Foodie Friday -- Pot Roast

So you're thinking, "Any idiot can make a pot roast, why do I need a recipe?"

Good comment, but let me tell you that until I looked up recipes, I had been doing it wrong.

Actually, my greatest mistake was not cooking it long enough . . . by an hour or two. Yeah, that much makes a big difference.

So I open my Pioneer Woman cookbook and see what she does to make her pot roast so special.

Not much.

I followed her instructions and discovered that you can't get the yummy burnt bits from the onions, carrots and roast when you use a non-stick pan. Bummer. So I had to make adjustments.

Here's my version of:

Pot Roast

2-3 pound roast--suitable for oven cooking, without marbling

1 Tbls. oil

carrots--I had bag of baby cut carrots

2-3 onions, peeled and cut in half

2 cups of beef broth (or more)

large sprig of rosemary, about 6-inches long

5-6 stems of thyme, about 3-4 inches long

2 lb. of mixed potatoes (Yukon gold, red, blue)

2 pkgs. brown gravy mix

Place large pot (5 quart) on stove over high heat. Add oil. When oil is shimmery add onions. Toss onions around until they are slightly charred. Remove from pan and add carrots. When carrots get slightly charred, remove. Season roast with sea salt and pepper, all sides. Place roast in pan and sear all sides. Add the onions, carrots. thyme and rosemary. Add enough broth to reach 2/3 of the way up the roast. Bring to boil and then lower heat to low simmer. Cover and cook for 3-4 hours. Add potatoes and cook until potatoes are fork-tender, about an hour. In the last 15 minutes, empty pouches of gravy mix into 2-cup liquid measuring cup. Ladle cooking broth into cup and stir, then mixed add back into pot with the roast.
Roast should be tender by this time. Remove roast and slice into thick slices, about 1/2 inch. Place slice in deep bowl and ladle carrots, potatoes, onions and gravy over beef.

Hints & Suggestions:

· As I mentioned, a non-stick pans won't leave charred bits on the bottom of the pan to enhance the gravy. Bummer, but there you go.

· I happen to eat a lot of those pre-washed baby carrots so I had them on hand. If you have regular carrots, just cut them in 2-inch chunks and throw them in the pot.

· I put potatoes in the pot, but if you don't want to do that just make mashed potatoes to get a starch in your diet. Plop the taters in your bowl, add a thick slice of meat and then douse in gravy and vegs.

· Much taste testing was performed on the meat during the last hour of cooking. Total cooking time was 5 hours. Yes, FIVE hours.

I think that it's for now.

 

Later, Peeps!