I have a Crock-Pot and so I often make pot roast. Here’s the recipe I usually use (and it’s never really exact) -
2 pounds of locally raised organic beef (chuck roast) cut into little pieces
Two or three Yukon potatoes cut into little pieces
Three organic shallots, cut up very finely into tiny bits
Baby carrots (half a bag)
One and a half cups of organic beef stock
One and a half cups of red wine
Salt, pepper, maybe some thyme or bay leaves
This always comes out really good. But I’m wanting to know of other things I can add to it to change it up a little, and add something unique to it. What else can I put in it to make it more interesting?
Is it really pot roast if you’re cutting it up into bits and chunks? More like stew or soup then, no?
My recipe is similar to yours. I brown a piece of beef, usually a boneless shoulder roast. Toss in pot with enough beef broth and red wine to cover, a few cloves of garlic and packet of beef onion soup mix. Low for 6-10 hours, then drain out enough juice to make yummy gravy for the mashed potatoes I make separately. More work to do the potatoes and veg all individually, but we like better that way.
One of my dad’s two ‘specialties’ was pot roast. Of course, he came from an era when prepackaged foods were all the rage, which is bound to make foodies shudder and retch.
He’s put a 7-bone roast with the bone cut out into a roasting pan. On top of that would go some Lipton Onion Soup mix and a can of cream of mushroom soup. Russet potatoes would be cut in half, then cut into wedges. These, along with carrots, onions, mushrooms, and green bell pepper were arranged separately around the roast. Cover, roast, and eat. I miss his pot roast.
I used to leave the beef in one or two big pieces but then I got tired of having to cut it up later so I figured why not just cut it up beforehand? I guess it’s stew, then.
Where’s the garlic? There is no “maybe” about the bay leaves. Use three. Needs some celery, maybe a turnip or two, some late-added mushrooms, and more pepper.
I always add parsnips - they add some depth and a little bit of sweetness. I also avoid using baby carrots. While they’re more convenient, I find that regular carrots have more flavour.
take your hunk o’beast, grab lots of garlic and rosemary. Poke holes all over the dead cow, shove in slices of clove and rosemary leaves. Roll in cracked fresh pepper.
Get a dutch oven hot, add some olive oil and brown the cow all about gently to get the carmelization deal going. Glug in an appropriate amount of a good hearty red wine [last time it was a young barbarrone], toss in a bouquet garni made of 2 or 3 bay leaves, a sprig of rosemary, a couple sprigs of thyme wrapped in a bit of kitchen gauze and tied with clean cotton thread. Cut a couple onions into large wedges and toss in, chunk up 4 or 5 stalks of celery and chunk up 3 or 4 peeled carrots.
Let simmer gently preferably on the wood stove for about 4 hours, then toss in as many washed baby red potatoes as you feel like and add a little more wine if it needs it. Simmer another hour or so, and serve with fresh baked sourdough bread.
Put a good sear on the roast first. It keeps all of the yum yum juices inside. Add garlic, onion soup mixSlow cook for 10 hours in a crock pot (more or less; put it on before work and come home to a ready meal) I usually quarter potatoes and carrots to stew along with it. Or place asparagus on top of the roast and let it steam cook.
For pot roast, I like to keep things minimal - I sear a big hunk of dead cow in a little olive oil, then add two bottles of dark beer (I usually go for a Coffee Porter produced by a local brewery), lots of thinly sliced onions (two big onions if I can find Vidalias or Walla Wallas, or just a 1lb bag of regular cooking onions otherwise), a couple of bay leaves, a little salt and a whole lotta pepper.
The leftovers make a sublime sandwich. I toast some good peasant-style bread, then add a couple of slices of roast, a pile of cooked-down oniony goodness and a squirt of spicy mustard. Sometimes I even reheat a little ramekin of the sauce for dunking, if I’m in the mood for that sort of thing.
Stew, on the other hand, needs more “stuff”… aside from the usual onions/shallots, carrots and potatoes, I’d probably add some celery and little baby mushrooms to the mix.
Mince a couple cloves of garlic. Add 2 anchovy fillets. Mash all together, then add to stew/pot-roast/etc. Glutamate will enhance the meaty taste. More info on umami as a taste.
Crock-Pot Italian Pot Roast
c2004 H. E. Butt Grocery Company. All rights reserved.
1 (4 to 4 1/2 pound) chuck or rump roast
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes with basil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 tablespoon fresh marjoram
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound pearl onions, or 1 (16-ounce) jar pearl onions, drained
1 (6-ounce) jar salad olives, drained
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup chili sauce
12 small new potatoes, scrubbed
Brown the roast on all sides in the olive oil in a large skillet. Place in a slow cooker. Add the tomatoes with basil, garlic, thyme, oregano, marjoram, salt, onions, olives, Worcestershire sauce and chili sauce. Cook on High for 1 hour. Add the potatoes. Cook on Medium for 5 hours or until the roast is tender and cooked through. Serves 6 to 8.
Suggested menu:
Crock-Pot Italian Pot Roast
Mixed field greens with parmesan walnut Caesar dressing
Crusty Italian bread for dipping into the pan sauce
Amaretto cookies or chocolate biscotti with Spumoni ice cream
My observations (by emo):
This is terrific.
Do not even attempt this recipe as written unless you have a super-jumbo crock-pot. I used half the meat specified because I had a standard crock-pot, and the ingredients still barely fit.
Unless your family looks like Fred Flintstone, the meat/veg ratio is way off, to my taste at least. As I said, I used half the meat, and the vegs could have been bumped up another 25-50%.
A lot of pan juice is produced, and it is delicious. You could serve it in soup bowls and give everybody half a loaf of bread apiece for dipping.
I was worried that the olive flavor would be too strong, because I used Manzanilla olives stuffed with pimientos, because that’s what I had. The long slow cooking gave the olives themselves a very mild, mellow flavor. The sauce and other ingredients got a very subtle infusion of olive flavor.
I modified the technique somewhat. After browning and removing the meat, I hit the pan with a splash of red wine*, scraped a bit, added the tomatoes, herbs and seasonings, and let it heat up. Meanwhile, I put the meat, onions and olives into the crock-pot and cranked it up. After a couple of minutes of simmer time, I added the tomatoes to the pot and proceeded.
I used Yukon Gold-type potatoes, because that’s what I had, and they worked fine. Same with the herbs: dried, but half the amount specified, because that’s what I had.
To repeat, this is terrific.
*As advised by AB and Shirley Corriher: some of the flavors in tomatoes can only be released by alcohol.
Looks pretty interesting. I almost never make pot roast the same way twice. The last one I made was an adaptation of a recipe for cranberry pot roast I found in an early-1900s cookbook. It was basically a pound of fresh cranberries, a large onion, some broth, and some sugar. My adaptation was to add sugar to balance out the tartness of the cranberries. It was awesome. Your idea of adding horseradish sounds even awesomer. I’ll have to give it a shot one day soon.
Hmm, my recipe tastes awfully good to me, but I don’t think you foodies will respect it - it involves a package of low-sodium beef gravy, a package of onion soup mix (low-sodium if you can get it), and a half a can of Coke, all mixed up (with a little water) and poured over the beef, carrots, and onions. I think I might try adding horseradish to that next time I make it.
