Korean Sweet Potato Glass Noodle (Japchae)

25Apr2018
This week is princess recess week. Since she is at home, I can make this korean glass noodle which I had bought a few week ago. I always look forward to my children to be around so that I could cook special dish for them.

On a normal day, I will just settle with simple lunch.

My mum-in-law likes to cook also glass noodle. But she usually uses the very fine and thin white glass noodle. She cooks glass noodle with minced meat and eggs without veggies. Hers is real savory without any sugar added. The type that I used in this recipes are the thicker type which is a little grey in colour. There are made from sweet potato. Mum-in-law uses those made from green beans.

While I was searching for Korea glass noodle or also called sweet potato glass noodle 冬粉, I realised that those selling in the supermarket are mostly made in China although they are called Korean Glass noodle.

As I could not find any Korean glass noodle that are  made in Korea, even those Korean branded in the supermarket that I have patronised are made in China, so I have to settle with China made Korean Glass Noodle.

Daughter was delighted when she saw the noodle. She took second serving after she finished those in her plate. When she is happy, I am happy too😁

This is the recipe :

Ingredients :

140gm Korean Glass Noodle/ Sweet Potato Noodle (Half pkt of 284g)

3 pcs Dried shitake mushroom, soak in water to soften, then cut into thin strips

3-4pcs Black fungus, soak to soften then cut into thin strps

1/2 Carrots , cut into thin strips

1/2 Red Capsicum

2-3 leaves of Cabbages, cut into thin strips

1/2 Red Big Onion, slice into thin strips

2-3 stalks of Spring onion, cut into 1inch length 

150g Beef( i used frozen shabu shabu), cut into strips

1 tbsp cooking oil( i use olive oil)

Some fried white sesame(optional)

Some Water for boiling noodle

Seasonings:

For mushroom:

1tsp minced garlic

1/2 tbsp light soy sauce

Dash of pepper

For Beef:

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp raw sugar (can use any type of sugar)

1/2 tbsp cooking wine

1/2 tbsp sesame oil

Dash of black pepper (can use white pepper)

For Noodle;

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp raw sugar (can use any type of sugar)

1/2 tbsp cooking wine

1 tbsp sesame oil

Method:

1. Boil water in pot. Once water is boiled, add in the noodle. When the noodle is soften, approx. 1-2min. Off the heat. Remove from water and rinse the noodle with cold water until noodle is cold. Set aside

2. Season cut mushroom and beef with seasoning accordingly. Set aside. 

3.  Use a non-stick wok/pan, add oil. Add in sliced onion. Stir fry onion until is soften, add seasoned mushroom and also black fungus. Stir until mushroom is fragrance, add seasoned beef and carrots and cabbages. Stir fry until beef is about cooked, add capsicum. Stir fry 1-2 min until beef is totally cooked. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. In the same wok, add the cooked glass noodle as in the above (1). Add also the noodle seasoning. Stir fry and mix them well. Return the beef mushroom mixture from above (3) into the fry pan/wok.. Mix them well. Add spring onion. Mix well. Sprinkle some fried white sesame.  Remove from heat. Dish japchae/galss noodle into individual serving plate. Serve. 

Enjoy😊

Note:

1. As my daughter doesn't like savory food sweet, so I have reduced the sugar. You may add extra sugar if you prefer more sweet taste japchae.

2. You may adjust the seasonning accordingly to your taste.

3. You may replace cabbages with spinach or other green vegetables.

You may be interested in the following recipes too :

1. kimchi making

2. kimchi-meat-soup

3. homemade-fried-meat-ball

Kimchi Meat Soup

Kimchi soup using minced meat with taukwa and mushroom

Kimchi soup with pork sabu sabu and glass noodle

Homemade kimchi.

Ingredients:
2 cups of water
1 clove garlic - minced
1/2 yellow onion - sliced
1 tbsp salted soya bean(豆鼓)
1/2 tbsp korean chilli paste
Kimchi - any amount ( I used homemade)
3 tablespoon minced meat or beef shabu shabu
1 pc of tau kwa(hard beancurd) -cut into pieces
1 pkt Enoki mushroom
2 stalks spring onion -  cut inch length
1 stalk chinese celery - cut  inch length
1 tbsp fish sauce


Method:
1. Put water into a pot and bring to boil. Add sliced yellow onion , garlic, salted soya bean and korean chilli paste.

2. Seasoned minced meat with 1-2 tsp light soy sauce, dash of pepper, 1 tsp sesame oil and 1 tsp cornflour. No seasoning required if use beef shabu shabu.

3. Use spoon to scoop minced meat into small balls and add into the boiling mixture. Add kimchi.

4. Remove the "root" part of Enoki mushroom. Rinse. Then add the Enoki mushroom and tua kwa into soup.

5. Add 1/2 - 1 tbsp of fish sauce and light soy sauce into soup or your desired taste.

6. Sprinkle cut spring onion and chinese celery. Remove from fire and place soup into a bowl and serve with rice.

P.s. : you may add tanghoon /glass noodle in above 4.

