hello! hi everyone, Wesley here. Today we're diving back into our series dedicated to Korean comfort food classics with a shot at the Korean glass noodle dish known as japchae. For those unfamiliar, japchae is most iconically made using a sweet potato glass noodle known as dangmyeon, topped with an assortment of veggies, then tossed in a sweet and savory soy sauce and sesame oil glaze. Although japchae is very commonly paired with a thinly sliced and barbecued piece of beef known as bulgogi (which is how we'll be preparing ours today as well), vegetarian versions of this dish are also fairly common too, and in fact, I think I've most commonly come across this dish in restaurants without protein at all, served as a small plate "banchan" dish to be shared before the main courses arrive.
In any case since we'll be serving ours with a bulgogi beef, this means that we are once again diving into the tricky and complicated world of recreating the smokey sear and flavor of a BBQ beef without...a barbecue. This of course is particularly difficult with a bulgogi beef because of the high sugar content in its asian pear-based marinade, meaning that we'll be walking a fine line between searing and...burning those sugars (is there a difference? I mean, yeah. sort of). Hope you try it.
Serves 2-3
INGREDIENTS
8 oz sweet potato glass noodles
6 shiitake mushrooms
4 cloves garlic
1 inch (about 1 tbsp) ginger
4 green onions
3 inches carrot
3 inches cucumber
1lb flank steak
3 egg yolks
kosher salt
peanut oil
INGREDIENTS (marinade)
1 medium Asian pear
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp mirin
INGREDIENTS (sauce)
4 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or 2 tbsp full sodium soy sauce)
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sesame seed
PREP
REHYDRATE the glass noodles for 10 minutes in boiling water
REHYDRATE the shiitake mushrooms for 10 minutes in boiling water
CRUSH and mince the garlic, set aside
FINE MINCE the ginger, set aside
SLICE the onion, set aside
SEPARATE the whites and greens of the green onions, then slice the whites thinly, and slice the greens into planks
JULIENNE the carrots, set aside
REMOVE the cucumber seeds, then julienne and set aside
SLICE the flank steak against the grain into thin strips, then combine with shiitake mushrooms and all marinade ingredients
GRATE the Asian pear into the marinade, then mix to combine and let marinate for 30 minutes
SEPARATE 3 egg yolks from their whites, then whisk the egg yolks to combine with a pinch of kosher salt, set aside
COMBINE all sauce ingredients, set aside
ON THE STOVE
HEAT a woke over medium low heat, add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the egg yolks and spread evenly across the wok, then let the eggs set for about 1-2 minutes
FLIP the egg pancake, then remove to a cutting board and slice into thin strips
HEAT the wok as hot as possible, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the carrots and onions and saute for 2-3 minutes, then remove and set aside
HEAT the wok over medium heat, then add 4 tbsp peanut oil and long yao
ADD the steak about 20 pieces at a time, then sear for 2 minutes undisturbed before tossing with the wok tilted downward for wok hei
STRAIN the glass noodles, then combine all ingredients and sauce ingredients
CUT the noodles into quarters with kitchen shears before serving