Rosie Makes Pot Roast For Angela In Wisconsin.

My friend, Angela in Wisconsin, emailed me not too long ago with a Just Ask Rosie request. Here's part of her email: Here is your mission if you choose to accept it.

1. Chili. Good old fashioned Chili. Red, meat, beans optional & some heat. Everytime I try to make this it's like eating red water. If red chili isn't your thing, then an attempt at green chili with pork would be welcome as well. I've had some success with the latter but it still leaves much to be desired.
2. Pot Roast. Braised meat with carrots, taters, good gravy, etc. School me on this dear.

I've already made the chili verde with pork and the good old fashioned chili for Angela and now I'm doing the pot roast. Thank you, Angela. You always keep me on my toes and I always love a challenge.

Here's my chuck roast which I bought on sale at Food Lion.

When I pick out a meat, I always look for a good amount of marbling. Marbling is the distribution of fat throughout the meat and serves two primary functions in making the meat both tasty and tender. As the marbled meat cooks, the fat dissolves and distributes throughout the meat with the end result being the meat is tender, moist, very tasty, and has a pleasant texture.

I trimmed off the chunks of fat on the outside and one big chunk on the inside.

When I cook a pot roast, I like a lot of veggies with it. I have a whole head of garlic (I love baked garlic. You squeeze it out of the skin and it's a very delicate garlic puree.), onions, celery, carrots, and sweet potatoes.

I layered the bottom of my crock pot with coarsely chopped carrots and celery.

I decided to add in a few red potatoes too.

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and garlic went in.

Then the meat went in.

Freshly ground salt and pepper and bay leaves. I use fresh bay leaves off my bay tree. If you use dried, just add in 1 or 2 leaves.

I poured in 2 cans of beef broth.

And about 2 cups of red wine. When it's cooking it smells divine.

This next ingredient is not necessary and I understand most people don't have it on hand, but in case you do, add in some veal stock. It gives the gravy an amazing flavor and richness.

Frozen veal stock cubes went in.

Since I have plenty (as in out the wazoo) of tomatoes, I chopped up a few ...

... and added them in. Cover, turn the crock pot on high, and 6 hours later ...

... you have this. And I wish you could smell it.

I serve this with a nice crusty baguette so you can sop up all the juices and since I'm the cook, I get the garlic. And it looks like I added in some green grapes for a touch of whimsy, because I'm nothing if not whimsical. This was a wonderfully flavorful meal. The meat was fork tender and the vegetables aromatic. Just an all-around simple, hearty, meal. Hope this helps you, Angela.

Friday Night Pot Roast Dinner

I found a chuck roast on sale at Food Lion the other day for less than 1/2 price, which meant it needed to be cooked immediately if not sooner, as in 2 days ago.

I quartered and halved two onions and put a whole head of garlic in my crock pot.

I put in the meat on top and salted and peppered both sides.

I added in a can of beef broth - low sodium.

And a small can of tomato sauce.

About one cup of red wine. Then a glass or 5 for the cook.

After about 4 hours on low, I added carrots, celery, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. And gosh golly does this ever smell wonderful. The wine really gives it a boost.

After 4 more hours, the meat is falling off the bone, except there weren't any bones, so I'll just say it's really, really tender.

My plate with the meat, celery, carrot, onion, potato and the one leftover cornbread muffin from Thursday dinner. The sauce is particularly good - very rich and the addition of the wine takes it to another level. You could cut the incredibly tender meat with a fork and it was bursting with flavor. The potatoes had soaked up the flavors of the sauce and really didn't need any butter, but of course I added some because what's a potato without butter, I ask you. The celery was a nice light taste that was a nice addition to the rest of the meal. Cornbread is always a winner. And cooked carrots, mashed with some butter is just sublime.

You can squeeze the garlic right out of the skin and baked/cooked garlic is a wonderfully sweet puree.

The nice thing about these crock pot meals is that you can get rid of lots of leftovers in the fridge. After everything had cooked, I found a container of butter beans from the other night so I added that in. And after a meal or two of this, we'll doctor it up and make a soup by adding more tomato sauce, possibly more beef stock, more veggies (peas, squash, zucchini come to mind), and Mr. Hawthorne likes to add pasta to it. Toast some buttered slices of a nice baguette (or brickette, as Mr. Hawthorne refers to it) and you won't know you're eating leftovers. You'll have a whole new delicious meal.