slices a similar length and slightly thicker than the carrot slices.
4. Slice mushrooms. How you slice will depend on what mushrooms you have, but aim for thin strips!
5. Slice onion into 0.25 inch thick slices.
6. Trim off the spring onion roots and cut into 3 inch long pieces.
7. Slice beef into thin strips.
8. Put vegetable oil in a frying pan and stir fry beef on a medium high heat until outside is browned.
9. Add carrot and onion and continue to stir fry for 4 minutes.
10. Add mushrooms, spring onions, salad pepper, vermicelli, soy sauce, salt and sesame oil and continue to stir fry for 2-3 minutes.
11. Serve into bowls straight from the hob.
Need advice on the recipe or a substitution? Let me know in the comments!
