"Like butter" pot roast, and forty-five second ice cream

[roto204]

When Kevin was here, we had a fabulous meal of pot roast with root vegetables, cooked in his beautiful LeCreuset Dutch Oven, along with forty-five second ice cream in his VitaMix blender. (Well, thirty-three seconds, actually, but more on that in a bit.) We started by pre-heating the oven to 300º, then heating a few tablespoons of oil in the LeCreuset on the stove. Meanwhile, David and Kevin prepared the roasts with salt and pepper. (Love the depth-of-field in this photo, Kevin!)

[this post was last edited: 10/30/2014-22:21]

 

[roto204]

Pre-searing

One of those great secrets of pot roast is browning the meat beforehand. We did just that, making sure each side was done. Once everything was lightly browned, we set the roasts aside.

It takes some tong-work to get everything even, but it's worth it.

Even if you're incredulous.

 

[roto204]

Meanwhile...

We then cooked down some basic aromatics--a medium onion, carrot (or two), celery stalk (ditto), and garlic and sugar. The garlic and sugar came toward the end; nothing's nastier than burnt garlic. The veggies were cooked until they just started to caramelize; then the garlic and a couple teaspoons of sugar joined the mix. (We actually found we could have done with a little less sugar.)

These also serve to somewhat de-glaze the pan after the meat's been browning in there.

Meanwhile, Kevin set about chopping up the copious amounts of root veggies we'd need, including red potatoes (to about 1/2" thick), carrots, and parsnips.

 

[roto204]

Veggies!

Once the basic aromatics have cooked down, the roasts jump back into the pan to rejoin them, and along with those go two cups of broth (one beef and one chicken), and a sprig of fresh thyme or two to add a nice bouquet. (not bucket)

At this point, we put tin foil under the lid, which helped keep everything well controlled and non-spittery.

 

[roto204]

Into the oven

Into the oven it goes, and looks lovely just sitting there.

Now, put on a movie, or do some laundry--you'll be back every thirty minutes for the next four hours or so to take the pan out and flip the roast(s).

Flipping is a delicate process, and can easily coat the wall and ceiling with gravy if you're not fierce with the tongs. Stay steady!

 

[roto204]

Nearing the home stretch

When you're in your last thirty-minute interval, add the root veggies to the pot, and put it back into the oven for another 40 minutes or so.

 

[roto204]

Gravy

After the veggies have cooked for the last forty minutes, you'll want to pull the roasts out, place the veggies into their own bowl, and set those items aside to rest.  Cover the veggies so they stay warm.  Do the same thing with the roasts--place them on a platter or cutting board, and cover them with foil too.  

 

Savor the fact that fishing the root veggies out is rather akin to bobbing for apples.  Leave the bits of onion and celery that are too far gone to fish out; they'll add flavor and body to the gravy puree.

 

Next, find those thyme sprigs, and get 'em out of there, unless you dig finding twigs in your food.

What do you have left? Only the makings for what Alton Brown noted was the raison d'être for pot roast--gravy base.  (And some seriously softened onion bits.)

 

First, we let it rest for several minutes, so that we can skim off the fat.  Because you saw my butt in that other thread.

[this post was last edited: 10/30/2014-21:59]

 

[roto204]

More gravy!

To make the gravy base, take the skimmed veg-free leftovers*, and transfer them to your blender, so that the whole thing can be pureed into a lovely, smooth liquid.

 

Steady hands win here, too, since no one likes having to get skin grafts before dinner; nor does anyone enjoy explaining why the stovetop looks like the Exxon Valdez parked there.

 

* You didn't really try to fish out the initial aromatics that were cooked down to nothing, did you?

 

[roto204]

Still more gravy!

Return the lovely puree from your blender to the pot, and get things heating again.  You don't have to boil it ferociously, but get it good and hot.

 

Add the wine to your gravy (about 1/4 cup per the recipe, but you may not have that much left, because it's been a while, and the bottle was just sitting there the whole time, so you've gotten good and tanked in the interim; if that's the case, send a sober friend to the store to get another bottle and put maybe a little more than that in).

 

Now, if you follow the recipe, you'll reduce the gravy to thicken it; we opted (because none of us had had a hot meal in thirty years) to reduce it for about 8-10 minutes, then thicken it with some flour.

 

If you're lumpophobic, shake the hell out of your preferred thickening agent (flour or cornstarch) in a sealed jar with some water.

 

 

[roto204]

And then...

Meanwhile (don't you hate that?), we put on some rice, over which we could serve everything, because starch.  

 

Happily, we have an automatic rice cooker, so we were able to gleefully ignore it while it did its thing; we also used our remaining broth to cook off the rice, so it had some nice flavor, and so we didn't end up with a Louis Pasteur experiment brewing in the fridge to be discovered weeks later ("Hon, do you remember what we used this broth for?")

 

When everything was ready, it was time to send it to the table!

 

[roto204]

Glam shots

Who's hungry?

 

And yes, minus ten points for me failing to wipe of the rim of the bowl.  Martha would not approve.  But in her honor, we did use (and serve!) Merlot.

 

MERLOT!!

 

The roast was fork-tender; it was so delicious, and the heavenly aromatics (and that wonderful scent of thyme) permeated everything.  The gravy was a liquid expression of that concentrated flavor, and it was delectable with the veggies and rice.

 

Most importantly, saving the veggies to the end avoided having them cooked to mush, which I truly thought as a child was the only way they could be served.  (That, and drowned in butter.)

 

[roto204]

Good food, good company!

The meal was a fabulous repast--and how could we possibly top this?

