birthday savoury

so i finally had a chance to use my grandmother's jap chae recipe! it took a while to extract it from her since, like most korean women, she doesn't measure that often. the only changes i made were to some redundant directions and grammar. it's completely vegan, gluten free, and delicious. the scent of sesame oil is really comforting to me these days, and this really hits the spot in the summertime.

chung sook kim's jap chae
serves 10-15

ingredients:
1 package sweet potato noodles
3 bunches spinach
1 bag carrots, julienned
2 onions, julienned
1 carton button mushrooms, sliced with stems (i used wood ear instead)
1 bowl fresh or reconstituted shiitake mushrooms sliced
½ red bell pepper, julienned
6 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp sesame seeds
salt, pepper, and sesame oil to taste

cut off spinach roots, wash & drain, and place in pot of boiling hot water for approximately 15 to 30 seconds. DO NOT OVER COOK IT. let it cool and squeeze water out of spinach as if squeezing a ball in your palm. unroll the ball of spinach and cut spinach in 1-inch lengths. place in a large bowl.

sauté mushrooms, onions, and carrots each separately with vegetable oil and a quarter teaspoon of salt. drain before adding to the bowl with spinach.

in a boiling water, put potato starch noodles and let it cook for approximately 5 minutes. check if noodle is chewy, not rubbery, then drain and wash in cold water. slice noodles in size appropriate length. sauté noodles in vegetable oil & ½ teaspoon of salt until water evaporates from the noodles.

put noodles into the bowl with all the cooked ingredients and add the soy sauce, sugar, and sesame seeds. season to taste with sesame oil and s&p. if it is not served immediately, refrigerate the dish or else it will spoil (especially in summer months). reheat then serve.

i took a chance and paired the jap chae with kamina chenin blanc. it was almost too fruity alone, but really refreshing with the sesame oiled noodles. korean food is notoriously hard to pair wine with and i'm certainly no expert at matchmaking but i think this was a good combination of great summer food and drink.


my 24th birthday was good times with even better people. a fine first time to celebrate it in denmark. ^^