Saturday, January 11, 2014

Pot Roast -- Slow Roasted Southwestern Style

We awoke to very heavy storms and tornado warnings this morning. We had lots of thunder and lightning and very heavy rain. It came down so fast that at one point our backyard looked like lakefront property! By this afternoon it began clearing up, and the sun actually came out. Last night hubby and I did our Costco run after work. I had every intention of eating dinner when we got home but for some reason I felt a little sick to my stomach, so I opted to eat just a little yogurt and go to bed early. While at Costco last night I picked up a package of boneless chuck roast (there were 2 in the package) to make pot roast this weekend (there were two 3-pound roasts). I planned to place it in the crock pot this morning but didn't get it started in time. Instead, I decided to slow roast it in my dutch oven on low (300 degrees F) for 3 to 4 hours since we were going to be at home this afternoon. My roast was totally fall-apart tender in 3-1/2 hours and very tender after only 3 hours. I decided to make my Squash Casserole to go with the pot roast as well as steam some fresh thin green beans (Haricots Vert). I baked a batch of my Cheddar Black Pepper Biscuits for breakfast so I had those to serve with our dinner if anyone wanted bread. Late this afternoon, youngest son called to see what we were doing and asked what I was making for dinner...when I told him, he asked why I didn't call him to let him know...LOL. Needless to say, he left promptly to come home for dinner!  Since my pot roast was ready and I was getting ready to pull the squash casserole out of the oven, I still had 30 minutes to kill before he got home so I went ahead and baked some Chocolate Chip Cookies!  :-)  I snapped a few photos of dinner below as well as the recipe for my pot roast. Not too bad for a totally wheat and grain free meal, huh? Enjoy!







Pot Roast -- Slow Roasted Southwestern Style

Ingredients:

1 3-pound boneless chuck roast
1/2 to 1 teaspoon coarse Kosher salt (or regular grind)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle chile powder, optional
2 tablespoons olive or coconut oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
3 large carrots, cut in 1/2-inch slices
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 small seeded and finely diced jalapeno pepper, optional
1 14.5-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes (including juice)
3 to 4 cups beef stock
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  Pat roast dry with paper towels and season both sides with salt, pepper and optional chipotle powder. In a 6 or 7-quart Dutch Oven (I used my LeCreuset), heat oil over medium heat until hot. Carefully place roast in pan and sear until brown, about 4 to 5 minutes per side; using a couple of large spatulas, flip roast over and brown remaining side. Remove roast to a platter. Add the onions and carrots and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly browned and caramelized; add garlic and optional jalapeno and cook an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Move veggies aside and make a well; return roast to pan. Dump can of diced tomatoes, including their juice, on top of roast and spread out. Pour enough stock around roast until a little over half way up the side of the roast. Cover with lid (or heavy duty foil) and roast in a 300 degree oven for 3 to 4 hours. Check roast for doneness after 3 hours by using two forks to pull meat apart in center of roast. If meat pulls apart easily, it's done; if not, return to oven for an additional 30 to 60 minutes.

*My roast was tender after 3 hours but I returned it to the oven and cooked an additional 30 minutes for  a total of 3-1/2 hours for "fall apart tender". To reduce spiciness, eliminate or reduce the chipotle chile powder and the jalapeno.

    

7 comments:

CyberSis said...

Hi GGC,

I'm sorry that you had the "queasies." It sounds like you're feeling a little better. Wow, I thought we had it bad, but the weather you've had is more than enough to get anyone out-of-sorts. Just think of the wild atmospheric pressure swings. That might be where the phrase, "under the weather" comes from ... the weather has been known to effect me sometimes. My hubby just informed me that we're due for another one of those "arctic vortex" things next week ... here we go again!

Thanks for the hint about the roast. I love stuff in the slow-cooker, but sometimes it's difficult to get it in on time. Nice to have an "alternative" slow oven method. We use our pressure cooker sometimes for that reason. Oops, over-sleep? Pressure cooker to the rescue! :-)

Hope you're feeling tip-top very soon!

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi CyberSis,

Thank you. I think whatever I had has passed. I have been looking at pressure cookers a bit recently. I know others that have them and love them. Is yours an electric or stovetop cooker?

Do you use it much? I actually looked at the one that Costco has when I was there Friday night -- it was a Cuisinart and I believe it was about $70. It looked a bit like a slow cooker. I am thinking it would be nice to have but since it is another item to have to find storage room for, I want to think about it a bit and not make an "impulse purchase" (Lord knows I am an expert at that)...LOL.

What do you think? Is there a favorite food you like to prepare in it or a particular food you would definitely not prepare in it? Also, how do you calculate the cooking time for foods as opposed to traditional cooking methods?

Thanks for the well wishes -- I'm keeping my fingers crossed I will wake up energetic in the morning!Wow...another arctic vortex -- something else to look forward to...NOT! :-)

CyberSis said...

