Tasty Tuesday: Pot Roast

  I love cooking in the fall and winter for many reasons.  First of all, you can keep your house warmer with the oven on for longer periods of time.  I just hate to be cold!  Second, it seems as if your recipes stretch farther.  When you are making chicken and then make soup with the left overs, or chili one night and then chili spaghetti the next it makes it easier in this house to stretch the budget a little farther, this is always a good thing when you have 2 teenage boys in the house.   So I decided to share a delicious pot roast recipe with you.   I think that there are two secrets to making a good and tasty one.  First of all you need to find a roast that has a lot of marbling in it.   Usually when I buy meat I look for the leanest and I trim the visible fat before cooking.   I think that the fat in the key in adding flavor and keeping it moist.  Next you need to carefully sear your meat before you put in in the pan, you don’t want to char it!  
               
   I use about 3 Tbsp. of olive oil and about 1 Tbsp. of garlic to add additional flavor.  It takes about 3-5 minutes per side to get it to a nice brown color.  Essentially you want to caramelize the meat.  Once this is finished I place my roast in the roasting pan and preheat my oven to 300 degrees.  As that is preheating I take my 8 washed carrots and 8 washed potatoes and cut them up and place them in the skillet.  At times I add additional olive oil and or garlic.  I just go by looks this time.  You don’t want to stir fry the veggies I want to slightly brown them in the olive oil juice that was in the skillet.  I keep them in the skillet for 3-4 minutes stirring frequently until they are glazed and browning.

oops one got away and is trying to hide there by the skillet!  Once the veggies are slightly brown you take them and add them to the roasting pan with the meat.  I then use 4 cups of beef stock.  I use what ever I have on hand.  I frequently buy bullion and containers of stock when on sale or I have a coupon to have on hand for a quick soup or stew recipe.  Once you have your roast and veggies in the roasting pan take a large bowl and measure out 4 cups of water. Add one Lipton soup mix and stir a bit.  Pour over the meat and veggies.  If I am making a larger roast or more veggies I add another soup mix packet.

Pop the lid on and place in the oven.  I cook mine for about 2.5 hours.  I check it about every 45 minutes just to make sure that I don’t need to add more liquid.  Yep I do this out if experience.  One of the first pot roasts I ever made I put in in the oven and walked away until the timer went off.  Let’s just say that I inadvertently charred the meat and veggies!  Now, when your cooking time comes to an end take your roast out of the oven.  I immediately, and carefully take the roast out of the pan and place it on a cutting board to rest. While it is resting I remove all the veggies with a slotted spoon and make gravy with the remaining liquid.  I don’t have any pics of the gravy but I will share how I make it.  I must say that if you are making this the day you read this the gravy will be fat free , if you save it and make it later it won’t be.  Obviously I am kidding here   I don’t make gravy like this often so the butter doesn’t bother us.  So for the gravy you should have a second pot-medium size.  Place a half of a stick of real butter I the pan and melt it.  Add 1/4 cup of flour to that butter and stir.  It is going to get sticky  and you have to work fast so you don’t burn anything.  Once it is that sticky, pasty concoction you are ready to add  that juice/broth from the roasting pan.  Bring this to a boil stirring constantly with a whisk.  It will thicken nicely and you will have a great tasting gravy.
    By the time this is finished (or while someone else is stirring)  take your rested roast and slice it up and transfer it to your serving platter.  Doesn’t that look moist?  You really can pull it apart with your fork.  It falls apart.  It just looks nicer if you slice.

You can choose to return the veggies to this and drizzle a little gravy over it or keep the veggies in the bowl that they are already in.  Serve with a nice tossed salad and you have one tasty dish!  Hope you enjoy!