Pot Roast

There are as many ways to make pot roast as there are people making it I suppose. Companies that make products like soup mixes and condiments tout recipes featuring their stuff and often those are the methods that a lot of people follow. I admit I have made a roast or two or 200 with onion soup mix. Now, I use a much more natural approach, as I do with most of the food I cook. Simple ingredients and good technique results in better food most of the time. I am not dissing your Mom’s pot roast you understand – but even your Mom might enjoy this.

I like to use chuck roast. Enough marbling of fat to keep it tender and juicy, lots of rich flavor and cheap! This 3lb roast was under 6 bucks. If you are keeping track, this cooking method is called a braise and it works very well for cuts of meat that may be a little on the tough side but have rich enough flavor to stand up to a long cooking time. Wash the roast and dry the outside surface. A wet roast will not brown properly. If there are big borders of fat on the outside, I would trim and discard it. Salt and pepper the meat generously. Heat 2 tablespoons or so of good olive oil in a heavy dutch oven and carefully put in the roast, leaving the heat very high. If you don’t have a stove-top-to-oven pan like this, you can use a heavy sauté pan to brown everything and then put it in the pan that can go in the oven. Leave the roast undisturbed for 4 or 5 minutes and then turn over to brown the other side as well.Remove the roast to a plate and set aside. Add another tablespoon or so of olive oil and 5 or 6 medium peeled onions, cut in half from top to bottom, cut side down. Cut a few stalks of celery into 3 inch chunks and toss those in too. Allow the onions to get nicely caramelized on the cut side. De-glaze the pan with a cup and a half of dry red wine, like Cabernet Sauvignon [you should of course taste the wine to be sure it is good – don’t want to be using bad wine now do we?] and allow to simmer for a few minutes to intensify the flavor. Add a cup or so of beef stock or broth, and a 16 ounce can of stewed tomatoes, including the juice.Return the roast to the pot, placing it in the center with the onions around the outside and underneath. Throw in a few cloves of coarsely chopped garlic and some springs of thyme, or a teaspoon of dried thyme.Cover and place in a 350 degree oven. Turn after an hour, baste the top with pan juices and return to the oven for another hour.

Prepare the vegetables – peel 6 or 7 big carrots [or 10 smaller, slightly mutated ones from your garden] and cut in half the long way and then in half diagonally. Try to get them the approximate same size so they all get done at the same time.Peel or scrub 4 large potatoes. I prefer to use a waxy potato for this because they hold their shape better and don’t fall apart. These are Yukon Golds – again from the garden. “The garden” means Larry’s garden – I serve as a cheerleader and adviser, while he does most of the labor. I have flowers to take care of and besides I have to cook everything. It seems like a fair division of labor, especially to me. Put in the carrots and then the potatoes. Baste the veggies with the pan juices.Return to the oven for about 20 minutes and then, if you like you can add some broccoli or cauliflower. Baste all the veggies again and return to the oven. It will probably take 45 minutes to an hour for the potatoes and carrots to get done. If they are taking longer, you might want to remove the broccoli so it doesn’t get too done.

You can make gravy with the pan juices, but I saved them this time and used them as the base for a pot roast soup we have a couple nights later. I added another can of tomatoes to the juices, cooked that for about 20 minutes, added some more garlic, thyme and another little splash of wine along with the cut up vegetables and roast and simmered it another 20 minutes.

I like to use a nice big platter for serving family styleOr something like this, if I want to plate everything like when I pretend I own a world famous restaurant.There you have it – no premade stuff, nothing difficult. Just some simple fresh ingredients and a little time.