Pot Roasts - Working Towards Perfection

Usually in my household my husband goes away to the big grocery store every weekend to do the shopping for the week. My assignment is to do the shopping list, so I usually keep a list in the kitchen that I fill with what we need to get during the week.

Some weeks are busier than other, about a month ago I had hardly managed to jot down anything onto the list. My husband said something like, I'll walk around the store and see what I find. Ok, I said. This strategy doesn't normally work for us, but I didn't have any better ideas myself at the moment. Guess if I was surprised when he showed up with this big lump of beef, saying, I figured it would be really nice to do a pot roast!

Now, we haven't ever done a pot roast before, so I consulted my cookbooks. Julia Childs "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" had a recipe that looked good. It said the meat should be marinated with (among other things) lots of wine, booze and olive oil for about a day. Can't go wrong with that, we thought. But it didn't turn out as good as we'd imagined. The meat just didn't taste very much in itself, dragging the dish down along with it. And we had yet to understand that a digital oven thermometer really is a must, so the meat was sadly overdone.

First attempt of pot roast, served with classic Swedish condiments of pickled cucumbers and gelées

Next week we had a new try, using elk meat this time. We used a recipe that called for marinating the meat with beer, veggies and spices. This time the meat was ok but the marinade turned out very bland. We tried to use it to make gravy but the whole thing just tasted wrong.

As we are very stubborn, or just do not know when to take a hint, the next week we were at it again. This time I had ordered grass-fed speciality beef from Gröna Gårdar, supposed to be especially suitable for making pot roasts.

First we made a type of pot roast that in Swedish is called Rostbiff. It's very easy, you just rub the meat in salt and pepper and braise it in 125°C until a thermometer inserted into the meat shows  60°C (or a bit more or less depending if you like your meat bloody or not). Now we were going places, this one was awesome. We served it as a part of a French themed dinner party along with French potato salad (potatoes and spring onions with a mustard vinaigrette) and baked tomatoes.

Marinating

Then, earlier this week, I made a pot roast that I'm finally very happy with. It's a bastardization of a type of pot roast that is called "Slottsstek" in Swedish and the French type using lots of wine :) Here goes the recipe:

Bastard Pot Roast

1 kg rump steak piece (fransyska in Swedish)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons butter

Marinade:
0,5 litre of red wine
1/4 pice of celery root in small pieces
2 onions in small pieces
3 carrots in small pieces
10 white peppercorns
5 allspice berries
3 bay leaves
5 anchovies fillets, mashed
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Gravy:
Used marinade from above
Heavy cream
Butter
Salt and pepper

Make the marinade by mixing all marinade ingredients in a big baking pan.

Rub the meat in salt and pepper and dump it into the marinade.

Let the meat soak in the marinade for about half a day.

Heat the oven to 175°C. 

Brown the meat quickly on all sides in a frying pan.

Put the meat back into the marinade.

Insert an oven thermometer into the meat and put the baking pan with meat and marinade into the oven and let it bake until the thermometer shows 58°C (or more or less depending on your preferences).

Remove the meat and let it set for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make some gravy by spooning the "used" marinade into a pan (only the liquid, not the veggies). Add some cream, butter, alt and pepper until it tastes really good.

Serve the meat with the gravy.

Mmmmm, meat, with blood, my favourite