America's Test Kitchen

-Today on "America's Test Kitchen"... Lan makes Julia japchae, Jack talks all about vinegars, and Dan makes Bridget beef ho fun.

It's all coming up right here on "America's Test Kitchen."

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-Created for a king back in the 17th century, japchae has since become an iconic Korean dish.

It's served both at restaurants and cooked at home, served at big celebrations as part of a large spread, or simply served for dinner.

And today, Lan is going to show us how to make it.

-Julia, this is one of my favorite dishes that I worked on this year.

It's just so much fun.

It's got these really cool, stretchy, chewy noodles, fresh, crisp vegetables, and tender beef.

-Mm!

-And all of it is tied together with this really sweet, approachable, savory dressing.

So, we're going to actually start there.

I have 2 tablespoons of soy sauce.

It's going to go right in this bowl.

To that I'm adding 2 teaspoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of sesame oil... -Hmm!

-...a 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

So, just a quick stir to bring this together.

I'm just going to set this aside and move on to the beef.

-All right.

-This is 8 ounces of boneless short rib.

Boneless short rib isn't super traditional for japchae, but I love that marbling.

It ensures that the meat eats super tender once it's cooked.

I am slicing this into quarter-inch-thick pieces, and then, once I get through all that, I'll come back across and cut them into quarter-inch-thick strands.

This is going to go right into this bowl, and I'm going to marinate this with a couple simple ingredients -- 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 2 teaspoons of minced garlic... -Mm!

-...and a 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper.

And I'll just use my hands to mix all of this.

Make sure that meat is well-coated.

Okay, this looks great.

This dish features a lot of vegetables, and the first one we're going to cook is the spinach.

-Okay.

-I've got curly-leaf spinach here.

It's bagged spinach.

I've got 10 ounces of the spinach and 2 quarts of boiling water here.

And it's just going to all go right in.

This is only going to take 5 to 10 seconds.

And I'm just looking for the spinach to get that dark-green color.

-Mm-hmm.

-And this looks great.

So, it's going to come out.

To stop the cooking... -Mm-hmm.

-...I'm going to pop this in the sink.

I'm just going to run cold water over this.

And it's going to take about 30 seconds for the spinach to cool off enough for me to be able to work with it.

Next up, I'm just going to squeeze out all of this extra water.

All right.

That can go right here.

-All right.

-Yeah, that looks great.

Now that our water is back up to a boil, we're going to cook off the next ingredient.

These are 6 ounces of shiitake mushrooms.

I've stemmed them and cut them into quarter-inch-thick pieces.

Blanching the mushrooms is a trick I learned from our colleague Sarah's mom.

Her name is Nam Soon Ahn, and she ran a restaurant.

Makes an amazing japchae.

So, quick stir to make sure they're all submerged.

These mushrooms are going to cook through in about 30 seconds.

It goes very fast.

I'm just waiting for them to collapse.

They don't look radically different.

They're just a lot floppier.

-Mm-hmm.

-But they can come right out.

-There's no color change, and there's no size change.

-Yeah.

So, just like with the spinach, we're going to cool these off under running water.

-Okay.

-Because these mushrooms are little sponges, what I found is you have to run them under the water for about a minute.

All the juices on the inside need to be cooled, too, because then we're going to squeeze them.

But this looks great.

Or it feels great, rather.

You're going to get to see what this does for us in just a second.

-Okay.

-Last thing -- we still have our water.

Into this, we're adding 8 ounces of our japchae noodles.

-Mm-hmm.

-These are called dangmyeon.

You'll find them at most Asian markets labeled "japchae noodles," "sweet-potato starch noodles."

Whatever they're called, you want to check the label and make sure they're made of sweet-potato starch.

-Okay.

-The composition of starches in there give the noodles this really, really awesome texture.

It's just chewy, resilient, bouncy, fun.

They'll slowly soften, and then you just mash them in.

Now, once I get these fully submerged, they're going to cook through in anywhere between 5 to 8 minutes, depending on the brand.

-Okay.

-Julia, it's been six minutes.

Let's have a quick peek.

I just want to fish one of these out.

I'm going to cut through it with my nail.

-Uh-huh.

-What I'm looking for is to feel a lot of resistance, because that's going to mean they're chewy.

But I don't want to see any opacity in the center because that's an indication that they're undercooked.

Great.

So, let's get these out of here.

-Okay.

-Drain them right in the sink.

-Rinse or no rinse?

-No rinse.

-Okay.

-It's a little different.

What I'm going to do instead, which is very traditional, is to cut these noodles.

They're quite long.

Can be a little bit unmanageable since they're so chewy.

