Pot Roast
(For our family of 5 to have for dinner one night and then another night as leftovers. Will feed about 7 adults, or two adults and three ravenous children. Ish.)
Approximately 4 hours cooking time
About 5-6 pounds of beef roast
Garlic cloves, probably 4 or 5 total
Red wine (I like pinot noir or chianti)
1 box beef broth
Worcestershire sauce
Soy sauce
Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and crushed rosemary (very important!)
About 1 lb. baby carrots
About 1-2 pounds small red potatoes
1 whole large onion or 2 small whole onions
About 10-12 fresh white mushrooms
Okay, here’s my method. Tweak it to suit your own needs.
First, the day you buy the roast, unwrap it, rinse it and this is when you’ll begin marinating it. Take all of your dry seasonings (salt, pepper, rosemary, etc.) and run them through a spice grinder or grind with a mortar and pestle until they’re finely mixed together. You’ll need about a palmful after they’re ground, then dump them all in a coffee cup and add about ¼ cup red wine. Mix well and microwave just long enough to get the wine boiling (any longer and it will boil over and you will not be happy, so keep a close eye on it). Let that sit and cool while you prepare the roast. With a very sharp knife, cut an X into the roast every few inches apart, and about an inch deep. Peel your garlic cloves and quarter them. Then take the coffee cup with the wine and seasonings, and with a spoon, remove some of the seasonings, letting the liquid drain back into the cup. Don’t throw it out because you’ll need it later. You’ll have a little wet wad of spices. With your fingers, shove some of the seasonings down into the Xs you cut into the roast, then cram a quartered garlic clove in behind it. When you’ve filled all the holes, take the rest of the seasonings left in the coffee cup and rub them all over the roast. Then take the roast and put it inside a large Ziploc bag. To the liquid left in the coffee cup, add a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce and a little bit more red wine. Mix well, then pour it in over the roast. Seal the bag and put it in another Ziploc bag, just to keep it from leaking. At this point, you can either let it marinate overnight in the fridge, or wrap it in foil and stick it in the freezer. To thaw, let it sit in the fridge for about two days to thaw completely, and turn every 12 hours or so to evenly marinate. Then proceed with the next step.
When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 325, then take the roast out of the bags and drain well, but don’t rinse. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet large enough to hold the roast (I usually have to cut mine in half to make them fit, so I end up with two roasts and have to do the browning step twice). Peel and dice the onion, then sauté in the olive oil until done, then dump it all in a large roasting pan. Add a few more tablespoons of olive oil back to the pan, heat until it shimmers, then brown the roast on all sides. When nicely browned, place into the roaster pan, then add the entire box of beef broth and half the bottle of red wine, then put a lid on it. Roast at 325 for about 3 hours, turning the meat over every hour or so.
Meanwhile, scrub the potatoes and cut into 1-inch pieces. Rinse the mushrooms and quarter them. If you have baby carrots, you won’t need to do anything to prepare them, unless you like to rinse them first, which I do. You can also add turnips, Jerusalem artichokes, parsnips, whatever else you want.
At the 3 hour mark, add the carrots, potatoes and mushrooms, make sure everything is mostly submerged in the liquid. Stir around to make sure, and you can add more beef broth or red wine at this point to make sure it’s all covered. Put the lid back on and cook for another hour or so, or until vegetables are done and a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the roast reads 160-165 degrees. Remove from the oven, flip the meat over in the roasting pan, put the lid back on and let it sit, covered, for about 15 minutes. You can eat it like it is, or make a roux and add several cups of the liquid in the pan to make gravy.
