korean glass noodles
Recipe: korean glass noodles
I have to admit that I wasn’t exposed to much Asian cuisine other than Chinese when I was growing up. It was a big deal when my mom started cooking more western style foods when I was in junior high. When Dad began his foray into gourmet cooking, he went for the big splashes like rack of lamb or roast pork loin – something that makes your guests go “wow!” while you serve it up with a flourish.
I had been eating sashimi since I was four or five years old, but wasabi was my only introduction to Japanese food and it was prepared unceremoniously at our house as opposed to a sushi bar. And on rare occasion in Washington D.C. my parents would take me to a Vietnamese place for pho and then they’d order all sorts of things I refused to eat like tripe… When I went to college, I began to frequent the sushi bars, Thai restaurants, and other joints around the LA basin serving up good authentic Asian fare. Imagine my surprise when I took my parents to our favorite Thai restaurant and their reaction was, “meh.”
But that’s them and I quickly accepted that what I dig on isn’t what they dig on and vice versa. Ts’okay.
There was a great Korean restaurant in Collegetown across the gorge from the geology department at Cornell. Joan and I used to traipse over there for lunch on days we both forgot to bring food from home. It was a treat and their lunches included a dozen or so small sides of pickled vegetables, kimchi (mmmmm!), and little salads or my favorite – the korean glass noodles. I was familiar with glass noodles, we call them bean thread noodles and use them a lot in Chinese cooking. On one trip visiting my grandma, she ordered some broad bean thread noodles stir-fried with vegetables. Delicious. We looked in the Chinese grocery store for them and found some. She rattled off instructions in Chinese on how to cook them and packed them in my bags.
Except I don’t cook them Chinese style. I really love those Korean glass noodles. I whipped some up for lunch today. Recipe after the pics.
dried broad bean thread noodles (broad glass noodles)
soaked noodles, rehydrated shitakes and wood ears, shredded carrots and green onions
korean glass noodles: awesome dish – vegetarian too
Korean Glass Noodles
[print recipe]
1/4 cup shitake mushrooms (rehydrated and rinsed if dried), sliced
1/4 cup wood ears (rehydrated and rinsed if dried), sliced
1/4 lb broad glass noodles (rehydrated in hot water for 15 minutes and drained)
1 carrot, shredded
2 stalks green onion, julienned
2 tbsps vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
sauce
4 tbsps soy sauce
3 tbsps sesame oil
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Heat oil in frying pan on high heat and stir fry the green onions until fragrant. Add the carrots, mushrooms, and wood ears and stir fry for 3 more minutes. Combine the sauce ingredients and add to the vegetables. Stir well. Add noodles and water and stir fry until noodles are soft. Serve at room temperature with sesame seeds sprinkled on top.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Hi Jen – love your site! Was wondering if you’ve tried this recipe with the dried noodles made from sweet potato starch? It’s similar to the bean thread noodles (dried and require boiling for 5 mins to reconstitute) and they are grey in colour. I tried it last night and they taste the same as my local Korean restaurant. :)
January 11th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Ada – no, I’ve never had those, but they sound good! thanks for the tip!
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:41 pm
I made these today, and they were DEL-ISH!!! Fantastic recipe. Thanks for sharing!
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Yvettew – thanks for the feedback and glad you like the dish!
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:52 am
Hi Jen: This looks delicious. We actually made some japchae with starch noodles as well. They’re have a different texture and is really great.
August 12th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I made this recipe with a few modifications and it was delicious! I didn’t have any of the mushrooms on hand, and I substituted broccoli for the green onion. I also used rice stick noodles instead of the bean thread noodles, and threw in a few shrimp. Amazing! Love your site and your beautiful photography…I’m always much more likely to try a recipe if there’s a pretty picture (or 5 of them).
August 18th, 2009 at 8:57 am
Ravenouscouple – hey thanks! I’ll try to check that out some time.
Jane – I think it’s pretty flexible and your way sounds pretty delicious. Thanks so much :)
December 20th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
This is my fav Korean dish! Can’t wait to try it!
April 15th, 2010 at 5:17 am
Hi: Just come to your site following a link from Tea & Cookies. All I can say is yum! Am off my feet at the moment following surgery, but as soon as I’m back in the kitchen, this is on my to make list! I’m looking forward to reading more of your posts.
April 24th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
oh my goodness my mouth is watering, I want this for supper, Now, LoL.
April 30th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
Great recipe! I made it last night and everyone loved it! Even my 5 and 7 year old kids. Will definitely be adding this to a favorite.
January 1st, 2011 at 12:50 am
this looks great but unfortunately if you wanted to make it a full korean dish you used the wrong type of glass noodles. Those may be the chinese glass noodles that u mentioned you had with your grandma but the korean glass noodles are round and not flat.
April 1st, 2011 at 7:53 pm
oriental food kicks ass i mooch off of other peoples work hehe
April 29th, 2012 at 3:07 pm
Hi, I found my way over here from Tea & Cookies, and I’m a sophomore at Cornell! I jumped when I got to “in Collegetown across the gorge”!
January 24th, 2013 at 1:13 am
Fabulous!!! Cooked it last night with some Thai Chicken and Basil Salad from (http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/11858/thai-chicken-and-basil-salad.aspx), my husband and our flatmate loved it :) We all took it for lunch today and our colleagues were very jealous as it smellt deliciously!!!
July 19th, 2019 at 5:07 pm
Hi Jen,
the noodles that Ada was referring to is Japchae is the name of the dish, using (Korean Stir-Fried Sweet Potato Noodles)