-Oh, yeah.

-So, I want to go about 8 inches below the tongs and give them a quick snip.

I pick up usually about a quarter at a time... -Mm-hmm.

-...and just kind of go through, kind of give them a little trim.

-[ Chuckles ] -Now, the reason I said no rinse was these noodles are chewy because they don't absorb too much moisture.

The more moisture they absorb, the softer they get, and we do not want that.

To prevent them from sticking, I'm going to go ahead and drop them in this marinade we made earlier, and we'll give them a quick toss.

Make sure that sesame oil gets all over the place.

Julia, it is time to assemble our japchae.

-All right.

-We're going to start by seasoning our spinach.

I'm just going to take it and break this clump up so that it will pick up the seasoning evenly.

It goes right into a small bowl.

We're going to season this spinach with a 1/4 teaspoon of sesame oil... -Just a little.

-Just a tiny bit.

...1/4 teaspoon of salt, and a 1/4 teaspoon of garlic.

So, quick toss.

And this will go right into our bowl of noodles.

I'm just going to wash my hands, and then we'll start cooking.

I have a 10-inch nonstick skillet here.

And all of our cooking is going to happen right here.

First up, I'm going to add 1/4 teaspoon of vegetable oil.

And our mushrooms are going to go right in.

-Okay.

The pan's not on the heat yet.

-It is not.

But that's okay.

And last up, a 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt.

We're going to cook this over medium heat, stirring pretty frequently, just until these mushrooms are warmed through.

Now, the reason I didn't need to heat up the skillet is you're going to notice, as I cook all of these vegetables, we don't want to see any color.

-Hmm!

-They should be as fresh and light as possible.

And we don't want that dark flavor that browning has.

-Okay.

-The nice thing about blanching the mushrooms first is it lets me cut back on the oil.

There's just a 1/4 teaspoon here.

It's only going to take about a minute for these to get warmed through, which is really what I'm doing here.

Great.

So, these are going to go right into that bowl next to the spinach.

Next up, I've got a 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil.

And I'm going to add one small onion that I've sliced thinly, three scallions, 2-inch lengths, and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Now, just like before, I want to keep these moving around so that they'll cook through evenly, but they won't pick up any color.

This step usually takes about three to four minutes.

So, this is looking pretty good.

Let's get this out of here.

Next, 1/4 teaspoon of vegetable oil.

And then this is 2 carrots that I've cut into 2- to 2 1/2-inch matchsticks.

And just an 1/8 of a teaspoon of kosher salt here.

So, these carrots are going to take about three minutes to cook.

What I'm looking for is for the carrots to be cooked through... -Mm-hmm.

-...but still retain their texture.

Next up, a 1/4 teaspoon of oil.

And this is one small red bell pepper that I've cut into 1/8-inch-thick slices.

Another 1/8 of a teaspoon of salt.

Now, bell peppers go fast.

We're talking, like, a minute here.

Just a quick toss.

Keep them moving so they don't pick up color... -Okay.

-...same idea as before.

These are a little bit more prone to overcooking.

All right, this looks great.

And last up our beef.

I'm going to turn the heat up a little bit here to medium-high.

We're gonna get a 1/2 teaspoon of oil in here.

And because this skillet is hot, it's going to be shimmering pretty fast.

The meat's going to go right in.

And we're going to stir-fry this for about three minutes until it's cooked.

So, here browning is okay.

Beyond that, I want to take these a little past medium-rare.

You know how when meat is cooked to medium-rare and it rests... -Mm-hmm.

-...juices come out?

-Yep.

-Those juices are going to stain our beautiful vegetables, and we don't want that.

So, I'm going to cook these a little bit longer.

-Mm-hmm.

-Get rid of some of them.

Concentrate that flavor a little bit.

-Oh, that's starting to look good!

-Yeah.

Julia, I think we're done.

-Okay.

-I'm going to give this a quick rest.

I want that meat to sit for about five minutes, cool off a little bit before we move on.

-Okay.

-Julia, it's been five minutes.

I have just a couple last additions.

Two tablespoons of soy sauce here.

Right in.

One and a half tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds.

-Mm-hmm.

-Two and a quarter teaspoons of sugar.

Two teaspoons of sesame oil, toasted.

And last up just a 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Now, to make sure that this is well-dressed, I'm actually going to use my hands.

So, I'm just going to pick this up, lift it, and drop it.

So, this is looking pretty great to me.

Now, this is just going to go right on the plate.

I'm going to mound it up nice and high so it looks really generous.

How beautiful is this dish?

-It is gorgeous.

All the colors are vibrant.

