Korean Jajangmyun -- Black Bean Sauce over Rice

Before we left Ohio, a dear friend had us over for a traditional Korean dinner.  She's Korean, so she knows what she's doing, and let me tell you what, she put out a fabulous spread for us.  An amazing dipping sauce, this Black Bean Sauce main dish complete with Kimchi and seaweed and other Korean condiments, and a salad with a wonderful Miso-Mirin salad dressing (recipe below).  We loved it all, and I found the recipes for each of the dishes in my inbox the next morning.  Thank you, Julie!

I've been wanting to make this dish for a while now, but I didn't have the needed ingredients.

I did venture out to the Asian Market and bought some Black Bean Paste (fermented) and some light-yellow Miso (recipes using that coming soon!).  The black bean paste, of course, is what you need for this meal.  Otherwise, it's just a pile of sauted veggies on a heap of rice.

Doesn't sound very appetizing to me, either.

But with this magic black bean paste, oh boy, it's so good.  It's not very overpoweringly flavorful, so don't get any ideas about it blowing the socks off your taste buds, but it's Korean comfort food, and, well, it's comforting.

Also, if you like the chewy noodles, go with that -- it lends more textural difference to the meal.  I don't like the chewy-factor and I love rice, so that's what we went that route

I combined the recipe she used, with one I found on line, and made it all vegetarian to suit our taste, and it was fabulous.  Scot even said it was as good as Julie's, and from what I remember, it did taste the same. The only different is I served ours over brown rice due to preference instead of the noodles, and I used more zucchini/squash and less potato.

Korean Jajangmyun -- Black Bean Sauce over Rice
serves 8

• 5 cups squash and or zucchini, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 3 cups chopped onion -- red or yellow or a combination
• 2 1/2 cups sweet potatoes, washed and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 1 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup daikon (Korean radish), cut into 1/2 inch chunks
• 8 oz chopped muchrooms
• 2/3 cup black bean paste
• 1/4 cup cornstarch + 1/2 cup cold water + 2 tsp sugar (set aside)
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 cup juilenned cucumber for garnish
• 4 cups cooked brown jasmine rice

--  In a dutch over or large wok, saute vegetable until almost soft

-- Clear a space in the middle of the vegetables and add in the paste, heating through for a couple minutes before stirring into the vegetables.  Cook for 2 minutes.

-- Add 3 cups of water, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

-- Slowly add the cornstarch mixture while stirring, and stir til thick

-- Cook, uncovered, about 10 more minutes, or until desired consistency is reached (you want the mixture to be nice and thick)

-- Add sesame oil and take off heat

-- Serve over rice or noodles and garnish with cucumber

We're about to start MISO WEEK on the blog, but here's a simple and delicious dressing to get us started!

Miso Mirin Dressing --

• 3 TBLS rice vinegar
• 1 TBLS light colored miso
• 1 TBLS Mirin
• 1 TBLS soy sauce or tamari
• 2 TBLS brown sugar

-- Mix all together and drizzle over garden salad or chopped raw vegetable

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