Old recipes, new ingredients

Jahp Chae

Today, I made two dishes from old recipes but using other ingredients. The first is Jahp Chae, my favorite Korean noodle dish. I normally use beef but we had to cater to a guest who only eats chicken. Jahp Chae definitely tastes better with beef but with the right seasonings, chicken is not bad at all. The shiitake mushrooms with its earthy and meaty flavor gave the dish the added punch that the bird could not.

Chicken Jahp Chae

Ingredients:

1 large bone in chicken breast

1 pkg cellophane or glass noodles

1 cup carrots, sliced thinly

1 small red bell pepper, sliced thinly

1 small green bell pepper, sliced thinly

spinach, cleaned and drained (I use baby spinach so I need not wash )

sesame oil, just have the bottle on stand by

vegetable or canola oil

1 cup sliced shiitake mushrooms soaked in warm water to soften

1 medium onion, sliced thinly

3 cloves garlic, crushed

soy sauce

1 tsp sugar or a packet of Splenda or Equal

sambal oelek (optional)

toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Method:

Boil chicken breast in water seasoned with salt

Allow to cool after 15 minutes then flake the meat, discard the bones

Soak noodles in cold water for 5 minutes then cook in boiling water for about 5 minutes- do not overcook

Drain and transfer into a big bowl and toss in 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon sesame oil. I just shake the bowl so as not to mess the noodles. Set aside

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and saute the half of the onion, garlic, shiitake mushrooms and chicken.

Season with a teaspoon of salt and a little soy sauce for color. Add the sambal oelek if using

Add mushroom water and allow to cook for three minutes

Scoop out from the pan and dump over the noodles.

Drizzle a tablespoon of sesame oil and set aside

In the same pan, add a little more canola oil and saute the remaining onion. Let cook till translucent then add the carrots and bell peppers. Add a little soy sauce and allow to soften after a minute. If using baby spinach, add it last because it wilts very fast

Dump over the noodles and chicken and drizzle with more sesame oil

You can either shake the bowl using both hands or use food gloves and mix everything like you're mixing a salad but gently so you won't ruin the noodles and vegetables.

Taste also if you need more soy sauce or sesame oil

Toss in toasted sesame seeds if you want

Your jahp chae is ready.

Persimmon Galette

I stopped eating persimmons when I learned that they have high cholesterol content (I will find out later on that there’s no truth to it which made me enjoy the fruit again). But when a co-worker mentioned how his aunt would make pies using the fruit, I was somehow curious how she does it. And so when my cousin gave me some, I decided to make my own Persimmon Galette. Just because I want to get rid of my remaining pie crust which has been sitting in the fridge for a week or so... just trace back when I made my mini cream cheese fruit tarts ha ha ha.

You can tell from the way the galette turned out that I tried to pack in a lot of persimmon because I made a mistake of paring and slicing five and I have only one pie crust. I found myself munching on the rest of the persimmon slices. I just can't throw them away because they're crunchy and sweet. Just the way I want them to be. And my galette was pretty and yummy. I didn't even have to add a lot of sugar to the fruit because they're sweet enough to begin with. But lazy me didn't make a frangipane paste for the bottom and just settled for the left over cream cheese frosting from the angel food cake but I sprinkle some cornstarch to it and the result was total yumminess. I really love using home-made crusts for my pies.