Chapchae

I cooked Chapchae last night for my sister's birthday today. Well, it's the first birthday she's celebrating without our mom, so I decided I should at least cook her something. Chapchae is common party food in Korea. It's just like spaghetti or pancit. One of the reason it is presented in a party, especially for a birthday, is for prosperous long life.

Chapchae is easy to make but needs a lot of preparations... heheh. I don't cook with measuring cups or spoons. So, this recipe won't have any measurements indicated. Up to you to just season it.. it's not so hard anyways.

INGRIDIENTS:

1 large bag-for 20 Korean Vermicelli (you can find this in all Korean stores)

1 handful of Tree Ear mushrooms (optional)

1 medium size onion

1/2 medium size carrot

1 pimiento

1 yellow bell pepper

300g beef thinly sliced (without the fat)

Soy sauce

Vegetable Oil

Sesame Oil

Salt

Sugar

Sesame seed

Ground black pepper

Minced garlic

Procedure:

Soak the Tree Ear mushroom in water. It will absorb the water and double the volume. Once the mushroom are soft... remove the hard part at the center, then cut them into bite sizes.

 

Cut all of the vegetables into julienne cut. Saute each of the vegetables and put them all together in a large mixing bowl to cool. Don't saute them all at once since the time for each vegetable to cook is different, and the whites might get dyed. :D

In the pan, put the meat and mushroom together. Add a teaspoon of minced garlic, ground pepper, a bit of soy sauce, and a dash of salt. Mix them well, and saute. Saute in medium heat, until there are only little meat juice left. Put it in the mixing bowl.

Boil water in a pot. Once the water is boiled, add the vermicelli and stir them once in a while. Don't follow the instruction on the package.. boil them until the noodles are soft.. you can take one out, and eat to check. Cook until the noodles are soft. Afterwards, wash the noodles in cold water and let it drain.

In a pan, add vegetable oil, and put the vermicelli in it (do grab the noodles and cut them up.. since they are very long). In a medium heat, add soy sauce (just pour around the noodles a bit) and saute the noodles. The color might be different from the image since there are different kinds of soy sauce.. make sure it's not too salty. Once the whole noodles are covered in soy sauce, pour them in the mixing bowl. You have to repeat this procedure  2~3 times depending on the size of the pan.

Finally.... whew it's harder to write then actually cook... add about 3 tbsp. of sugar (approximate), soy sauce, sesame oil, and sesame seed. NOTE: the noodles and the meat has already been little seasoned so don't put too much salt and soy sauce at first. Mix them all together first and taste them. Add more sugar according to your desired taste... the final chapchae should be a little bit sweet.

Well, if you followed my recipe and successfully made chapchae, GOOD FOR YOU!!!

Leave a comment and let me know how it turned out!!! :D