I basically used the same recipe I use to make my beef stew adapted to pot roast. Here's what I did.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Take the meat out of the package and season it well with salt and pepper on both sides. Let rest while you prep everything else.
- In a big dutch oven, cook up 3 slices of bacon, sliced into small pieces.
- Once the bacon is crisped up, take it out and throw the meat in. leave it alone until it has developed a nice sear, then flip it and do the same on the other side.
- Once it is good and browned all over, take the meat out and throw in some big chunks of onion (I actually used shallot b/c that's what I had), carrot, celery, a whole head of garlic (peeled in individual cloves), some more salt, a handful of whole black peppercorns, some dried thyme and some fresh sage leftover from Thanksgiving that really needed to be used up.
- Give the veggies a few minutes to get going, then toss in whatever leftover red wine you happen to have. In this case, I had about a cup and a half of some nice Greek Demestica red.
- Let the wine work on all the stuff on the bottom of the pan and scrape up what doesn't come up on its own.
- Put the meat back in (with all the juices that have accumulated on the plate).
- Pour on one carton of good, low sodium beef stock and enough water to cover the meat.
- Bring it to a full boil on the stove then cover it and chuck it in the oven for 2.5 hours.
- After 2.5 hours goes by, take the pot out and put the meat on a plate so you can decant the liquid to a bowl and strain out all the solids.
- Put the strained liquid back on the stove and put the meat back in. I threw some sliced mushrooms in for flavor at that point.
- Leave it on a low simmer while you make the potatoes/carrots/whatever you want to go with the meat.
- I had some of those tiny Yukon golds, which I either cut in thirds or halves, and some sliced cremini mushrooms. I cranked the oven up to 350 degrees and threw them in a roasting pan with some olive oil and a few good spoonfuls of the strained jus. I guess it took about 15-20 minutes for them to brown.
- Serve the meat and veg in bowls with plenty of the reduced jus to moisten it up.
That was it. It really couldn't have been simpler.
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