Re: Official 2017 BBQ, Smoking, Grilling, Baking and Beer thread
Any chance a posting your step-by-step recipe? I totally understand if you don't. It just looks soooooo good.
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Here ya go :
Guinness Beer Braised Pot Roast
4-5lbs Chuck Roast pot roast - I like chuck and I think it works best as the meaty portions are lean but there's lots of fat and connective tissue in between. Some people use bottom round. If you get chuck roast, make sure to get the butcher to tie it with a couple of loops of butcher's twine. Tying it up around the circumference will help the roast stay together while cooking.
sea or kosher salt
ground black pepper
olive oil
Aromatic veggies -
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 leek, root end trimmed, white parts only, washed and finely chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped (or, I found triple-color baby carrots which worked out nicely)
2 celery stalk, finely chopped
8oz mushrooms, coarsely chopped (oyster and shiitake work best, brown baby bella's are ok, white mushrooms are useless)
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Aromatic herbs - thyme, rosemary, Bay leaf, Italian parsley (chopped) for garnish
Broth:
12oz Guinness beer (one standard bottle or can at room temperature)
Beef stock (not broth, it's too weak. Canned, box or concentrate is fine)
1 cap full of Kitchen Bouquet Browning sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 c red wine (any will do...just make sure you enough to fill a glass for yourself
)
Argo cornstarch
Starch:
Egg noodles or potato, up to you...
Kitchen gear (if you have it) -
7qt, heavy cast-iron Dutch oven (or ceramic glazed)
4 cup fat separator (like
HERE)
Cheese cloth
I always start off by chopping all my veggies and getting everything "prepped" and ready to go before a flame is turned on. One thing to do before you start is set your kitchen oven to 250F (225F is even better if it is good at maintaining a low temperature). I have a little oven thermometer that I put inside the oven as a way of knowing the true temperature since most oven controls are a little high or low. Either way, getting it near 225-250F is what you want.
Put your heavy bottomed Dutch oven on the stove top and get it nice and hot as high a heat it can take it. This is why I like straight cast-iron cookware - it weighs a ton and you can get it up to high heat without worrying about the surface. Season the chuck roast on all side with lots of salt and pepper (how much is up to you; I like LOTS of salt and pepper). When the pot is nice and hot add about 2 tablespoons of olive oil or other high smoke point oil (grape seed and avocado oil have high smoke points). Sear the meat (uncovered) in the pot on ALL sides. I have a steel mesh splatter shield that I use when searing in oil to avoid lots of backsplash all over the place; if you have one, use it. You want a dark brown, almost charred, meat surface. When searing is done, remove the meat from the pot and put it in a dish next to your Dutch oven....basically keep it warm.
Next, add a little more oil (maybe 2 teaspoons or less) to the Dutch oven while it is still hot and toss in the garlic. Cook that for a minute or two until it is slightly brown and aromatic. Next, add your onions, celery and carrots with a dash of salt and some black pepper and cook that until the veggies start to become translucent and a little soft. If you need to lower the heat a little, go ahead, you don't want to burn the veggies. This part should probably take about 5-8mins or so. Do note that these veggies are basically going to eventually disintegrate when all is said and done, so they are really just acting as a base for the meat to sit on and to flavor the stock and meat.
Once the aromatic veggies are cooked, place the meat back into the pot on top of the veggies. Sprinkle the mushrooms and leeks around and on top of the roast. Slowly add the Guinness beer (best to let it come up to room temperature) AROUND the roast. You can dribble a little bit on top but I prefer not to pour it onto the meat. Next, add the beef stock in such an amount as to just come up to the bottom quarter of the roast - you DO NOT want to submerge the roast! You just want the liquid to barely come up on the roast as the veggies are going to release a lot of water and the meat itself will release juices and collagen as it cooks. If you add too much liquid to the pot, your roast will be in a swimming pool of broth which is not good. Add the tomato paste and Kitchen Bouquet and give a little mix around the sides to get everything dispersed. Throw your aromatic herbs on top of the meat (NOT the parsley) and around it (thyme is better than rosemary but either or both will do; bay leaf is a must!) and cover the Dutch Oven with it's lid. Place the entire Dutch Oven into your kitchen oven and let her ride.
