Heavenly Beef Pot Roast Recipe

14 Feb 2012

All cows must go to heaven. But they do make a heavenly beef pot roast dish. Thanks to my temperamental patience (it is a torture to keep its smell while it’s slowly cooked)!

Summary

Yield	Hungry mouths
Prep time	4 hours
Cooking time
Total time	4 hours

Description

Each time I cook pot roast in the oven and even after four hours of cooking, the meat is still somewhat tough. So I tried to experiment pot roasting on stove top at low heat for 3 hours, and … Voila! (No, it’s not a French for pot roast)… my husband took a second round, as well as grampa. This is one of the best pot roast recipes I ever made too, and my mother-in-law was impressed. So here I dare sharing you the recipe:

Ingredients

2 lb

whole beef chuck

seasoned salt (recipe follows)

Large red onion, peeled and sliced in quarters

1 oz

bulb garlic, smashed and peeled

1 lb

carrots, washed, unpeeled and sliced diagonally at about 2” length

1⁄2 lb

russet potato, sliced at about 2”x2”

3 T

olive oil

1⁄2 c

red wine

1 cn

(305 g) cream of chicken (or cream of mushroom)

1⁄2 T

beef or chicken bouillon powder

3 c

water

stalk fresh lemon grass, folded and twined using its leaf; or you may use 3 large bay leaves or 4 small ones

Instructions

Make your own seasoned salt
2 T kosher salt
1 T smoked paprika
1 T ground cumin
1T ground black pepper
1 T brown sugar
1T onion powder

Mix all the ingredients. Set aside.

You may rinse the meat with tap water and pat dry, then rub all sides with seasoned salt. You may store the remaining seasoned salt in an air-tight container for future use.

Heat a heavy pot at medium heat, and add in oil. When oil is ready (splatters with moist), sear all sides of meat until golden brown (3-4 minutes each side). Take out from pot and onto a clean dish to set aside.

Note: while browning the meat, the oil may get hotter it may give out a lot of smoke. You need to adjust heat down to low.

With low heat (while you are trying to cool down the oil), you may add in garlic and sauté until lightly browned, then add in onion and carrots, constantly sautéing until vegetables are lightly browned.

Note: the seasoning rubbed on to meat that sticks on the bottom of the pot may also discolor the vegetable. Nothing to worry about. Keep sautéing, adjusting the heat, letting the veggies go on with their “sizzling interaction” (about 5 minutes).

Deglaze sautéed veggies with red wine. Stir while scraping the scorch in the bottom of the pot to mix with the ingredients.

Increase heat to medium high and let simmer for 3 minutes or until most of the liquid evaporated.

Make a “well” by setting the veggies on the sides in the pot and return the meat in the middle. Pour in water, beef bouillon powder, cream of mushroom, and add in lemon grass. Stir to mix. Let boil for 5 minutes, the reduce heat to medium-low (about #3 out of 10 of your oven setting), and cook for 3 hours, flipping the meat halfway through being done.

One hour before the meat is cooked, add in prepared potatoes.

Savor!

Serve warm over mashed potatoes or steamed rice.

Store the extra seasoned salt in a tight container (sealed plastic bag will do) for future use.

Notes

Lemon grass is a popular flavoring for filipino soup dishes. In the U.S., lemon grass (fresh) can be found in Asian markets in the vegetable section. If you don't have this, go ahead and use dried bay leaves (about 3-4 bay leaves per 2 lbs meat).