Bruschetta

The Mr and I were SO full from all the food we ate yesterday, that we just wanted to snack for dinner... Ended up just making some bruschetta and eating some prosciutto too ~

French baguette or Italian bread
2 tomatoes
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Chopped basil
Dash of salt and pepper


Slice up the bread in thin slices

Line up the bread on foil to broil... I used my toaster oven... Cooked 1 minute and then flipped it over for another minute.... all depends on the oven you have

While the bread is toasting, I diced up my tomatoes

I took out the middle part because it makes it so watery

Hopefully you have read the whole blog before you started cooking... =) because you need to watch the bread while you prepare everything else........ after the bread is done (above), take it out to add the garlic and olive oil

Brush the garlic on the bread..... depending on how much you like garlic put more or less~ then add a dot of olive oil on top and pop it back into the broiler to make it crispy

Toast it until it's crispy..... toast as you like~ we like ours a little more on the burnt / toasted side... this is all going on while you do the tomatoes~! Back to the tomatoes..........

I used a little basil (see below) wash and then take the leaves off and chop off and chop it up~

You can add the tomatoes raw or cook them a bit.......I ended up cooking it a bit. Heated up the pan with some olive oil~ then add the tomatoes and basil

Don't cook it too long~ add some salt and pepper and then when you are ready plate and serve! I drizzled some balsamic vinegar on top too

Japchae 잡채

Ingredients
Marinated bulgogi (1 cup)
1 beaten egg + dash of salt
1 carrot (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sliced onion
1 cup sliced mushrooms
Spinach (blanched then fried with dash of salt + 1 tp sesame oil)
4 TB soy sauce + 1 TB sugar
Dangmyun noodles
1 TB minced garlic

Put water on the stove so it can start to boil for the noodles. You start cooking the vegetables / gogi while you wait for the water

In the meantime, I sliced up some mushrooms and onions to make something else, so I already had some in a tuperware so I took them out...

I used my mandolin to slice the carrot thin

Next heat a small pan with some oil and fry your beaten egg.... try to get it pretty thin (unless you like the egg to be a little "chunkier" in the jap chae).. then slice it into thin strips

In another burner, heat up your wok / pan with some oil and add the minced garlic

Add your bulgogi (see other post for how to marinade if you want to, or just buy a pre-made one) and onions

The water should be boiling right now, so add your dangmyun. I used this bag, and to give you a sense, I used about 1/4 of what was inside

You have to watch the pot and fry pan and do everything simultaneously...  don't cook the noodles all the way, only about 75% because you will be adding them to the pot...  I cooked mine about 7-8 minutes then put it in a strainer (while I continued with the below)

Meanwhile, make you the gogi is only about half way cooked to avoid over cooking, then add your mushrooms (feel free to use enoki instead etc)

Cook for about a minute, then add the carrots

Mix around and then add the sliced egg

Then add your spinach

Make sure everything is about 85% cooked

Add the dangmyun to the wok

Mix it around....

Mix together the soy sauce and sugar so you can add it to the wok and stir around

Taste it and adjust it as you like... add more soy sauce if you want! Then when it's ready, time to eat!

And you can change the recipe depending on what you like! For example, we love mushrooms, but aren't a big fan of carrots hence my putting more mushrooms in!  You can change the mix of vegetables, or put in more noodles / less vegetables etc...