So here's the deal with pot roast cooking - many people find that it gets tough when it cooks and think that they've screwed it up some how. The problem with this is NOT that they have over-cooked the meat, it's that they've not cooked it long enough! Chuck roast is a tough meat if you cook it quickly (like on a BBQ) it gets tough because the collagen fibers that make up the connective tissue will harden and crosslink under low heat. What you're doing in the braise is you are cooking it slowly and with lots of humidity and heat in order to hydrolyze the collagen and break it down into smaller protein chains that form a gelatin rather than a stiff fiber. Once you've cooked the chuck roast long enough, the collagen will all be broken down and the meat will literally fall apart.
So, figure you need to cook it at least 1 hour per pound of meat and then check it. The best way to check it is to open up the Dutch oven and, using two forks, try to poke into the meat. If the forks pull out easily, that's a good sign. Next, take the two forks and try to pull the meat apart. If there is any resistance or the meat doesn't easily pull apart, then it need to cook longer.
Once the meat is done, remove the Dutch oven to the stove top and take the meat out carefully and place it in a dish covered tightly with Al foil to keep it warm. I will usually turn the oven off and then put the covered meat back into the oven with the door ajar so that the meat is in a warm spot. If you have a ledge with an IR warmer lamp, that's even better. Using a large slotted spoon, strain all of the veggies you can out of the liquid and put them in a bowl. Feel free to use these veggies to garnish the meat and noodle a little bit when you serve. They're mushy, but so full of flavor. The shiitake and oyster mushrooms will be especially flavorful. Keep the veggies covered and warm too.
Now this is where the gravy comes in - I like it glazed and sticky for the meat and noodles. Pour or ladle all of the liquid from the pot into the fat separator
just using the plastic strainer top at this point to get the large chunky stuff out. If you can get 4 to 5 cups of liquid, great, but don't fret if you have less. Pour the reserved liquid into a medium sauce pan or pot and put it on the stove to boil. Boil it down until you've reduced the liquid by half. Now, take it off the stove and use the fat separator again but this time put cheese cloth in the plastic strainer top (one layer is enough) to strain out the "particles" from the reduced broth. I like to do this because the "particles" in the reduce broth will give it a gritty texture and it takes away from the visual appearance of the dish. You should be able to get about two cups of reduced liquid at this point. Pour that back into the pot or pan and get it to a slow boil again. Add 1 tablespoon of Argo cornstarch to 1/4 cup of red wine in a glass measuring cup (or whatever you happen to have) and mix it up with a small whisk until the cornstarch is dispersed into the wine. Slowly pour the wine/cornstarch mixture into the boiling broth while whisking it rapidly. Let it cook for a bout 5 mins and then take it off the heat. You now have some very awesome sauce for the pot roast.
As for starch, its up to you. I love, LOVE, LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE me lots of egg noodles!!! Other folks like to make mashed potatoes or roasted potatoes. Entirely up to you. If you go the egg noodle route, here's how I prepare the serving platter -
Cook your egg noodles to their desired doneness, strain them in a colander and then add them back to the pot. I usually throw in some butter and mix that into the noodles to keep them from sticking; you can use olive oil as well. Put a thick layer of noodles (maybe all of them) on the bottom of the serving platter. Slice up the pot roast (against the grain is best) and lay it on the bed of noodles. Sprinkle the reserved veggies all over the meat and noodles. Apply the gravy to the top of the meat and noodles but be sure to save some of the gravy for the table for people to use as they like.
Sprinkle the chopped Italian parsley over the top of the meat and noddles and serve!
I realize the above is a complicated description and you might not have everything in the kitchen gear department. Just improvise as best you can. Pot roast recipes vary as widely as there are people who make it. Do whatever works best.
Buon Apetito!
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