Perfect Pot Roast

I love Sunday dinners. Wonderful smells. Lots of hectic people gathered around the table, together, relaxed (HA!), sharing a meal. Laughs, wine, stories, and lots of eating.

Well, that is, unless you are the COOK! You are usually the one, in the kitchen, sweating, juggling pots and pans and ingredients trying to make this relaxed family dinner come off without a hitch.

Seriously not easy. And how did I get to be the sweating in charge person? I don’t remember signing up for this. Oh, yes, I would LOVE to be the chief cook and bottle washer. So much more fun than being the (insert sport here) watching, when is dinner ready asking, unwashed masses who think it appears out of a cloud of pink smoke!

Wow, we just got really far afield here.

So, you want to have this wonderful, stress free, family dinner. The Pioneer Woman‘s Perfect Pot Roast may be your answer. Simple. Hearty. Slow cooking. Not many ingredients, and not a lot to do to the ingredients.

I love this cookbook. Simple, good food that doesn’t leave you trapped in the kitchen trying to disseminate a recipe.

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• One 3 to 5-pound chuck roast
• 2 or 3 T olive oil
• 2 whole onions, peeled and halved
• 6 to 8 whole carrots, unpeeled, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 2 1/2 C beef broth
• 2 or 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 2 or 3 sprigs fresh thyme

NOTE: Cut the onions in half from root to tip.

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.

Generously salt and pepper the chuck roast.

Heat the olive oil in large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the halved onions to the pot, browning them on both sides. Remove the onions to a plate.

Throw the carrots into the same very hot pot and toss them around a bit until slightly browned, about a minute or so. Reserve the carrots with the onions.

If needed, add a bit more olive oil to the very hot pot. Place the meat in the pot and sear it for about a minute on all sides until it is nice and brown all over. Remove the roast to a plate.

With the burner still on high, add about 1 C beef broth to deglaze the pot, scraping the bottom with a whisk. Place the roast back into the pot and add enough beef stock to cover the meat halfway.

Add in the onions and the carrots, along with the fresh herbs.

Put the lid on, then roast for 3 hours for a 3-pound roast. For a 4 to 5-pound roast, plan on 4 hours. The roast is ready when it’s fall-apart tender.

NOTE: So yummy. I served this with mashed potatoes, green beans and biscuits.

NOTE: This must have been good. The only sounds at my table were forks on plates, no talking. Sometimes a really good thing!

Slow Cooker Beef Ragu

I know you all have heard me say this before, but I love my slow cooker. I am still terrified of it, am still convinced that every siren screaming past my office window is headed for my house, but still am totally enamored by it.

By the way, I live 5 miles from my office, across a river, around a bay, and unless my entire neighborhood was aflame, there would be no possible way fire engines from a fire house near my office would be going to MY house!

But I digress – as I often do.

There really is nothing more comforting than coming home to dinner almost ready and the house filled with comforting aromas – just like every one else does every day in my house! I can see why they keep coming back! If I came home to that every day, I would never leave home either!

Winter into Spring in New York City is a very strange thing. One day it’s freezing, the next it’s hot, and some days manage to pack both into them. I wanted to squeeze this recipe in before it was too hot for this type of meal. The reality is, this is a good all year round recipe. This would be great for sandwiches.

The recipe in Everyday Food suggests serving this over pasta or polenta (which would be FAB-ulous), but I have mashed potato heads in my house, and I couldn’t imagine getting by serving this any other way. Wait, maybe over biscuits or with biscuits!

Okay, I lied! But still try this your tummies will thank you!

• 1 medium yellow onion, diced small
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 T tomato paste
• 3 T chopped fresh oregano leaves (or 3 t dried)
• 4 lb beef chuck, halved
• coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 C water
• 1 to 2 T red wine vinegar

NOTE: Cut as much fat away from the beef chuck as possible.  I used dried oregano.

