Jap chae - Glass Noodles with Beef and Vegetables - (잡채)

I hardly ever make jap chae at home because it's a bit tedious and just so much easier to buy pre-made at the K-market. But I know a lot of people are interested in learning how to make jap chae, so I decided to make it today when I knew I would have time.

Needed:

• jap chae (glass noodles) - I would say I ended up with roughly 4 cups of cooked noodles.
• 3/4 cup of julienne carrots
  
• 1 cup of beef cut into thin slices
• 1/2 bunch of spinach blanched and cut into smaller pieces
• 1/2 cup of woodear mushroom washed and sliced into smaller pieces
  

This is a picture of what you will need to add to the noodles.



Start buy grabbing your noodles (in this case I used one bunch from the bag of this brand) and placing it into some cold water for use later.



Get some beef (I think this is flap meat) and wash it, then cut it into thin, long pieces using a scissor.



Drain some blood from the meat by letting it sit in cold water for a while, then remove the water and marinade the beef with the following: 1/2 TB soy sauce, 1 TB gook ganjang, 1 TB sesame oil, 1/3 TB sugar, 1 TB corn starch, and a dash of salt and pepper. Put it aside and continue onto the vegetables...



Make sure you wash your spinach thoroughly and then put it into boiling water for about one minute, remove from heat, and rinse under cold water. I used one whole bunch, so at this point I divided it into half.



Squeeze out as much liquid as you can (I use cheesecloth) and cut the spinach into smaller pieces using scissors and set aside.



Slice about 1/2 an onion very thinly and julienne your carrots (I use a mandolin to make the job a lot easier).



Grab about 3/4 cups of the woodear mushrooms and wash it under cool water. Then take a knife and cut it up into smaller pieces also and set aside.



Bring a pot (or in this case a wok) of water to a boil and add your glass noodles. It will need to cook anywhere from 7-8 minutes. You know it's done when the bite in the noodle is gone.



Rinse it under cold water and then take scissors and cut up the noodles into more manageable pieces. Let the noodles sit and drain out for a while because you want ALL the liquid to dry up. You know when the water is drained thoroughly when the noodles start to feel sticky.



Add the marinaded beef to the wok and saute it until almost done.



Then throw in the carrots and onions.



The mushrooms.



And finally the spinach. Mix everything around until all the vegetables look thoroughly cooked (about 5 minutes).



Spread this out in the wok and let it cool for about 10-15 minutes.



In the meantime, in order to suck up more liquid I took a paper towel and squeezed the noodles.



Then I added 1.5 TB sesame oil, 1 TB sesame seeds, 1 TB soy sauce, 1/2 TB gook ganjang.



Then throw in the vegetables and mix everything around with a gloved hand.



Mix it around as much as you can to make sure all the noodles are coated. At this point do a taste test and adjust the flavor with soy sauce.



You're now ready to plate and serve! I'm going to make jap chae bap with this later and I will be sure to post a how-to! =) Enjoy!