For the Love of...: ...Japchae (Korean stir fried noodles)

Japchae is a Korean classic stir fried noodle dish.  Here we make our version with the vegetables that we had on hand. What we really enjoy about japchae and is unique to this dish are the sweet potato noodles that have a wonderful slippery, chewy texture.  Though the vegetables do take a bit of time to slice up, it does give you an excuse to practice your knife work, which is particularly enjoyable if you have a quality chef's knife.  Also, you may choose to forgo the egg and/or beef if your preference is vegetarian.

Ingredients: (Yields ~ 6 servings)
-1 package of sweet potato noodles
-Half an onion, thinly sliced
-2 bell peppers, thinly sliced
-2 green onions, roughly chopped
-6 leaves of napa cabbage, sliced into thin strips (or use spinach instead)
-3 carrots, sliced into thin strips
-5 dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated and cut into thin strips
-3 eggs, scrambled
-1/2 pound stir fry beef, cut into thin strips
-3 cloves of garlic, minced
-Vegetable oil
-4 tbsp soy sauce
-2 tbsp sugar
-2 tbsp sesame oil
-Ground black pepper to taste
*Optional: sesame seeds for garnish

Feel free to cut your veggies into smaller strips- we don't mind ours on the chunkier side

 Method:
1. Rehydrate the dried shiitake mushrooms in a bowl of warm water for several hours.  Cut the mushrooms and vegetables into thin strips.

2. Cook the scrambled eggs with two pinches of salt and set aside.  Fry the sliced beef, mushrooms and garlic in a tablespoon of oil and set aside.  

3.  To cook the noodles, bring a pot of water to a boil and follow the instructions on the packaging.  Strain and set aside.

4.  Stirfry the vegetables in a large skillet/pan over medium heat.  I like my onions to be very soft so I like to put those into the pan ahead of the others to give it more time over the heat.  Cook until the vegetables are soft.

5. In a large bowl, mix together all the ingredients with the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and ground pepper.  Adjust the seasonings to taste.  

Enjoy!