Oh, the smells coming out of that bowl are incredible.

-One last bit of garnish -- I've got just 1 1/2 teaspoons of toasted sesame seeds.

Bring a little bit of texture and nuttiness.

-I can't wait to dive into this.

-I can't wait, either.

-Oh, it smells good.

-Yeah, it's so tasty, and there's so much going on.

-Mm!

The noodles have a very delicate flavor.

-Mm-hmm.

-I can taste the sesame, a little bit of the soy... -Mm-hmm.

-...a little bit of the garlic.

-It's sweet.

It's savory, really tender.

-Mm-hmm.

That spinach is good.

The texture of the noodles... -Mm-hmm.

-...they're kind of snappy, kind of bouncy.

-That chew next to the crispness of the veg... -Mm-hmm.

-...you just keep wanting more.

-Lan, this is terrific.

Thank you for showing me how to make this.

-You're very welcome.

-You want to make this iconic Korean dish?

Start by slicing boneless beef short ribs thinly and toss with a soy-sauce marinade.

Dress the dangmyeon noodles while they're still hot and cook the vegetables individually before adding them to the noodles.

From "America's Test Kitchen," Lan's own recipe for japchae.

Got to lift the bowl up, get a little closer to the final destination, if you know what I mean.

-It's a little bit neater that way.

-Uh-huh.

-Do you want to know a secret?

The difference between a good dish and a great dish is often a splash of vinegar, which is why cuisines around the world and cooks around the world rely on vinegar.

Now, there are 28 vinegars that we tasted.

Today I'm going to talk mostly about Asian vinegars, but let me explain.

Everything here on the table is made pretty much the same way.

You begin with an ingredient rich in starches or sugars.

So, a grain or a fruit.

The yeast will convert those sugars into alcohol.

And then a naturally occurring bacteria, Acetobacter, will turn it into acetic acid.

That's the thing that we call vinegar.

Before we move over and talk about the vinegars here on the table, let me just explain where some of these vinegars come from, in terms of the source ingredients.

So, distilled vinegars, which is often used in pickling, usually made with corn or barley.

Malt vinegar -- if you love your chips in England, that comes from barley.

All of the wine vinegars, balsamic vinegar, of course, comes from grapes.

And then, last but not least, cider vinegar, which of course begins with apples.

Now, I'm going to move down here to the end of the table.

And I've got a Japanese rice vinegar here.

Now, probably the most important thing when you're shopping is to make sure you read the label and see the difference between seasoned and unseasoned.

Typically, seasoned vinegars are going to be made with salt and sugar and, as you might imagine, give you a very different end result than an unseasoned vinegar.

This Japanese vinegar is pretty low in acidity.

So, most vinegars will be in the 4% to 7% range.

This is typically in the 5% range.

So, it's tart, but it's not incredibly sour.

Next up, I have two Chinese black vinegars.

Now, in addition to rice, they're made with other grains, typically wheat and other ingredients.

And so, you get a much deeper color.

The first one here, Chinkiang, is really great with noodle dishes or stir-fries.

It has a woodsy, almost inside-the-barrel flavor that I absolutely adore.

Next up, I've got the Baoning.

Now, this is aged ten years.

So, this is really fine vinegar.

Think of this as a finishing vinegar.

It's got notes of cocoa and prunes.

It's made with herbs in addition to the grains.

And so, just super complex.

Save it for cold dishes.

I love it in a smashed-cucumber salad.

So, you can really appreciate the complexity of this vinegar.

We're going to move to the Philippines, and we've got two sugarcane vinegars.

Now, these are called "sukang maasim."

And they can be either plain or spiced.

The plain, as you might imagine, is basically standard vinegar.

It's used in adobo, the Filipino dish.

The spiced version has other ingredients -- onions, maybe chilies, garlic, ginger.

This one really tastes a lot like chilies and is designed for cutting through rich foods.

Think about serving this in a dipping sauce with lumpia, the crispy egg rolls made in the Philippines.

Lastly, we've got coconut vinegars made with coconut water or coconut sap.

They're called "Suka Pinakurat, Sawsawan ng Bayan."

Same thing -- these come from the Philippines.

There's a plain version, which is kind of neutral.

And then there's a spiced version.

This one here reminds me a lot of ginger and chili notes coming through, because those are ingredients used to spice the vinegar.

The plain version is again a good choice for adobo, and the spiced one is probably better with rich foods.

Think about serving this with a Filipino-style roast suckling pig.

Now, you don't need to have all 28 vinegars in your pantry -- I probably have a dozen vinegars at home -- but it's nice to have vinegar from the cuisine that you're cooking because they are really different, and it will make your food that much more delicious.