In a 5 to 6 quart slow cooker, stir together onion, garlic, tomato paste and oregano. Season roast with salt and pepper.

Place roast on top of onion mixture, add water. Cover and cook on high until meat is tender and can easily be pulled apart with a fork – about 4 1/2 hours on high or 9 hours on low.

Let cool for 10 minutes, then shred meat in slow cooker with 2 forks. Stir in vinegar to taste. Serves 6 and freezes beautifully.

NOTE: I used two tablespoons of vinegar. I liked the vinegary kick it gave the beef.

NOTE: One of my favorite parts about this slow cooker recipe is not having to actually saute or brown or cook anything before starting. for me, there’s nothing worse than standing bleary eyed in the morning, cooking things before I head off for work. I want to throw it all in and have magic happen while I am at work counting how many times my house burned down!

 

Beef Braciola

I am truly enamored with Lucinda Scala Quinn. Have been from the first time I saw her on television. Her cooking style and mine are similar.  Her recipes and ingredients are accessible and easy and wonderful for family and friends, for all sorts of occasions. Many of the recipes from Mad Hungry come from one of Lucinda’s first books, Lucinda’s Rustic Italian Kitchen. Wonderful book with some truly wonderful recipes inside – including this one for Beef Braciola.

It never occurred to me to make braciola. To me it was always something people put in sauce, something the butcher made, and not something I cared for very much. There was something about this recipe and photo that drew me to it – making braciola the star of the dish! How ingenious!

• 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (about 3 teaspoons)
• 1 1/2 cups fresh breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme, or 1/4 teaspoon dried
• 10 slices top-round sirloin, very thinly sliced, pounded to 4-6 inches
• 10 pieces string, 14 inches long
• 1 small onion, minced
• 2 tablespoons red wine (optional) or water
• 1 28-ounce can best-quality tomatoes, coarsely blended

NOTE: I had the butcher cut this for me. I had 6 slices. I didn’t adjust the amount of stuffing any. I would prefer to have a little left over than not having enough!

You will of course only see 5 throughout this recipe as the Pup helped herself to a slice as I turned my back for a SPLIT second to put down the camera!

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and 2 teaspoons of the garlic in a small skillet over medium heat until it sizzles but does not brown, about 30 seconds. Stir in the breadcrumbs, remove from the heat, and set aside to cool. Stir in the Parmesan, parsley, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, 1/8 teaspoon of the black pepper, the red pepper flakes, and thyme.

Lay the meat slices out side by side on a clean workspace. Sprinkle each slice with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/8 teaspoon black pepper. Place a scant 1/4 cup filling over each meat slice, leaving a 1/4-inch border.

NOTE: I pounded the beef a bit to make it thinner and easier to roll. Also, I am so lousy at tying up meat (no comments from the peanut gallery) that I made it as simple as I could and just tied it in one spot. Really it was just to hold it together while searing it,. The Braciola Police were not going to give me a hard time for my ugly tying skills!

Drizzle on olive oil and roll each piece up from the widest to narrowest end. Tie each piece with the string.

Place the remaining 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat. Just before the oil smokes, add the meat bundles. (Do not crowd the pan or the meat won’t brown.) Working in batches if necessary, cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side. Remove the braciola from the pan and keep warm in the oven.

Reduce the heat to medium, stir in the onion and the remaining teaspoon of garlic, and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Pour in the wine or water, stirring to deglaze the pan, loosening all the brown bits on the bottom of the pan.

Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil. Return the beef to the pan, reduce the heat, and simmer, partially covered, for 1 hour. Remove the bundles from the pan, one at a time, snip off the string, and return to the pan. The dish may be made a couple of days ahead to this point, and the taste will improve. Serve as desired.

NOTE: I made a little pasta for the side and topped it with the tomato sauce.  And that thieving pup I mentioned earlier? Seems too much of a good thing IS bad for you! That is how she spent the rest of the night! Not sure if she was hanging her head in shame or suffering from being stuffed and eating raw beef!