Welcome to the Xin Gan Food Blog. My mother's nickname for me is Xin Gan, which is Chinese for "Heart and Liver". Yes, my mother calls me her heart and liver, because that's how precious I am to her. Actually, as she tells it, she started calling all of her children Xin Gan because my older sister got mad at her one day when my mom confused her for me on the phone. But let's get back to the food...
I have always loved eating, creating, sharing, and learning and talking about food. My husband, who also shares my passion for food, decided it was time for me to start writing about food, and thus this blog. Sadly, I haven't been as enthusiastic about the writing. I'm a PhD student in a very competitive program, and cooking is my creative outlet. Every week I test new recipes. I have post-it notes in all of my cookbooks with tips and comments about specific recipes I've tried. It's about time I start keeping track of everything, and hopefully other people will find it useful too.
So let's get started!
This week I made Korean Japchae - a quick noodle dish with lots of vegetables and meat. This is a perfect weeknight dinner because it's fast and it doesn't require any extra sides to round out the meal. I grew up eating meals that always had starch, protein, and vegetable components. If one of those components is missing from my meal, I usually end up craving it and getting hungry at 10:30PM -- not the best time to be eating.
Japchae noodles are made from sweet potatoes, but not the orange/red kind that we're used to seeing in the States. The noodles are a translucent greyish color -- I know it doesn't sound all that appetizing, but no one here is eating plain noodles so it'll get better I promise! The noodles are boiled for ~10 minutes, then cut into smaller pieces. When you buy the dried noodles they are really long, and sweet potato noodles are really chewy once cooked, so don't forget to cut them. While I'm waiting for the water to boil, I prepare all the vegetables and meat. I tried both chicken and beef, and they were both delicious. I cut the meat into thin slices across the grain. For chicken, I used breast and I marinated the slices in Chinese cooking wine, salt, and white pepper. For the beef, I used sirloin flap and I marinated the slices in Chinese cooking wine and soy sauce. I use the sirloin flap for stir-frying applications because it's pretty cheap and tastes great. I used to use flank steak which costs almost twice as much! While the meat marinates, I prepare all the vegetables. It's really important to get all the ingredients prepped before you start stir-frying, because once the wok is on there's no waiting around. You'll end up with mushy vegetables or rubbery meat if you wait around with a hot wok. Sliced onions, minced garlic, and 1-in chopped green onions are a must. I think julienned carrots are necessary for some sweetness and color, but I'll be the first one to admit that julienning carrots is a pain so if you don't have the time just skip it. I like leafy greens so I chopped up some bok choy and threw in some spinach. Nappa cabbage and romaine would be great too. Kale, beet greens, and chard may be a bit tough for this application -- I may try it one day but I would blanch it first. I also used zucchini, bell pepper, and fresh Shitake mushrooms.
When there are 5 minutes left for the noodles, I heat the wok on high. I use a little oil, and stir fry the meat. As soon as the meat is cooked through I take the meat out of the wok. There should still be liquid in the wok, but if not add some more oil. Cook the onions and garlic next. Add some soy sauce at this point to help soften the onions. When the onions are soft which should take only a minute or two, add in the rest of the vegetables. Thicker vegetables first and leafy vegetables last. The seasoning is soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar. I add some chicken broth to increase the amount of "sauce" that I want the noodles to soak up. As soon as the last leafy vegetable goes in, dump in the noodles. Add in the meat, and mix it all up. Let the noodles soak up all the delicious sauce. Just turn the burner off and walk away. Let it sit for a couple minutes, come back, mix it up and walk away for another couple of minutes. It's delicious, healthy, and quick! I'm sorry, there aren't any pictures for this post -- we were too hungry and excited to eat our Japchae to remember to take pictures.
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