How to cook with CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) veggies week 11: Dandelion green pesto with lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, Korean style beef tough stem stew (pressure cooked)

 

9/5/2020

This week I received beets, Rainbow chard, dandelion green, corn, summer squash, cherry tomatoes and parsley.

CSA week 11 veggies showing rainbow chard stems, beets, corn and dandelion green

Dandelion green is a bitter vegetable but is very nutritious.  It seems that there’s some potent healing properties associated with a bitter flavor!  (* Disclaimer:  I’m not a medical professional, so if you have specific ailments, I advise you to seek appropriate medical advice.) Interestingly, it could work effectively for “curing the sweet tooth” in many of us, including me!  I think that this dandelion green pesto is a refreshing twist on the traditional basil-based pesto.  Surprisingly, the bitterness in the green combines very well with a robust extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice.  😊

Recipe 1: Dandelion green pesto with lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil:

Dandelion green pesto served with roasted nuts

Ingredients: dandelion green (chopped roughly, about 5 -7 cups), extra virgin olive oil (about ¼ cup), garlic powder (1 tsp), salt and pepper

How:

1. Place all ingredients in the food processor until desired consistency is achieved!   

Dandelion pesto served on pan roasted pork chop, 
summer squash, and a cherry tomato

Recipe 2:  Beef tough stem stew (pressure cooked):

 Beef chuck tough stem stew in spicy Korean sauce

What do you do with tough stems of kale, cabbage, or chard?  The Beef tough stem stew is a recipe that uses tough stems of many veggies.  When these tough stems are pressure cooked with beef chuck in a spicy Korean gochujang sauce, they become incredibly tender and flavorful! I love budget cooking using cheap tough cuts of good meat and tough stems that get normally thrown away!  I hope you give this recipe a try! 😊

Ingredients: beef chuck (about 2 lb), spice mix (oregano, chili powder, garlic powder, etc enough to coat beef) tough stems of veggies (roughly chopped, about 5 cups), onion (1 med, roughly chopped), , white wine (1/4 cup), gochujang (about 1 heaping TB), doyenjang (Korean fermented bean paste or Japanese miso, about 1 heaping TB), sesame oil (1/8 tsp), garlic (finely chopped, 1 TB), chicken stock (1-2 cups, as much as needed for your pressure cooker)

How:

1.  Brown beef chuck (with ground oregano, black pepper and salt) on both sides until golden brown in a cast iron skillet or in any heavy bottomed pan.

Beef chuck being browned with spices, pepper and salt

2.  Remove beef and add onion with wine.  Scrape the bottom bits and let onion cook for about 1 min.

3.  Make cooking liquid by combining the last 5 ingredients.

On the left are ingredients for the cooking liquid paste: 
doyenjang, gochujang, garlic, and sesame oil.
On the right are tough stems of veggies!  :)

4.   Place the following in the pressure cooker in the order listed:  beef, onion, tough stems of veggies and the cooking liquid. 

5.  Cook for about 60 min until meat and veggies are tender! 

Hope you try these awesome recipes and like them as much as I do! 

Thanks for visiting msfusionkorea.com and please leave comments to share with the world.  See you in the next post!  Happy cooking!!  😊💗💗