Jap Chae

(serves 4)

One thing i find interesting is how most Asian food uses approx the same condiments (soy sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce), but different cultures choose a different one to focus on and it makes their cuisine very distinctive!
From my observations, the Chinese primarily use soy sauce and oyster sauce; Thai use fish sauce with lemongrass, lime and palm sugar; Viet use fish sauce and more lemon/lime; Korenas use more sesame oil and chilli; Jap use soy sauce, mirin and cooking sake... The great thing with this is i don't have to do too much extra shopping to try out making other types of Asian food! 

Jap chae is a great Korean dish (that isn't too chilli) made with sweet potato noodles, a mix of vegies and a fair bit of sesame oil! It's super tasty, with a great chewy-ness to the noodles and doesn't bring me to tears from spicyness!

Prep time: 20 min
Cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients:
400g sweet potato noodles (dried)
2 carrots
300 g baby spinach 
1 brown onion
1 red capsicum
1 yellow capsicum
5 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked for at least 2 hrs in cold water
3 cloves garlic
8 stems of green shallots
250g bulgogi beef (optional)

Dressing
4 Tbsp Soy sauce
4 Tbsp Sesame Oil
4 Tbsp Sugar
1/2 to 1 tsp white pepper
Sesame Seeds

Method:
1. Finely grate the carrot.
2. Cut the onion, shallots and capsicum into thin strips.
3. Finely dice the garlic.
4. Boil the sweet potato noodles in boiling water in a big pot for 3 minutes, until soft. When the noodles are soft, drain them and put in a large bowl. Cut the noodles using scissors and mix through with 1T soy sauce and 1 T sesame oil and put aside.
5. Wash and dry the spinach. Heat a pan and cook with 1 tsp oil for 1-2 minutes until soft. Remove from the pan and drain to remove any excess water before putting it in with the noodles.
6. Heat the pan with 1 tsp oil, then add the carrot, capsicum and onion and cook for 3-5 minutes until soft. Add the shallots and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Remove vegetables from pan and put into large bowl with noodles.

7. Finely slice the shiitake mushrooms. Heat a pan with 1 tsp oil and add the shiitake mushrooms, cook for 1-2 minutes, then add the garlic and the beef and cook for another 1-2 minutes, add 1/2 T soy sauce and 1/2 T sesame oil. Mix through and then remove and place into large bowl with noodles.

8. To make the dressing, mix 2 T soy sauce, 2 T sugar, 2 T sesame oil and 1/2 tsp ground pepper. Toss the dressing through all the ingredients in the large bowl with the noodles, and serve warm with sesame seeds on top!