Korean Sweet Potato Noodles Stir Fry

Jap Chae The Gang's Style

This dish was an inspiration from cooking with my girlfriend one night.  She's absolutely obsessed with Jap Chae, so I've been making it for her since we started dating.  What she loves so much about Jap Chae is the sauce!  I got the idea to take the noodles and after they are done cooking put them directly into the sauce so they absorb the sauce.  This takes your traditional Jap Chae from 5 stars to 11. I then decided to put in some more traditional ingredients like carrots and onions and then gave it some color with peas and our most favorite part is adding in rice cakes.  When you taste this dish, you instantly get sweet, garlicky  sesame flavor, the rice cakes add an amazing gummyness and the vegetables add an awesome bite.  When we put it on the menu at the Blaguard it was an instant hit, I hope you enjoy this dish as much as we do!

Ingredients:

Sweet Potato Noodles!

Korean Sweet Potato Noodles
Carrots Julienned (matchstick size)
Rice Cakes
Peas
Onions Julienned
Soy Sauce
Sugar
Sesame Oil
Garlic
Black Pepper

1. Ok so the first step to making this fantastic dish is getting your water to a boil in a large stock pot!
2. Once the water is to a boil add 1 tblsp of salt and set your timer to seven minutes!
3. Next add your noodles and start your timer.
4. While your noodles are cooking you can assemble your sauce!
5. This sauce is the KEY!  So make it right, it should be super sweet and garlicky!  In one bowl or pot add 1 cup of Soy Sauce, 1/2 cup of Sugar, 1/2 cup of pureed Garlic, 1/4 Sesame Oil. Mix!
6. Once the seven minutes are up move the noodles to your sauce and let them soak in the sauce for one minute.  Remove from your sauce and let cool on a sheet try! Save your leftover sauce!
7. You're almost done now!  It's just time to mix everything together.
8. Get a wok pan and set it to high heat! Add your leftover sauce or water and put in your rice cakes since they take the longest to cook.  Add your noodles, with your onions and carrots.  More sauce if need be or even water if you'd like, to keep everything from sticking.
9. Once the rice cakes have softened and everything looks happy season with a heavy hand of black peper. Enjoy!

The Gang's Korean Fried Chicken Recipe

Killer Pyongyang Gang Wings!

This is our first recipe that we put together as a team.  It is what really got Pyongyang Gang (PYG) into motion and it was our inspiration for the rest of the menu, the best damn korean food in the District of Columbia.  We took some inspiration from Bonchon, which is the originator and in my opinion one of the best who do Korean Fried Chicken.  We added a PYG spin by making it look similar to the original Kentucky Fried Chicken.  We researched many recipes and found that there are many recipes that will get you there.  David Chang from Momofuku has his own version, Danny Bowien from Mission Chinese Food has his own version both equally great.  Our recipe like most recipes took the best from each one and made it our own.   As you can see in the picture above, after we finished frying the chicken twice it looked just like this, delicious!

Recipe:

Mise en Place (Fancy french term for everything in its place)

Deep Fryer or Dutch Oven 

Two 2" deep pans or bowls

Cooling Rack

Flour Water (1 cup)

Chicken Wings (2 lbs)

Water (1.25 cups)

Salt and Pepper

Oil (peanut oil preferred, can cool down and save for later use) (1 gallon)

1. First season your chicken with salt and pepper, most important step! Heat your oil to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 

2. Mix one cup of flour with one and one-quarter cups of all-purpose flour.  Dip the chicken in  the batter (shown below).  

Flour and Water batter

 3.  Take out your chicken and put it directly into the all purpose flour.   Make sure it is evenly coated. 

4. Drop about 4 to 5 pieces of chicken at a time into the fryer.  You do not want to overcrowd because the temperature will drop significantly.  

5. Fry the wings for about 6 minutes, you want them to be slightly browned.  Place on a cooling rack to cool.  Let the oil temperature get back to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. 

After the first fry, looking like the Colonel's chicken

6.  Once the oil is back up to temperature place wings back into the oil for another six minutes.  Take wings out of the oil and immediately coat in your own wing sauce or see below for the original PYG wing sauce!  It's important to coat when the wings are still hot because they will absorb the sauce better!

Recipe for Sweet and Spicy Wing Sauce!

Gochujang: 325g

Ketchup: 200g

Soy sauce: 500g

Mirin: 300g

Rice vinegar: 75g

Lemon jam: 20g

Oyster sauce: 215g

Corn syrup: 200g

Sugar: 500g

Sesame seed oil: 10g

Ginger powder: 4 teaspoon : 3 grams

Onion: 1 ¼ or 400 grams

Purred garlic: 200g

You will need a scale for this recipe and all of our recipes, we used a scale to ensure consistency in taste. If you don't have some of the above ingredients please feel free to swap out ingredients. Most of these can be found in korean grocery store called HMART. This sauce is great on wings but as we found it goes well with pretty much anything!

1. Measure out all of the ingredients using a plastic wrapped scale.
2. Boil the onions in boiling water for five minutes.
3. After five minutes, take out the onions form the water and put it in a food processor with lemon jam and mirin until it is watery.
4. Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix them well.
5. Transfer the sauce into a pot and boil it for five minutes.
6. Let the sauce cool down, make sure it has thickened and taste for seasoning.