HYH JAPCHAE- AAPI 2022
When I first started the elimination diet for Heal Your Headache after being diagnosed with chronic vestibular migraine in 2018, I knew it would be highly likely that I’d have to give up a lot of traditional Korean dishes and ingredients. In fact, those ingredients were some of the last that I tested because I simply wasn’t ready to mourn losing a huge part of my heritage. Fermented things (yes, I can’t eat kimchi without having a VM attack) soy, onions, MSG in all its forms, anything with malt, etc. take a lot of delicious dishes that I grew up eating off the table.
Japchae is my favorite Korean dish to make HYH friendly that still feels really authentic and comforting. Aside from the HYH mods I made, you can leave off or serve separately the gogi and egg garnishes for an easy vegetarian/vegan/all the things shared dish. You can also enjoy it hot or cold, depending on the climate or time of day. I love eating a bowl of this while it’s still hot, but I adore it cold even more as a late night snack. Martinis beforehand optional, but usually involved.
Whether you’re a friend that used to follow my blog, a colleague, a fellow spoonie or someone new, this is the first food recipe I’ve ever shared and I hope you’ll enjoy. I’ll be posting a cocktail recipe later this month that’s a dish all on it’s own 😉🍸 I may share the occasional dish or bar snack, but cocktails are always going to be my focus here. I just want to make sure you eat first. 😌
Be so good to yourselves!
Karen
HYH Japchae
1 lb Filet Mignon, sliced for stir fry
2 oz package Dried Wood Ear Mushrooms
1 lb package of Clear Glass Sweet Potato Noodles
5 fat cloves of Garlic
1 large bunch of adult spinach, stems removed
3 cups Matchstick Carrots
2 small or 1 very large Red Bell Pepper
2-3 bulbs of Shallot
1 bunch of green onion
5 tsp Sugar (I used demerara.)
about 1/2 cup Coconut Aminos
1 tsp fresh cracked Black Pepper
2 TBSP Sea Salt
1/2 cup Sesame Oil
3 egg yolks
Sunflower Oil for stir frying
Bring several quarts of water to a boil. Turn off the heat, carefully toss in your dried wood ear mushrooms and cover for several hours as they rehydrate.
While your mushrooms are soaking, mix your filet stir fry strips with 5 cloves of minced garlic, 2 tsp sugar, 3 TBSP coconut aminos, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp sea salt and 4 tsp sesame oil, ensuring all the meat is thoroughly coated. Cover and place in the fridge for several hours.
You can move on and prep veggies here or you can take a break and go live your life for a few hours.
Marinading Gogi for Japchae, ready for some time in the fridge 😍
4. Gather your green onion, shallots, red bell peppers, spinach and matchstick carrots. (I use a large container for an easy mise and accessibility during cooking times.) Aside from the instructions below, I’ve included a picture of what everything should look like.
5. Peel and slice shallots thinly, pressing down with one hand on the bulb end to ensure stable slicing.
6. Cut green onions into 1- 1 1/2 inch segments, halving or even quartering the white rooted end.
7. Half and clean red bell peppers. Cut into thin horizontal slices.
8. The easiest way to remove all the stems from the spinach is to arrange the leaves like a bouquet and cut off all the stems at once. These can be blended into smoothies, used in stock, composted, etc. Texturally, they have no place in this dish.
9. Measure out 3 cups of matchstick carrots. Easy Peasy.
Mise en place is one of my love languauges.
COOKING TIME!!! 👩🍳🍜🔥
Drain and slice wood ear mushrooms. Retrieve marinading gogi from the fridge and let rest on your counter.
Bring a large pot of water to boil
Carefully drop in the spinach leaves, stir gently with a slotted spoon for about 30 seconds before scooping them into an ice bath. (If you do not blanch the leaves, they will get soggy in the sauce. How sad.) Leave the hot pot of water on the stove.
Drop in the sweet potato noodles and cook them according to the instructions on the package.
While your noodles are cooking, squeeze all the water out of the spinach- like really squeeze. Flatten out on your cutting board, make a few slices with a knife across to break up the leaves and place in a large bowl.
Drain the noodles and rinse them in cold water until cool.
If your noodles are super long, now would be the time to cut them with your kitchen shears. Mix them with the spinach and 4 TBSP of sesame oil. Leave off to the side as you continue to cook.
JIDAN (Salted egg yolk strips) GARNISH!
Using a paper towel dipped in oil, lightly coat a large pan and place on stove over medium high heat.
Whip 3 egg yolks with a generous pinch of sea salt. (Jidan is considered a garnish so imagine that level of salt.) Turn off the heat and pour in the yolks, tipping the pan to spread it into a thin layer.
As soon as it’s solid enough to flip, do so. It should look waxy when it’s done.
Remove from the pan, let cool and slice into thin strips.
EVERYTHING ELSE!
Using the same large pan and sunflower oil as needed, stir fry each vegetable individually over medium high heat, adding them to the large bowl with your spinach and noodles as they finish.
Shallots- about 2 minutes or until lightly translucent
Green Onion- 1 minute
Red Bell Pepper- 2-3 minutes
Matchstick Carrot- 3 minutes
In the same pan you just used for your veggies, carefully cook each slice of meat, reserving the marinade. Don’t crowd the pan. This will take a few rounds to cook each piece to the perfection you deserve. Add to the large bowl of noodles and veggies.
Pour the remaining marinade into the pan along with the wood ear mushrooms. Stir and saute for a few minutes, coating the mushrooms in the reducing sauce. Turn off the heat and add this to the large bowl of all ingredients, letting it cool.
Mix 4 TBSP coconut aminos, 3 TBSP sesame oil, 1 TBSP each of sea salt and sugar to a bowl and mix.
Pour this mix over the combined noodles, vegetables, gogi and wood ear mushrooms. Mix with your very clean hands. (It’s a mess if you don’t. Swear.)
Top with sesame seeds and jidan strips. Enjoy or store in the fridge and eat it cold later.
Japchae from Chuseok 2021 🥰
I super hope you enjoy my recipe for japchae. It’s one of my favorite things to make and share. There will be a HYH cocktail for AAPI month as soon as I have the spoons to properly execute and share it. (Hopefully, more than one if I have my way!) As always, remember to be so good to yourselves.
Cheers!
🍸😄✌️
Karen