You may replaced pork with beef sabu sabu or sliced chicken.

You may like to view also my other post:
1. kimchi
2. kimchi-pancake

Kimchi

Kimchi is my favorite and also my children favorite too. Kimchi that sell in supermarket are very expensive. So I decided to make my own homemade Singapore style kimchi using local fresh chillies and SanDong chilli flake that I can easily buy from Sheng Siong supermarket and local knife brand fish sauce. You can use any kind of chilli flake. I find korean chilli flake is too expensive. Good grade korean brand chilli flake is about $13.90 per 200g and korean fish sauce is about $5.90 per bottle (forgotten the quantity but it is smaller bottle than the knife brand but easily 3 times the price of local fish sauce).. One big chinese cabbage can be easily found in NTUC supermarket and cost about $2.00 depend on the weight. So you know why I learn to make my own homemade kimchi?

One of my Korean friend complimented that my kimchi taste quite like her mum's homemade...though I am not sure and have not tasted her mum's kimchi but I was flattered.. hehehe.. ^^ and of course it encourages me to make more too.... and again and again.. I hope you will like this kimchi too.

Ingredients :

1 whole Wong Bak ( chinese cabbage)

1/2 cup of salt

Kimchi sauce ingredients :

2 tbsp glutinous rice flour

250mil water

1/2 cup fish sauce

1/2 cup chilli flakes

10 stalks spring onion

thumb size old ginger

8 cloves of garlic

1 green apple

5 fresh red chillies

1 tsp sugar

Method 1

Plug out every leaves cabbage  and wash it clean.

Apply salt on every leave and set it asidein a big basin to let the water in cabbage to drain off. Take about 2 hours.

After 2 hours you will see alot of water in the basin and the cabbages is soft and not easily break. Drain the water and rinse cabbages with water. Squeeze out any excess water. Cut into 2cm length. 

Method 2 (sauce)

1.Mix glutinous rice flour with water in a pot and boil when it is thicken and until you see the colour turn slight translucent and slighty boiled. Stir in between to prevent burnt. Off fire once see it is slight boiled that is when there is slight bubble. Set aside to let the mixture (I called it porridge) cool down.

2. Wash spring onion and cut into length of 1 inch., set aside

3. Put ginger, garlic, fresh chillies, green apple and fish sauce into a blender and blend it fine. I add fish sauce here because the mixture can be very thick and difficult to blend.

4. Prepare a big pot and pour "3"  and "porridge" into it

5. Add in the chilli flakes, sugar, cut spring onion. Mix it well.

Method 3

1.Combine sauce (in method 2) and cut cabbages ( in method 3) together. Mix it well.

2.Store it in a small container with lid and leave it in room temperature overnight uncover if you want your kimchi to be sour. It can be eaten immediately after mixed.

3. Next morning, cover with the lid and keep in fridge. Serve anytime you like.

Enjoy making kimchi....  (^ ^)

Updated 4/Dec/2015:

I used the olden way to make the kimchi. I used the traditional pounder to pound the garlic and ginger and apples. It was more difficult to do it...but find it tastes nicer. Just my new updates.. :)

Haveva blessed day.

You may be also interested in these recipe :

1. topokki/tteokbokki/korean-rice-cake

2. tang-hoon-prawn-glass-vermicelli

You can also find me in facebook page Catherine's Cooking Journal .

28Oct2016 Updates:

Added additional ingredients to kimchi

Additional ingredients:

1 Raddish cut into thin strips

1 Carrots cut into thin strips

2-3 stalks of chinese celery cut into inch length

10 stalks of green chives cut  into inch length

To blend with garlic and ginger:

(Under the above sauce 'Method2' step3)

1 big yellow onion

2 tbsp chinchalok(fermented small shrimps)

Updates on 14Jun2018:

We just returned from Seoul trip. During the trip, we eat the real Korean kimchi almost everyday. In our 1st day there, we went to eat Samgyetang in Jongno-gu near Bukchon village. When my children put the restuarant's kimchi into their mouth, the 1st comment daughter made was "Mmmmmm... tastes like mummy's kimchi!" Haha.. I was flattered..  Then the rest of the family also started to try their kimchi and all said the same. I was really flattered by their comments. Haha..lol.. "the authentic Korean kimchi tastes like mummy's kimchi" is a tall hat for mummy. Still I am happy to hear from my family.😊

Since the comments from my family were so good, we did not buy any kimchi from Korea but I bought Korean chilli instead. 

Yesterday, I made kimchi using the chilli I bought from Korea. This is the combination using international ingredients making Korean Kimchi with same method as above:

Singapore local brand fish sauce + Korean chilli + Auatralia chinese cabbages + Malaysia spring onion + China garlic & ginger + Thailand glutinous rice flour😄

This is an economical way of making kimchi with international ingredients!

Do leave your comments if you like this recipe. Thanks