Transform a Korean Favorite Into a Stir-Fry
by Marc Matsumoto on Feb 13, 2012
Japchae is traditional Korean dish that is colorful with fresh, Asian flavors. Colorful vegetables and succulent beef make a great meal.
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Japchae (??) is a festive dish loaded with colorful seasonal vegetables. In Korea its served for special occasions, but in the U.S. its second only to Bi Bim Bap in popularity.
Most traditional Japchae preparations have you cook and season each ingredient separately, but its unnecessarily complicated and results in a lot of bowls to wash. Purists may claim blasphemy, but Im a fan of the simplicity of making it as a stir-fry.
First I fry the marinated beef with garlic and then remove it from the pan to keep it from getting tough. Then I stir-fry the vegetables in stages to ensure that each is perfectly cooked. Finally the noodles go in with the sauce, allowing them to absorb the flavors of the other ingredients.
Japchae is great on its own, but I also like serving it as Japchae Bap, which just means its on a bed of rice.
Marc Matsumoto is a culinary consultant and recipe repairman who shares his passion for good food through his website norecipes.com. For Marc, food is a life long journey of exploration, discovery and experimentation and he shares his escapades through his blog in the hopes that he inspires others to find their own culinary adventures. Marcs been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, and has made multiple appearances on NPR and the Food Network.