-There's a lot to love about beef ho fun, this Cantonese dish of juicy steak, very tender beef, and floppy, chewy, kind of springy noodles.

It comes together in a flash.

Well, speaking of flash, Dan's here, the original fast superhero.

He's going to show us how to make beef ho fun at home.

-So, I'm a huge noodle fan, and I love chow fun noodles or the ho fun noodles.

-Mm-hmm.

-They're so wide and chewy and wonderful.

Now, you're going to look for fresh noodles at the market.

And a lot of times if you get there at the right time and they're freshly made and bagged up, they're still soft and almost warm in the bag.

That's fabulous because they're not going to stick together.

A lot of times you'll end up getting ones that are a couple days old, and it's okay, but they've retrograded, right?

-Yes.

-So, the starch has kind of firmed up and trapped that water.

So, they feel really hard.

It's something that's really easy to fix.

And I want to show you how to do it.

So, I have a wet towel here, and we're going to head to the microwave.

So, when noodles are retrograded, they're going to feel hard.

But it doesn't mean that they're actually dry.

It just means that the moisture inside them is trapped inside the starch.

And we need to warm it up so the starch will release it back into the noodles.

Super simple to do -- the towel is going to help us add some moisture to it, and the microwave is going to provide just a little bit of heat to get the job done.

-Okay.

-So, we're going to set this on 50% power.

I'm just going to do this for about 15 seconds.

[ Beeps ] Okay, great.

Let's head back over here, and I'll show you.

Just that little bit of time there starts to warm them up, and so you can start pulling them apart.

-Nice.

-Right?

And so, you still have to be delicate as you're doing it.

But you can pull them apart beautifully, and you'll have noodles that look like this.

We're going to set our noodles aside for a second and then focus on our beef.

We're using one of our favorite stir-fry cuts, which is flank steak.

So, I have a nice 6-ounce piece of flank steak here.

And the first cut is I'm going to go with the grain.

So, long grain here.

Flank steak, it's really easy to see.

You're going to follow that with your knife.

Pop that on this plate, and we can cut this now.

But it's really a lot easier to cut when it's been frozen for just a few minutes.

-Mm.

-So, I'll give it about 15 minutes in the freezer.

All right.

So, this steak has been in the freezer for 15 minutes, and it's firmed up really nicely.

So, I'm just going to use a nice, sharp knife.

And we're going to go quarter-inch slices.

And I'll just finish with the second one.

Same way -- beautiful.

All right.

So, we're going to take really good care of this beef.

And it's going to start with a baking-soda treatment.

We're going to start with a tablespoon of water and a 1/4 of a teaspoon of baking soda.

I'm just going to mix this together here.

So, this is a really common technique in Chinese cooking.

You see it a lot in stir-fries.

And it literally needs about five minutes.

It's really brilliant.

You know, we don't have a lot of alkaline ingredients in the kitchen.

Most things are acidic, so taking advantage of baking soda in this way is really smart.

So, we're gonna let that sit for five minutes and pop over here, and we're going to do a marinade that the beef is going to go into and then a sauce that we're going to use while we're cooking.

-Okay.

-So, let's build the marinade first.

We're going to start with 2 teaspoons of soy sauce.

We've got 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce.

-Very potent ingredient.

-One teaspoon of Shaoxing.

-Nice.

-One teaspoon of cornstarch, and finally a 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper.

So, I'll just stir this together here.

Finally, we're going to make our sauce that we're going to use during cooking.

So, we're going to start with a tablespoon of soy sauce.

Very similar ingredients in both.

-Okay.

-We've got 2 teaspoons of oyster sauce, 2 teaspoons of Shaoxing, and then finally 2 teaspoons of dark soy sauce.

It's going to add a really nice depth to it.

Okay, so, it has been five minutes.

So, I'm going to transfer my beef to our marinade.

We're going to let this sit for at least 30 minutes, and then we'll be ready to cook.

-Now, the texture of the beef in this dish is due to a centuries' old multistep process called "velveting."

With velveting, we use a slurry not only to coat the meat but to also change the texture inside the meat.

Here's how.

The first step is tossing strips of beef with baking soda.

The baking soda raises the pH on the surface of the meat, which causes the muscle proteins to separate from each other, enabling them to remain tender and juicy when cooked.

Next, we coat the treated beef in a slurry of cornstarch, wine, and soy sauce.

Then, it's partially cooked in a hot wok.

The cornstarch coating insulates the beef from the heat so it doesn't overcook and turn tough.

