The meat is a 3lb piece of mock tender, which is a cut of the chuck, if that matters.
Only 2 rules:
-must include rutabegas.
-no cream-of-whatever soup.
I enjoy wine-based or tomato-based sauces. I plan to use a slow cooker.
Well, you don’t really need a recipe for that. Salt and Pepper it, brown it in some olive oil (or whatever oil you like), put it in the slow cooker.
Cover halway with some water or some beef stock, and part of a bottle of wine. Or more wine. Or no wine. Add a can of diced tomatoes. Or two cans. Or no cans.
Dice up an onion or two, or a leek. Add some garlic if you like garlic. Let it cook for a couple hours, then dice up your rutabagas and throw them in.
Slow cook it until the meat is tender. If you feel like it, add any softer veggies you might have lying around. Go through your fridge and pull out other bits and pieces of stuff you want to use up - those old mushrooms, or a carrot, or a potato. Maybe some parsley or green beans or a can of beans. Noodles, if you want.
Add salt and pepper if needed. Maybe another glop of wine, or a tablespoon or so of brandy. Or cream.
At least, that’s how I do it. I’m making beef barley carrot kale tomato soup today, along with whatever else I find in the fridge.
This recipe for “quick” Sauerbraten from Southern Living magazine looks pretty good… The mention of rutabagas made me think of the sauerbraten. I think the gingersnap sauerbraten gravy would just compliment the rutabagas really well, maybe serve them mashed potatoes style, pureed/mashed with some milk and butter, or a combo of rutabagas and potatoes mashed, with some slices of the sauerbraten draped over a mound and topped off with the gravy. Just seems like a wintery dish.
Sauerbraten
3 tablespoons pickling spice
2 onions, sliced
1 carrot, sliced
1 cup water
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup Burgundy
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 bay leaves
1 (4-pound) sirloin tip roast
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 cup crushed gingersnaps (about 12)
Tie pickling spice in a cheesecloth bag.
Combine spice bag, onion, and next 7 ingredients in a shallow dish or large heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag; add roast. Cover or seal, and chill 8 hours, turning occasionally.
Remove roast from marinade, reserving marinade.
Brown roast in hot oil in a Dutch oven. Remove roast, reserving drippings in pan. Whisk flour and sugar into reserved drippings, and cook over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, 2 minutes or until browned. Gradually stir in reserved marinade. Return roast to pan; bring mixture to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 2 1/2 hours.
Discard spice bag and bay leaves. Remove roast, reserving drippings in pan; slice and keep warm.
Stir gingersnaps into reserved drippings in Dutch oven; simmer, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Pour mixture through a colander into a bowl. Press vegetables through colander with back of a spoon. Serve gravy with roast.
Yield
8 servings
Southern Living, NOVEMBER 1998
… And with this sauerbraten recipe, you can easily convert it to a slow cooker recipe, just follow all of the directions, brown the meat, and add it, and the marinade to the slow cooker instead of the dutch oven… cook appropriately for several hours.
seems like it might be too much liquid for the crockpot however might need to cut back there, since it doesn’t get evaporated off like this direct heat recipe.
Yours is more or less what I do, but lately I have been browning the chuck roast on high heat on the gas BBQ instead of in a skillet. Just brown it good, doesn’t need to cook all the way through. Gives it a marvelous flavor.
I’ve never had luck with pot roast in the slow cooker. It comes out decent, but not great. It’s totally missing the unctuous, beefy awesomeness that is good pot roast. (At least, mine does. It turns out a little dry and just not what I wanted. OK, but not the pot roast I’m looking for.)
However, I’ve found the secret and now make pretty awesome pot roast at will - I use the recipe in the New Best Recipe cookbook from Cook’s Illustrated Test Kitchen. Season the hunk of chuck roast with salt and pepper; brown all sides well in a dutch oven (mine’s cast iron, the Lodge brand) and remove; add chopped onion, celery, and carrot and brown; add chopped garlic; add the meat back in; add broth to come half-way up the roast, then cover and toss in the oven for several hours. The Cook’s Illustrated authors say that the meat needs to reach a temperature of 200-210, then stay there for at least one hour to dissolve the collagen and get pot roast wonderfulness.
When the meat’s done, I remove it from the pot, strain the liquid into my gravy separator, then make gravy from the drippings/fat, with a bit of wine. It’s really outstanding.
Aha! And here’s someone that agrees with me about CI. It’s a really great recipe.
Browning the meat and veggies does make a big difference. One of these days I’m going to try browning the meat and veggies first, and finishing in a slow cooker, but I usually just brown and then cook in the same Dutch oven.
I usually cook the veggies for meatloaf before adding them into the loaf, too. It helps bring out the flavor.
Recipe:
Put it in the slow cooker.
Add some water and stuff (root vegetables are nice).
Turn on the slow cooker.
GOTO WORK. (capitalization required)
Come home.
Eat dinner.
I watch too many cooking shows, but they all boil down (heh) to that. Really, do high schools really not offer cooking classes? (Beat up the first grade bully, who ended up the first guy in our school to take Home Ec. Coincidence?) I mean, I’m even a guy (who helped a working mom). A pot roast is chimp work, except a chimp would eat it raw.
Ahhh… here’s another dropzone recipe.
Pour a bowl of Wheaties
STAND OVER THEM
PISS IN THEM
EAT.