Saturday, October 03, 2009

Chapchae!! Yum!

Ok, here goes the recipe of Chapchae. (I don't have a picture at the moment.)
There are some different ways to make chapchae, and this is how I make it.
Please note that the amount of the beef and vegetables is always “as much as you want” LOL , and below is my recommendation.
Also you can add or remove the optional ingredients you like or hate.

Ingredients:
  • Vermicelli noodles 8oz (220g) (you don’t need a scale for this. You can estimate by the wt on the package)
  • Sauce – soy sauce 4 Tbsp, brown sugar 2.5 Tbsp, Mirin(sweet rice wine for cooking: optional) 1Tbsp, salt 1 Tbsp, 3 cloves of finely chopped garlic, little bit of ground black pepper.
  • Sesame oil 2 Tbsp
  • Sesame seed to sprinkle on top
  • Beef about half a pound?
  • Half ~1 sweet onion
  • Scallions about 1 stalk
  • Oyster mushrooms
  • Optional vegetables - Spinach, carrots, bell peppers, & etc.
  • Pinch of salt

    1. Mix the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl – set aside.

    2. Slice beef and vegetables into strips
    Stir-fry beef with a pinch of salt and set aside.
    Stir-fry veggies with some vegetable oil, adding the ones takes long to be done first. You can also sprinkle a pinch of salt as you do this.

    3. Boil water and cook noodles in boiling water as instructed on the package. (Some people soak the noodle in hot water for about 10~20 min before boiling them. It helps the noodles become soft and easier to put them in a smaller pot with less boiling water. But I just boiled enough water to cover the stiff noodles in a large pot and boiled them 7min. In case you are pre-soaking the noodle, the boiling time should be reduced to about 4min.)

    4. Rinse the noodles in a strainer under cold running water. Rinse them thoroughly until they become cold and drain water.

    5. Place the rinsed noodles in a large skillet or wok, and mix them with the veggies, beef and the sauce. Once it’s mixed well, put it on the heat and stir fry about 3min or until it’s fully heated.

    6. Right before you turn the heat off, put the sesame oil in and stir.

    7. Put chapchae on a serving plate and sprinkle with sesame seeds.


    ** Tip: When I make this for a crowd (about 2~3 times or more of this recipe), after #4, I mix the noodles, veggies, and sauce in a large bowl and then stir-fry little by little. Otherwise, it gets very hard to mix everything well. :)

    Good luck making chapchae everybody! :D

2 comments:

PĂ©rolas do Crochet - Renata Vieira said...

Ooo my GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your blog is wonderfullllllllllll. Kisses from Brazil for you!!! Congratulations!!!!

Calista Yoo said...

Thank you! :D