Saturday, October 29, 2011

Intimidation over. Jap Chae is served!

Ever since I first tried Jap Chae at Kai's Japanese Restaurant back at home (in Alameda, CA) I've craved it! We were visiting all of our family (we moved to AZ in 07' but all of our family is still there in CA) and we ate at one of the local favorites; Kai's. At Kai's they never fail to amaze me with the quality and taste of their food. I normally get sushi, but this time I got a Teriyaki Chicken Bento Box! Amazing meal!! I decided I had to find out what these noodles were called and I had to re-create them myself! I've been so intimidated to even begin to make them, but now it's different. The more I cook and the more recipes I make, I keep wanting to try new things! So I gathered many Jap Chae recipes, watched YouTube videos with people making the noodle dish, and tried it the first time tonight. SUCCESS!
The Jap Chae Sauce was amazing! The brand is "Wang" but I can't even find a picture of the bottle on Google which is really odd. I'm so glad I found it at the Asian Market though! I highly recommend it!
NOTE: Jap Chae is a traditional Korean dish. Why it was in a Japanese restaurant I don't know, but my in-laws loved mine 10x better than the one at Kai's! :)

Ingredients:
3/4 of a Red Bell Pepper, julienned and cut into 1 inch pieces
3/4 of a Yellow Bell Pepper, julienned 
1 Carrot, julienned into matchsticks
2 Green Onion Stalks, cut in 1 inch pieces
1/2 a small onion, thinly sliced
Toasted Sesame Seeds (as much as you see fit)
250 grams Glass Noodles (which is 1/2 of the 500g bag)
6oz Jap Chae Sauce from the asian market
3 hand-fulls of Fresh Spinach

Directions:
1. Boil the glass noodles in a large pot of boiling water for about 5 minutes and check the texture. If they're done then remove them from the pot and set aside in a bowl (reserving the boiling water). Cut the noodles in a few places because the noodles are very long. Place the spinach into the boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and set spinach aside in another small bowl.
2. Cook the red/yellow bell pepper, carrot, onion, and green onion in a pan with alittle olive oil. Cook for 4 minutes (until tender but still crisp). Set aside in another bowl.
3. In the pan that you cooked the vegetables in, place the glass noodles into the pan on medium heat and add the Jap Chae Sauce. Stir until sauce covers all the noddles.
4. Add your vegetable mixture, spinach, and sesame seeds into the glass noodles and cook until hot (mixing everything together well).

No comments:

Post a Comment