I am so far behind! After Disney (and man we walked over 30 miles) we came right back and went full swing into school! The kids have been gearing up hard for our standardized tests, and we were house hunting. Good news: the kids are doing so well on their tests, and we’re moving to a super amazing house very soon. There is so much LIGHT in the new kitchen, that I can’t wait to get in there and cook. The husband will be able to get his grill out of storage. We also just got a new camera, so I’m excited about better photos for you all instead of the dark ones I’ve been using.

Full disclosure about this weeks wine and food pairing, we did not drink the Montepulciano with this recipe. Mostly because we really wanted meatballs, so we made this recipe from a few weeks ago, and drank the Montepulciano with it. We knew it would be perfect and it was, so no regrets.

I make this Korean Beef in my big pressure cooker, which was a wedding gift! I’d been looking at pressure cookers, and I have 0 concept of size and capacity so I thought 12 quarts was a lot smaller than it was! Oh well. This guy cooks meat in like 30 minutes (depending on size) and it makes weeknight cooking so easy. If you don’t have a pressure cooker, your crock pot will be totally fine on low while you’re at work. It took maybe 10 minutes of prep, and most of that was using the mandolin to shred the vegetables!

Korean Beef (Pressure Cooker)

• 1/2 C beef broth
• 1/3 C soy sauce
• 1/3 C brown sugar, packed
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar (if you don’t have it use a dry sherry)
• 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger
• 1 tsp Sriracha, or more, to taste
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 3 pounds boneless beef chuck roast (cubed or left whole)
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced
• 2 zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced

In a bowl, whisk together the beef broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, (FUN FACT: rice wine vinegar is totally different than rice vinegar. Rice wine vinegar is more acidic. I couldn’t find it in a traditional store, but I’m willing to bet it’s at an Asian specialty store. We used a dry, white sherry that I’m not sure why we own.) ginger, sriracha, onion powder and white pepper.

Put your meat in the pressure cooker and pour your mixture on top. If you cubed your meat, toss to combine. If you left it whole for shredding, just roll it around in the mixture for a little. It’ll be fine. Cubed meat will cook for about 40 minutes with a manual pressure release, whole will cook for about 70 minutes and manual pressure release for shredding. Don’t be afraid to re-pressurize the cooker and cook longer.

When the meat is done cooking, release the pressure. While the pressure is releasing, mix the cornstarch into water. Remove the meat from the pot to shred it and add back to pot. Add the cornstarch mixture to the pot on it’s saute setting. The cornstarch is to thicken up the sauce a little bit. I also added my vegetables here. Then I cooked it for 10 more minutes. If my meat was cubed, I would have just left it on sauté and let the vegetables cook down. Since my meat was shredded, I wanted to give everything a little more time to meld. Serve over rice, and use the sesame seeds and green onions to garnish!

Montepulciano

This is one of the few red wines I can drink without a headache, and I was so excited when Jen obliged my husband when he requested this be in the next months box. Montepulciano is an Italian wine (and boy am I going to drink a lot of it in Italy), and the second most planted grape in Italy. It would have gone really well with the Korean Beef, but I wanted to use those tannins to cut through the lamb and beef of meatballs coated in red sauce. I love the deep color of the Montepulciano (which I can’t spell, it looks like multiplication when I spell it, thanks Google!) and it’s rich tobacco smell. When you drink it, it’s fruit forward and acidic. When pairing, pair it with something that can hold up to those heavy flavors!