japchae (korean-style stir fried noodles)

We have a Korean cousin who can cook really good food. We live so far away from them now and we miss them (and their Korean food) so much. So we tried to recreate it. I love getting recipes from www.maangchi.com! 

Ingredients:

Korean starch noodle "dangmyun" - 2 bunches
Beef - 1/3 lbs
Spinach - 1 bunch
Carrots - 1 med (sliced)
Onion - 1 med (sliced)
Shiitake mushroom - 1/2 cup (soaked and sliced)
White mushroom - 2 cups (sliced)
Garlic - 3 cloves (minced)
Green onion - 6 stalks

Eggs - 2 (beaten) 

[seasoning to prepare]
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Sugar
Pepper
Sesame seeds

Korean noodle

Prep: 

1. Soak shiitake mushroom in warm water. Squeeze water and slice thinly.
2. Slice white mushrooms, carrots (matchstick-shaped pieces 5 cm long), green onions (7 cm long pieces), and onion into thin slices. 
3. Wash spinach.
4. Slice beef and marinade with 1 tsp of soy sauce and dash of salt and pepper. 

Cook: **see TIPS

1. Bring big pot of water to boil. Add bunch of spinach and blanch for 1 minute. Take it out and wash it in cold water couple of times and cut into 5 cm length. Add in 1/2 TBS of soy sauce and 1 tsp of sesame oil to spinach. Keep the boiling water.
2. In the same pot of hot water, boil 2 bunches of noodles in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain and put in a large bowl.
3. Using scissors, cut the noodles into shorter strands and add 1 TBS of soy sauce and 1 TBS of sesame oil. Mix and set it aside.
4. On a frying pan or wok, put a 2 tsp of olive oil. Fry carrot strips and stir it consistently for couple of minutes (until somewhat soft). Take it out on a big serving dish.
5. Add another 2 tsp of olive oil and fry sliced onion and fry until translucent (about 3-4 minutes). Take it out in the serving dish with carrots. 
6. In the same wok, fry sliced white mushrooms and fry for 2 minutes. Put it together with carrots and onions.
7. Fry green onion next. Add in 1 tsp of olive oil if the pan is dry. Fry for 1 minute. Take it out.
8. On the same wok or frying pan, add 2 tsp of olive oil. Fry together with shiitake mushrooms. Cook until meat is done. Add in 3 cloves of minced garlic, 1/2 TBS soy sauce, and 1/2 TBS sugar. Cook for another minute and add them in the large bowl with other veggies.
9. Add 2 tbs of soy sauce, 3 tbs of sugar, 2 tbs of sesame oil, and 1 ts of ground pepper to the large bowl. Mix all ingredients, then sprinkle 1 tbs of toasted sesame seeds on the top.

Serve:

1. Cook thin slices of egg (with 1 tsp salt) on frying pan and cut into thin slices for garnish on top.
2. Serve with rice and Kimchi, or as a side dish. (I didn't know it was a side dish! we had it as a main dish. haha)
3. We also made Korean green onion pancake along this dish. It turned out great!

TIPS

•  Don't let the long instruction stop you from making this dish! Basically, you fry everything separately and mix everything at the end. Just pay attention to the bold seasonings.