I love pot roasts. They take a generally less flavorful and relatively inexpensive cut of meat and through the magic of braising, turn it into a superb tasting meal. I used a bottom round cut, for this pot roast. Not a lot of fat, just a beautiful piece of meat. The trick with pot roasts is slow cooking, and I mean slow. For those of you that know me, this isn’t a word I typically associate with cooking, but for this purpose, I put on my “patience” hat. It was worth the wait!
Here’s the recipe. I served it with pasta in a simple tomato sauce, but it would be awesome with mashed potatoes as the gravy would complement the potatoes perfectly. As always – enjoy!
1, 1.5 – 2 kg piece of bottom/top round, chuck, rump
1 ½ to 2 tsp salt
1 ½ to 2 tsp ground black pepper
Olive Oil
1 sprig rosemary
6 – 8 garlic cloves
1 large onion sliced
1 medium carrot, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cups beef stock, divided
1 cup drinking quality red/white wine (plus a “little” more for you to drink)
Preheat the oven to 300F
Using the salt and pepper, season the meat well, rub it into the surface
Heat up the olive oil in a Dutch oven or similar heavy bottom pot
When the oil is hot, add the meat, searing/browning on all sides – you will know a side is properly seared if when you go to lift it, it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan
Sear/brown all the sides and remove the meat, set aside
Add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic to the pan and sauté – add some more oil if needed
Add ½ cup beef stock to deglaze the pan, stir to get all the caramelized bits at the bottom of the pan
Add the beef back to the pot, add the remaining stock and wine – it should come to about half way up the side of the roast
Add the rosemary to the pot
Cover with a tight fitting lid, bring to a boil – remove from the stove and put it in the oven
Now the hard part – set your timer for 2 hours and walk away – do not fiddle with, check or think about what is in the oven – grab a glass of wine, a good book and settle down
After two hours, remove the roast from the oven, check it, turn it over, put the lid back on and put it back in the oven – set the timer for 1 to 1.5 hours more – grab a little more wine or tea or coffee(you still have to make the accompaniment to go with this delicious roast, so not too much wine)
After 1 hour, check roast – it should be fork tender, almost falling apart, if not, leave it in for the last half hour – I know it seems like a long time, but you and your family will thank me after you make this unbelievably flavorful tender piece of beef for dinner
Once the beef is fork tender remove it from the pot, tent with foil – take a look at the gravy – is it too thick (not likely), maybe could use a bit of thickening – there are two things I would do at this stage
Remove the sprig of rosemary, leave everything else in the pot, and using an immersion blender, puree the contents of the gravy to thicken it up. Or, you could remove the carrots, onions and celery and then reduce the gravy by bringing it to a boil until you get the desired consistency – add them back once the gravy has the desired consistency
As always – enjoy!
