How to cook with CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) veggies (week 5)– easy CSA recipes using fusion Korean cooking methods – Korean style beet greens, pork picnic braised (pressure cooked) with summer squash in a spicy gochujang sauce

CSA cooking week 5 July 25, 2020

This week I received beets, arugula, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, kale, green summer squash, 2 pieces of patty pan squash, and dill. 

Sauteed beet greens and stems served
with pressure cooked pork rib-ends with arugula garnish

This week marks 5^th week of this year’s CSA season.  How time flies! Summer’s more than halfway through!  The good weather we have been blessed with is manifested in the bountiful of produce we received for this week’s CSA share.  I particularly adore those pungent spicy flavors of fresh arugula and the surprisingly delicious and tender beet stems and leaves.  I have found that the bitingly pungent flavor of arugula pairs extremely well with nuts or nut butter as a snack or as a salad.  Beet greens are beautiful when they are sautéed in extra virgin olive oil with garlic and onion powder finished with a small amount of teriyaki style sauce and sesame oil!  Beet greens go nicely with meats and other protein dishes. 

CSA week 5 veggies showing green squash, patty pan squash
beets, scarlet kale, arugula and dill

Nature produces ample amount of all types of squash this time of the year.  My CSA farmer loves to cultivate squash because it is hardy and easier to grow organically (grown without the use of pesticide).  The abundant supply of squash could pose a challenge to the home cook, however.  That is because you have to come up with many different ways of cooking the veggie!  😊  So, I have been thinking about how to cook summer squash (they come in many varieties, shapes and colors!). 

3 varieties of summer squash

Here’s a couple of my recipes that I came up with this week.  Hope you like them!  😊

Recipe #1
Korean style beet greens (cooked in extra virgin olive oil finished with teriyaki sauce and sesame oil)

Beets washed and cut with dill on the right

Ingredients: beet stems and greens (washed and cut into bite size pieces, about 10 cups), garlic powder (1 tsp), onion powder (1 tsp), kosher salt (about 1/8 tsp), black pepper (1/8 tsp), extra virgin olive oil (1 TB), teriyaki sauce (2 tsp), sesame oil (3 drops)

Sauteed beet stems and leaves

How: 

1. Add beet stems and greens in oil (hot enough to make a gentle sizzling noise) in a skillet (preferably cast-iron skillet) with a pinch of kosher salt, garlic powder and onion powder.

2.  When the veggie cooks down, turn off heat, add teriyaki sauce and sesame oil, cover and let finishing cooking using residual heat.  (I like to use residual heat as this gives a nice smooth texture and flavors to veggies and meat and it saves energy, too!  😊)

Recipe #2

Pork picnic braised (pressure cooked) with summer squash in a spicy Korean fusion style gochujang sauce

pork picnic and summer squash braise 
in a spicy Korean sauce

This is an amazing dish because it is economical and delicious; pork picnic shoulder cut is one of the cheapest cuts but very delicious when cooked right.  I like to use a spicy sauce for pork, so I made a sauce, i.e., cooking liquid for pressure cooking using gochujang, doyenjang, soy sauce and tomato sauce.  You might wonder why doyenjang?  Doyenjang is a Korean fermented soybean paste and it combines very well with gochujang to add an extra dimension to the overall flavor profile!  Summer squash (all varieties!) goes very well with gochujang and doyenjang in general in Korean cooking. Hope you like the dish!  😊

Ingredients: pork picnic shoulder (4 lbs.), pan squash (1, chopped roughly), onion (1 med, chopped roughly),  baked beans (2 cups, rinsed with water and drained well)white wine, mirin (optional), gochujang (2 heaping TB), doyenjang (1 TB), soy sauce (1/4 cup), sugar (1 TB), tomato sauce (2 cups), sesame oil (3 drops), kosher salt, ground black pepper, and curry mix ( about 3 TB),

How:

1. First marinate pork.  I used dry rub with salt, ground black pepper, curry mix.  Marinate for about 24 hours in the fridge.

2.  Brown pork: this is an essential flavor building process.  I browned pork in hot oil (hot enough to produce a gentle sizzle) in a cast-iron skillet until all sides are golden brown.

Picnic being browned in cast-iron skillet

3. Remove pork and put onion and squash in the same pan with white wine.  Scrape the bottom bits using a wooden spatula and let everything combine nicely.  Add some salt and black pepper.  Cook for about 3 min until fragrant. 

Onion and summer squash in the cast-iron skillet
with white wine (deglazing process) 

4.  While veggies are cooking, make the cooking liquid by combing and mixing well the following:   gochujang, doyenjang, soy sauce, sugar, tomato sauce, sesame oil, black pepper (1/2 tsp). 

5.  Now the loading into the pressure cooker (or any cooker of your choice) in the order of pork, onion and squash, beans, and the cooking liquid.  Cook for about 60 min until the meat is tender and delicious (you may have to cook more if you want it coming off the bone.)

Picnic shoulder cut being carved out

There you have it!  Pork picnic braised with CSA summer squash in a spicy Korean fusion sauce!!  😊

Hope you enjoy your creation! 

Thanks for visiting my blog.  Please share your thoughts and ideas with the rest of the world!!  😊