Pot Roast, Round Two

Yes, I know that I have blogged about pot roast before, but given my penchant for working without a net (ie, without a recipe), this dish never turns out the same each time I make it. So let's try this time, shall we?

While at my friendly warehouse discount store recently, I picked up a package of two nice chuck steaks for about $11.00. Not too bad a price for two large roasts.

A pot roast sounds like just the thing for today's dinner. And I happen to know that my husband loves pot roast...

The ingredients this time are black pepper, homemade beef consomme, dry red wine, bacon joos (bacon grease to the non-Sandra Lee's out there), beef chuck roast, carrot, Yukon Gold potatoes, garlic, tomato paste, Herbes de Provence, kosher salt and yellow onion.

A tablespoon of bacon grease with a tablespoon of olive oil are heated in a pan before the chuck roast is added. A liberal sprinkling of kosher salt and black pepper season the meat. I wish to point out to those who might cringe at the amount of salt here, that this is all the seasoning the dish will receive. Seasoning is relative, folks, so please relax. And I say this as someone who doesn't like a lot of salt in her dishes.

I seared the meat in a stainless steel pan, so I had to be patient while I waited for the meat to 'release' from the pan.* Now's a good time to clean the kitchen...

*Seriously, don't try to rush this step. Trying to pry the meat off the pan would only result in torn, tough meat. You don't want that. Trust me on that point.

The meat has been seared on both sides and placed in the slow cooker. Now the onion is sauteed in the pan over medium heat.



Let's add about a teaspoon of Herbes de Provence to the pan so that the essential oils can be released.

Now, about two tablespoons of tomato paste are allowed to saute in the pan. At this point, the minced clove of garlic is added.

Quickly, about 1/2 cup of a dry red wine is poured in so that the pan can be deglazed before the garlic can burn.

Use a spatula to scrape the fond from the bottom of the pan.

This is all put into the slow cooker and allowed to simmer for several hours.

Meanwhile, some Yukon Gold potatoes and a carrot were cleaned, peeled and chopped before being stored in cold salted water. The veggies were added to the pot roast about noon-time.

It's noon and the veggies have been added to the slow cooker. Simmer, simmer, simmer...

Six hours later and the pot roast is ready for us. Well, what do you know? We're ready for the pot roast, too. That just works out well now, doesn't it?

I like the looks of this meal.

Beef chuck roast, cooked to perfection. Tender, moist and succulent.

Carrots, onions and potatoes. Tender and not yet mushy. That scores in my book. Hey, if I can't have tender-crisp, I'll settle for tender and yet not mushy.

Noodles, cooked and tossed in melted butter with salt and more Herbes de Provence.

And what do you know? I got called out on this dinner because I didn't offer mashed potatoes so that we could have that Darke County classic dish. I'm sorry, dear daughter, but I didn't have enough potatoes to make mashed potatoes. But there are sure to be left-overs.*

*Psst, it was still all good. And I don't even really like pot roast.