Sunday, January 19, 2025

Cooking with Blobby

Oddly, I've never attempted making pot roast. It is such a staple, if you will. But I have a not so complicated history with it. 

When you're feeding a family of seven, as my mother did, pot roast goes a l-o-n-g way. I was just never fond of it. Cooked carrots are a tricky thing with me. Soft enough to eat, but if they're the slightest bit mushy - like my men - I'm out. 

And as it turns out, I don't think I know the difference between pot roast and beef stew - should there be one at all. 

That said, I thought I was making pot roast. But it turned out looking like my mother's beef stew. I'm not sure what that says about her cooking..........or mine. The dish seems comforting and as the weather has turned cold, I thought, eh what the frick. And 710 really loved my mom's roast / stew.........but that's on him. 

I also thought this would be economical.  It is not. 

Clearly, I haven't bought a chuck roast in a while. Most recipes call for a 3-4 lb roast. Had I done that, I would have had to cash in an IRA.  Even at 2.43 lbs, I thought $28 was quite pricey. Yes, carrots and potatoes cost next to nothing, but still.........

Well, let's get on with it - shall we.  I will already start out that I left shit out of the top image, like wine and tomato paste. 

And while I reduced the amount of meat, I didn't change anything else in the proportions. Perhaps I should have - I dunno. 


Ingredients

2.5 pound (1.8kg) chuck roast tied 
2 1/2 teaspoons (16g) fine sea salt 
1/2 teaspoon pepper 
2 tablespoons (30g) neutral oil such as avocado, vegetable, etc. 
2 large yellow onions cut into large pieces 
5 cloves garlic chopped 
2 tablespoons (45g) tomato paste 
1/4 cup (32g) all-purpose flour 
1 cup dry red wine 
2 cups (480g) low-sodium beef stock divided 
2 large bay leaves 
2 tablespoons (30g) Worcestershire sauce 
10 sprigs thyme tied 
5 sprigs of rosemary tied
1 1/2 pounds (680g) red or small yellow potatoes cut into large chunks 
2 pounds (908g) carrots cut into 3-inch chunks 
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325F and set the rack in the middle of the oven to accommodate a Dutch oven with its lid.


Heat a large Dutch oven to medium heat. Pat the chuck roast dry with paper towels then season with salt and pepper. Add the neutral oil to the pan along with the chuck roast. Sear until browned on all sides (about 15 minutes total) then remove the roast to a plate. 

Add a 1/2 cup of beef stock to the pot and scrape off all of the browned bits. Pour the pan sauce into the same vessel as the remaining beef stock and set aside. 


Heat onions along with a pinch of salt, and cook until translucent (about 10 minutes). 

Add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes or until fragrant. Then add the red wine, beef stock, thyme, bay leaves rosemary, and Worcestershire sauce to the pot and bring to a boil while stirring to break up any. Add the tomato paste 


Boil for 2 minutes then turn off the heat and add the roast back to the pot and cover. Place into the oven to roast. 

 

After 1 1/2 hours, remove the pot and uncover it. Quickly add the potatoes and carrots to the pot and cover again. Return to the oven for another 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 200-210F. 


Place the pot roast and veggies on a plate and tent with foil. Remove and discard the bay leaves and thyme bundle from the Dutch oven. 

To de-grease the sauce, lay paper towels on top of the sauce to absorb the fat then discard or use a ladle to skim some of the fat. 

The sauce will usually be quite thick from the added flour, but for an even thicker sauce, simply use an immersion blender to blend the softened onions and a few potatoes. Alternatively, heat just the pot with the sauce over medium-high heat to reduce until the sauce coats the back of a wooden spoon. Or make a slurry of 2 tablespoons flour and 1/4 cup of water. Pour into the simmering sauce and stir for a few minutes until adequately thickened. 


The roast can be shredded or cut into chunks and mixed with the sauce. Any large pieces of fat can be discarded right before serving. Season the carrots and potatoes with salt and pepper to taste and garnish with parsley.


A few notes. Don't skip the seasoning parts. I'm not a big salt user, but this needs it. More than you think, and more than I used. I almost never use salt at the table, but I did here. 

I assumed (yes ass/you/me) that this would be brothier and not gravy-er.  The flour made it thicken far too much for my liking - which is what I always got from my mother's version too. I don't enjoy that. Maybe less flour, maybe more liquid? 

It tasted better in leftovers, but I wasn't wow'd with it. Obviously, I didn't feel a need to cook one until this point and I'm not sure when I'd attempt again. For that much in meat, I'd rather get steak - which would still be cheaper, albeit no leftovers. 

This wasn't bad. It was exactly what I grew up with. It's nostalgic, but not stellar. 

3 comments:

James Dwight Williamson said...

Winter Fare

Travel said...

Yes, less flour would result in a thinner sauce, my grandmother used no flour. The carrots only take about 45 minutes to cook through, the later you add them, the less mushy the carrots would be. I use a couple of carrots in the roast to add flavor to the broth, then add carrots to eat in the last hour of cooking.

Ur-spo said...

I have never made a pot roast; I've been too intimidated by the price of the meat to bungle it the first time. Your method give me assurance to try.