Jap Chae

If I have an option, I prefer Korean food to Chinese. I could have Korean everyday and I don’t mind at all. No offense to Chinese as I am Chinese myself, but they taste healthier and not as greasy. One of a must dish that I usually have in Korean restaurant is Jap Chae, because my toddler loves noodle and this is the only thing that he want to eat at Korean restaurant. So, you see  I really don’t have any choice to not ordering this dish.

Jap Chae is a translucent glass noodle made from sweet potato starch. It is stir fried with various vegetables (such as carrot, spinach, onion and mushroom) and sesame oil. It could be combined with beef or seafood, flavoured with soy sauce and sweetened with some sugar. It also could be topped with shredded egg omelet, sesame seeds and spring onions. They taste very light and healthy.

This is my second attempt on cooking Jap Chae. It is a simple dish to cook for a quick healthy meal, but I couldn’t say my first attempt on cooking this dish is a big success. I used an average quality of sesame oil, as a result I need heaps of sesame oil to get the smell of sesame. I kept adding more oil as a result it tasted very greasy. It was okay when it was hot, but at that time we were going out of town and it was autumn. I packed some of them in a lunch box. Goodness me, it was pretty disgusting as we could see the cold gelatin of oil around the noodle. We ended up having a ready pack cheap sausage rolls and hot dog.

For this second attempt, I pretty much searched the whole aisle of oil shelf to make sure I get the best quality sesame oil. To my surprise there is a black sesame oil that I never aware of. I thought they are the same just different quality. This black sesame oil has a very strong intense smell of sesame and it is just perfect for my Jap Chae.

For those you want to try cooking this dish, I suggest:

• To have a ready good quality black sesame oil ready in the pantry.
• Cut and slice all the ingredients before hand. Then boil the water for cooking the noodle.
• While you heat the wok for cooking the vegetables, the noodle has to be in the pot already. Well you have to multitask though. In 5 minutes the noodle is ready to be drained, washed in cold water to stop the cooking process and tossed with black sesame oil. By that time, all the vegetables will ready to be tossed with the noodle.

To see the recipe, click here.

Preparation time (duration): 45

Culinary tradition: Korean

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