Sunday Pot Roast

 

Who doesn't like a good pot roast for Sunday afternoon dinner? A few weeks ago, we found ourselves with some carrots and potatoes that were on their way out so we decided to put them to use with a pot roast. The term "pot roast" is simply used to describe a tougher cut of meat that is slow roasted in moist heat along with a preferred assortment of vegetables. 

Multiple cultural groups have their own variation of what many of us here in the United States have come to call a New England pot roast. Depending on where you live in the world, you simply add in your own preferred seasonings and vegetables to give it a distinct regional flair.

You will see that we prepared our pot roast in an oblong Le Creuset Dutch oven. Does Le Creuset cookware live up to its hype? In a short answer, yes. In a longer answer, it's not essential to cook a good pot roast dinner. We acquired this one as a 20-year work anniversary gift option. 

Before I go into the description of how we prepared our dinner, here's a little about the herbs we used as seasonings. We tend to like to keep things simple and let the seasonings enhance, rather than obscure the flavor of the meat and vegetables. In addition to the typical salt and pepper, we added in some dried thyme and rosemary from our garden.

Thyme

Rosemary

Both thyme and rosemary are evergreen shrubs that originate in the Mediterranean. Although both are perennials, we've had an easier time sustaining thyme rather than rosemary in our herb garden. Just the same, we have plenty of dried rosemary to last us quite a while. Rosemary leaves resemble pine needles so they do need to be crumbled a bit when added into foods. It is commonly used in roasted foods. in folklore and literature, rosemary has been associated with mourning and remembrance. For those of you who are Shakespeare aficionados, Ophelia remarks, "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance, Pray you, love, remember."

Although multiple varieties of thyme exist, we grow a variety with small needle-like leaves that is commonly used along with sage in poultry seasoning. In ancient Egypt, however, thyme was used in the embalming process. During medieval times in Europe, thyme was placed under pillows as a sleep aid and to prevent nightmares. Women supposedly gave thyme to knights to bring them courage.

With that, let's assemble a pot roast dinner.

Step 1: Start with a cut of meat that will fit your roasting pan or Dutch oven. We used a chuck roast. This picture just shows how ours fit in the pan. Remove it before starting the next step.

Step 2: Heat some cooking oil in the bottom of the pan and sear the roast on both sides. This will help lock in the flavor and keep the roast from getting too dry.

Step 3: Prepare the vegetables you wish to use. As I mentioned, we had some fingerling potatoes as well as some carrots that were on their way out. We also had a half an onion in the refrigerator. Don't make this harder than it needs to be. Use what you like/have on hand and is in proportion to your cut of meat. Here's our vegetables before they went into the pot.

We also chopped up a couple of cloves of garlic to add to the mix.

Step 4: Add in a cup or so of beef broth to deglaze the roasting pan. Dump the vegetables on top of the meat. Add in some salt and pepper along with the herbs. We added about a teaspoon each of thyme and rosemary as well as the chopped garlic, salt, and pepper. At this point, you may wish to add in another cup of beef broth to ensure adequate liquid through the roasting process. Note: most broths, regardless, of how prepared, will have a fairly high sodium content so you can go sparingly on the salt up front and then adjust later.

Step 5: Cover and roast at 325ºF for about 3 hours until the vegetables are tender and the meat is approximately 145ºF and is tender.

Step 6: Enjoy! Pot roast also makes great leftovers. Ours lasted us for 2 full meals. We then made up a batch of mashed potatoes and used the remaining bits to make a shepherd's pie that lasted us another two meals!