Hi Gourmet Girl,

About a year ago we bought the digital InstaPot Programmable Pressure Cooker after seeing a recommendation by Mark Sisson. It was kind of an “impulse buy” at the time, although we’d talked about getting an automatic pressure cooker previously. I really didn’t do a lot of research. I saw the article and basically went with Mark. :-)

The InstaPot is a “multifunction” cooker; pressure cooking is one of its functions. Another function is slow cooking, but since we bought it specifically for pressure cooking we haven’t tried the other functions. It plugs in on the kitchen counter like a crockpot. Unlike the stovetop kind, you can literally "set it and forget it" ... no guesswork, no watching, no baby sitting. It has several built-in automatic programs which you can manually “tweak” if you want to for customized settings. It comes with quite a thorough instruction booklet, detailed cooking times and settings, etc.

My hubby is the one who uses it mostly and he really likes it. It gets used mainly for pot roast and spare ribs (he adds a little vinegar to the cooking water then after they come out of the cooker he coats the ribs with BBQ sauce and pops them into the broiler or onto the grill for a few minutes.)

We use it in “spurts,” some times more than others, but often enough to justify a permanent space on the counter ... making room on the counter was easier than trying to fit it into my cupboards, and besides, I didn’t need that bread maker there anymore. :-)

Here's the Mark's Daily Apple link:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/10-last-minute-primal-paleo-gift-ideas/#axzz2KqKZxNk3

Here's the Amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0073GIN08/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0073GIN08&linkCode=as2&tag=marsdaiapp07-20

If you scroll down the page you’ll see other brands of cookers to compare. I just noticed that there's an InstaPot *7-in-1* now ... ours is 6-in-1. It’s worked great for us so far and has caused no problems. There is a learning curve, of course, but it’s pretty straight-forward to use. My main complaint is that I have trouble finding where you line up the lid and it takes me a couple of times of trial and error to get it closed ... hubby, however, has *no* trouble at all! It looks like they redesigned the lid on the newer model. Also, the silicone seal retains a slight onion cooking odor even after washing well, though I consider this to be a minor gripe. The cooking pot is stainless steel and isn’t non-stick, if that matters to you (I actually prefer uncoated cooking surfaces, so that doesn’t bother me.)

Keeping my fingers crossed that you’ll continue to feel better!

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi CyberSis! Wow, thanks for all the information -- I have come across the InstaPot when I was looking online for pressure cookers, but had never heard of that brand/kind before. I'm sure if you like it (and Mark Sisson recommended it) that is is a good one. I will look at the links you sent and read about the 6 in 1 and 7 in 1 models. I agree, none of the items you mentioned would be issues for me either. Thank you for all the information about them. Talking about spare ribs reminds me of wanting to ask you if you have ever tried the boneless short ribs at Costco before? So far, so good here...I'm feeling good...so *maybe* my immune system won this time...or maybe I just jinxed myself by saying that in writing...LOL. Hope you had a good weekend and thanks, again! :-)

CyberSis said...

Hi GGC,

I've seen the short ribs at Costco but haven't tried them yet. Do you like them? They usually look beautiful. I used to make short ribs with a wonderful BBQ sauce and loved them with this particular recipe. But there are a couple of ingredients that I no longer care to use ... one being molasses. I've been reluctant to make short ribs any other way, though. It sounds silly, but maybe I'm trying to keep the memory alive! One of these days I'll break down and get some and make new memories. :-)

By the way, my hubby uses bottled BBQ sauce for his ribs but at least he applies it with a light hand. I'm not so sentimental about these and I'd like to find a recipe for an alternative sauce with similar flavor (to keep hubby happy) but without all the HFCS, etc. I've tried a couple of different sauce recipes with not much success. Also tried a recipe for ketchup. It was was uncooked and was really awful. It kind of put me off trying another ketchup recipe, although I'm sure a simmered one that would "marry" the flavors would be much better. Will add it to my "To-Do" list.

Have a great week! :-)

CyberSis said...

PS: We cooked brisket in the InstaPot a couple of times. I'd forgotten about it because it's been a while. Turned out good, as I remember. Might be time for more! :-)

Gourmet Girl Cooks said...

Hi CyberSis -- I've only tried the short ribs once before -- a recipe I did for someone else. They turned out good...but I'm with you on the "sauce" part. It is a bit trickier creating some of the sweeter based sauces. I, too, made ketchup once and tossed it. I decided life without ketchup would be better than life with THAT! LOL Basically, on the extremely rare occasions I use it (an occasional stripe on an organic hot dog)...I just use the commercial stuff without HFCS. The ketchup I made used tomato paste and I can't remember what else...actually I don't WANT to remember what else...LOL. Some day I may venture down the "sauce highway" again...as soon as I am totally recovered from the ketchup journey! :-)