HelloHallyu: 2009/08

Most readers would know by now that we at HelloHallyu, love our Korean food as much as the dramas. Over the years, we have experimented, with some measure of success, in whipping up Korean dishes at home. I guess growing up in families which prepares Chinese food helps a lot since Korean cuisine, being an Asian cuisine, shares certain commonalities in preparation methods and ingredients.

Putting on our aprons again after our adventure in preparing kimchi chigae some months back, we felt a tinge of excitement of the challenge in preparing the almost 'venerable' jajangmyun which is more or less customarily consumed, or should I say "slurped" up, by stars in most Korean dramas.

Our 'journey' on preparing this dish started with the discovery of another Korean supermarket off the beaten track along Bencoolen street. The Shine Korea Supermarket (located at 175, Bencoolen Street, #01-10/11, Burlington Square) is well stocked with all manner of spices, condiments, and foodstuff that would make any Korean happy. It is so well stocked that I wondered why we even bothered lugging loads of Korean goodies back to Singapore from our recent trip there. Our only consolation is that the big bottle of Jinro soju that we bought for US$7 would probably cost 3 times that amount back in Singapore. :)

In the supermarket, we bought ourselves a pack of seaweed snacks, which is absolutely yummy, we also bought a box of Maxim cafe mocha sachets and a box of the black bean sauce/paste, which is the key ingredient for preparing the jajangmyun.

As our fridge are mostly well stocked with fresh greens, we are all ready to cook up a storm! Read on for the ingredients as well as the preparation method. The italian twist comes in the form of using angel hair as the noodles. And trust me, it still tastes great! :)

Jajangmyun (serves around 4
persons)

Ingredients
1 onion
1 medium sized potato
1/2 a
zucchini
1/2 a carrot
200-300gm of minced pork or beef
10 small fresh shitake mushrooms (can also use
the dried ones for more flavour)
Black bean paste - 2 tbsp (add another is
the taste is too bland)
Olive oil - 2 tbsp
Rice wine - 1 tbsp
2 cups
of water
Starch water (Mix of starch 2 tbsp +water 2 tbsp)
Noodles/Angel Hair (a type of spaghetti)

Preparation
Rinse the pork
in cold water.
Add the pork marinating sauce onto the pork. Mix them well.
Cut the onion, potato, zucchini and carrot into small cubes.
Cut the
cabbage into medium sized pieces.

Cooking
1. Heat up the
wok.
2. Add some vegetable or olive oil and stir fry the onions, carrots,
mushrooms, zucchini and potato.
3. Add the minced meat and stir fry.
4.
Add the black bean sauce, ensure all the ingredients are properly mixed with the
sauce.
5. Add the starch water into the wok to thicken the
sauce.
6. In a separate pot, cook the noodles.
7. Rinse the noodles in cold water.
8. Put the
noodles into a bowl or large plate.
9. Add the jajang sauce on top of the
noodles.
10. Mix the sauce and the noodles well.
11. Enjoy!