Recipe of the Month—Real Comfort Food
Pot Roast
This is not the pot roast your mother used to cook – unless of course your momma’s Italian!
It's a great thing that slow cooking is back in fashion. This is a country-style pot roast which uses one cup of red wine—take your choice of any full-bodied red which you have in your cellar. The aroma of wine, garlic and onion blending for seven or eight hours is a beautiful thing. The extra steps in pre-browning ingredients before placing in the slow cooker is worth it in the wonderful savory taste that results from the slow cooking process. (I have a wonderful pressure cooker that I used in much the same way, except the roast was ready in 60 minutes. M)
Ingredients:
- 1 large boneless beef chuck roast, about 5 pounds, tied
- salt and pepper
- 4 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 3 medium onions, chopped
- a large celery rib, chopped
- 4 medium carrots, chopped
- 6 medium garlic cloves, minced
- ˝ teaspoon dried hot pepper flakes
- 1 cup thick tomato sauce
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 cup hot beef broth
Preparation:
Season roast liberally with salt and pepper. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in 12-inch skillet over medium high heat, sear meat on all sides, then place in warmed cooker. Add the other two teaspoons of oil, to skillet, then add onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Transfer to slow cooker. Add red wine to empty skillet, scraping up any browned bits with a wooden spoon, and simmer. Add tomato sauce and broth; bring to a boil. Add pepper flakes and transfer to slow cooker. Set slow cooker to high, cover and cook for 6 to seven hours. For those with an automatic setting (which puts the cooker on high for the first hour and then shifts to low), cook for 8 to nine hours. Transfer roast to carving board, and loosely tent with foil to keep warm. Let slow cooker settle for 5 minutes, then skim off excess fat from the surface. Puree the liquid and solids in batches in a food processor or blender. Or do it with an immersion blender right in the slow cooker insert. Stir in parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. (This makes a spicy thick gravy with no flour added.) Remove strings from the roast and cut into 1/2-inch slices. Transfer meat to a platter. Pour about 1 cup of gravy over meat. Pass more gravy separately.
Braised green beans and mashed potatoes are a great accompaniment. Serves 6.
Serve with a bold red wine – you probably have this in your cellar.