The beef is then added back to the pan near the end of cooking so that it retains its juicy, tender texture.

-Okay, so, Bridget, we've prepped all of our ingredients, which is key to any time you're making a stir-fry.

-Right.

-So, I have a flat-bottom 14-inch wok here.

And, as you can see, it's starting to smoke a little bit.

So, I have it over high heat.

-Mm-hmm.

-And I'm preheating without any oil in it.

And the reason that I'm doing that is if you add oil to it, it's a very thin pan.

That oil can start to smoke pretty quickly.

-Right.

-But it doesn't mean the rest of the pan has actually gotten that hot.

So, I'm going to add a tablespoon of oil.

Now, this is just a vegetable oil, which is obviously really good for high heat.

Want to make sure that coats the pan nicely.

And we're going to start with our beef.

[ Sizzling ] -That's a good sound.

-Yeah, that's a great sound.

So, I'm going to stir this and cook until I have a nice browning all over the beef, which takes about two minutes.

Okay, great.

So, you can see that I've got some really nice browning there.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's not fully cooked, but that's okay.

It's going to finish cooking later.

So, I'm going to go into my bowl over here.

Okay, great.

So, you can see that we've got a little bit of buildup here.

-Mm-hmm.

-We actually want to get rid of that with some wet paper towels.

It's just going to help it be a little bit more nonstick as we cook through the rest of the ingredients.

All right, I'm going to add 1 1/2 teaspoons of oil.

Make sure that we're nice and hot.

And we're going to go in with our vegetables.

So, I have 6 ounces of bean sprouts.

-Mm!

[ Sizzling ] -Ooh, hear that sizzle.

And 1/2 a small onion.

I have 2 minced garlic cloves and 1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger.

And I'm going to do the same thing that I did with my beef.

So, I'm stirring and I want to hear that sizzle the whole time.

All right.

And as with all stir-frying, you're really looking for visuals because things are happening quickly.

So, I'm starting to see a little bit of charring on the vegetables.

-Mm-hmm.

-And that means that we are good.

-Okay.

-We want them to be crisp-tender.

And they're going to go in the same bowl as the beef.

All right.

So, we're back over high heat here.

I'm going to add another 1 1/2 teaspoons of oil.

Okay, great.

That's super hot.

So, now we go in with 12 ounces of fresh ho fun noodles.

Now, keeping the noodles intact is a really nice thing to do.

So, being as gentle as possible is good.

I'm stirring constantly.

If you're comfortable with kind of a wok flip... -Mm-hmm.

-...that's a really nice thing to do here instead of stirring them with a utensil.

I'm just looking for a little bit of char.

Okay, beautiful.

So, you can see we've got a little bit of char happening on a few of them there.

Okay, so the noodles are in good shape.

We're going to add our vegetables and beef back in.

-Mm!

[ Sizzling ] -And just give it a good toss to combine.

And we've got three scallions that we cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces.

So, they'll have nice presence in there.

-Okay.

-We'll give it a good toss to combine.

And finally our sauce.

So, we're going to pour this around the perimeter, which is going to give it some time to really see the heat.

You'll hear that sizzle.

[ Sizzling ] -Oh, yeah.

-So, that it doesn't just go in and kind of sog out the noodles.

-Right.

-You get a little bit of Maillard browning on that.

Okay.

Beautiful.

Sauce is incorporated.

-That looks so good.

-Doesn't it look great?

Let me get it off into this platter here.

Mm.

-Oh, goodness.

-Ooh, smells and looks so good.

-Mm!

-I'm so excited for these chewy noodles.

-Me too.

-Want to make sure you get nice, little charred bits.

-Thank you.

-All the different components.

-What are you going for first?

-Just noodles.

-All right.

-I'm probably just going to eat all the noodles.

-Yeah?

Just one noodle at a time then?

-Yeah.

-All right.

Springy and bouncy.

-Mm.

-They really soaked up some of that sauce, though.

-There's just nothing more comforting... -Mm!

...than nice, soft noodles.

-All right, now I got to try a little piece of beef.

That's unbelievably tender.

This was spectacular.

Thanks so much, Dan.

-You're welcome.

-Well, if you'd like to give a try at making beef ho fun at home, it starts by using both baking soda and a velveting technique to ensure tender beef.

Cook the beef separately from the noodles to ensure perfectly done components and lightly charr the vegetables to ensure fresh flavor.

So, from "America's Test Kitchen," beef ho fun.

You can get this recipe and all the recipes from this season, along with product reviews and select episodes.

And those are all on our website, AmericasTestKitchen.com/TV.

This is the most tender beef I think I've ever had.

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