With ice cream, of course!  But not just any ice cream would do.  This was as fresh as it gets, and guess what?  It doesn't come in a bogus half-gallon container, either!

This recipe is called "forty-five second ice cream," but Kevin timed the video to exactly 33 seconds.

To make it, you need:

<ul>
<li>a kick-ass blender (preferably, yes, a VitaMix--DO NOT try this in your vintage Osterizer, no matter how much you love it, or are confident it probably could work; I tell you this after sending my Waring Blendor up that Sisyphusian slope--trust us; I tried, it does not work) 

</li>
<li>a pound of frozen fruit in your choice of flavors (we used strawberries, because they rock)

</li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">one cup of milk (or cream--have some fun with it; varying the amount varies the texture, but if you want to pull off Kevin's </span><em style="font-size: 12pt;">coup de grace</em><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, you'll want to stick to the measures)

</span></li>
<li>1/2 cup of sugar (again, you can vary this to taste, but the fresh-fruit punch is what you get, without all the sweetness) </li>
</ul>

Put these items into the blender, and watch the video for results.  You'll probably need a tamper to get the frozen fruit to break apart and get into the blades; it loves to freeze spontaneously and form blockages.  Again, see "how Nate cooked the Blendor."

 

[wayupnorth]

Excessive YUM

Those casserole pots are the best. I always use just a little of tonic or seltzer to loosen up any brown bits in the bottom and make a great gravy instead of just water. But melt in your mouth Pot Roast YUM

 

[roto204]

And what's left?

Clearing the table--directly to the conveniently located GE Potscrubber 1250, of course!

 

I chucked everything in with no pre-rinsing and minimal scraping, and for the funs, we ran the Dutch Oven through there too.  So, it felt like a "Heavy Wash" with "Wash Heat Boost" kind of night.

 

Those of you who wonder what the difference is between a 1200 and a 1250, these buttons are it.

 

Apologies for the yibbles; in real life, that dishwasher is spotless, but flash photography makes everything look like hell.

 

[roto204]

Particle ejection

Satisfaction is having a portable, and watching as the filter separation chamber is emptied.

 

[roto204]

Spotless!

The dishes ended up spotless, and were lovingly bathed in--what?  Seven?  Eight?--water changes, with extended heat delay?  All this with dollar-store detergents.  Super-yay.  We love our GE.

 

Almost as much as our Frigidaire:  

RevvinKevin's visit to our humble commode! :-)

Our very own RevvinKevin came for a visit to our new home on Sunday, and spent a fantastic day with us. It started with a surprise lurking in his truck when he arrived--what could it be??

www.automaticwasher.org

 

[revvinkevin]

 

 

YAY Nate!    Excellent recounting of the wonderful meal we prepared and consumed! 

 

Again, I really enjoyed my visit with you and David (Roger too!) as well as cooking with you / showing how to make this wonderful pot roast!   I'm also pleased you tried your first parsnip too!   I'm very happy everyone enjoyed the meal so much!

 

Flipping the roasts - Yes a deft hand is definitely required and mine weren't quite so, as I splashed liquid onto the floor and wall on two failed attempts, D'OH!  

  

  

   LOL

 

~    ~    ~    ~    ~

 

When it was time to eat, three of us sat down at the table but Nate was still buzzing around the kitchen.   I decided to dish up some pot roast and veggies for him so he could dig in once he sat down.   The thing I found pretty amusing.... after sitting down, he picks up his knife and fork and applies them to the roast with the normal effort required to cut through a thick steak or slab of prime rib.   His knife went straight through to the plate as if slicing room temperature butter and his body leaned in toward the table slightly due to the sudden lack of resistance.   Needless to say he was quite surprised by this.

 

~    ~    ~    ~    ~

 

I also have to say your GE dishwasher did an excellent job cleaning everything, including the dutch oven which was spotless!

 

BTW... what the hell was I doing holding the wooden spatula WHILE whisking the flour into the gravy??  

 

Kevin

 

[rp2813]

Hey Nate,

 

I noticed the white Frank Lloyd Wright plates like mine.  Did you guys go back to J. Coors for those?  I don't remember you picking up a set when we made that original haul.

 

Best deals ever on undetectable "second quality" merchandise over there.  I need to plan my next trip down for a sale weekend!  I just recently rotated my mugs to within easy reach for daily use.

 

Did you really burn up the Waring?  If so, have fun taking advantage of the silver lining in that scenario, and I'll keep an eye out around here too.

 

[roto204]

Ha!

That's right, I'd forgotten to mention that this was Parsnip 1.0 for me.  They're delicious!

 

Getting me to sit down and stop tinkering with stuff (or assembling the percolator for coffee, or wiping stuff down, or whatever) is a constant battle with me, just ask David.

 

And hey, you can never be too prepared when whisking gravy.  

 

Ralph, I don't remember on which trip it was that we obtained those plates; I think I recall starting with the bowl and working backwards, but I'm pretty sure they happened separately.  Our first acquisitions actually were those super-cute stacking coffee mugs, from the time we lived at the guest house and had to stack EVERYTHING to get anything to fit.

 

The Frank Lloyd Wright plates are lovely, but heavy as hell, so we use them sparingly, and prefer to use our Fire King 9" white swirl plates instead, under normal circumstances.  You know, Corelle for the dailies, and bust out the stuff that weighs as much as your car for special occasions.  Chances are, if you dropped one, it'd be the floor tile that gave first.

 

No, I didn't burn-up the Waring entirely; just made it very warm.  I had to use quadruple the milk to finish the process; the product was delicious, but let's just say I would not have inverted the blender jar after doing it in that machine.  ;-)