Herb-Stuffed Yankee Pot Roast with Root Vegetables

I love the cooking magazine: Cuisine at Home.  The recipes always have a nice step by step instructions and illustrations.  This turned out amazing and the house smelled so good!  Enjoy.

Herb-Stuffed Yankee Pot Roast with Root Vegetables - Cuisine at Home
 (Cuisine at Home Issue 79 February 2010  page 39)

FOR THE BEEF:
1 beef chuck pot roast (2 1/2-3 lb)
3 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
2 Tbsp. sliced garlic cloves
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

FOR THE SAUCE:
2 medium onions, diced
3 ribs celery, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1 Tbsp. tomato paste
1/4 cup flour
1 cup dry red wine

2 cups low sodium beef broth
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 bay leaf

FOR THE VEGETABLES:
2 cups baby red potatoes
1 medium turnip, peeled and quartered
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut in 2 inch pieces
2 cups button mushrooms
sprigs of fresh thyme

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Trim exterior fat from roast.  Using kitchen twine, tie roast around its circumference.
Combine Thyme, garlic, 1 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper. Pat meat dry.  Cut 1 inch deep slits into the meat with a paring knife; stuff with thyme mixture.  Season roast well on both sides with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a large ovenproof pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Sear roast on all sides until well browned, 8-10 minutes.  Transfer roast to a platter

Saute onions, celery, and died carrots in the pan drippings, stirring often, until onions start to soften, about 5 minutes.  Add tomato paste; stir until it starts to brown on bottom of the pot.  Stir in flour.

Deglaze the pot with wine, scraping up any browned bits.  Stir in broth; bring liquid to boil return seared roast to the pot.  Cover pot, place in oven, and braise for 2 hours.

Remove pot from the oven.  Transfer roast to a platter,  Strain sauce, discarding the vegetables.  Stir Worcestershire, Dijon mustard and bay leaf into sauce.  Return sauce and roast to the pot.

Add potatoes, turnip and carrot pieces to the pot.  Cover the pot; return roast to the oven and cook for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the meat is fork tender.

Add the mushrooms to the pot during the final 10 minutes of cooking.  Transfer the roast and vegetables to a platter; using a fork, break meat into pieces.  Bring sauce to a simmer; skim off and discard fat.  Season sauce with salt and pepper.

To serve, spoon sauce over pot roast and vegetables; garnish with a sprig of thyme.

Serves 4
2 1/2 cups sauce
Total time: about 4 1/2 hours.

CUISINE AT HOME NOTES:
A beef Roast Classic:
Pot roast has been a tradition in New England since colonial times.  Interestingly enough, Yankee  Pot Roast isn't restricted to a well-defined list of ingredients, but this one-pot meal invariably includes a selection of root vegetables.
We used potatoes, carrots and turnips in this pot roast, but similarly sized chunks of rutabaga or even celery also would taste good.  Since the meat needs a longer time to cook, add the vegetables to the pot a couple of hours and starting to braise.


BECKY'S NOTES:
It had good flavor.  I will probably eliminate the turnip and increase the carrots in this recipe.  I may also not use the red wine, though it gives it a nice flavor, I am not positive that my kids like it as much.  Perhaps I will cut it by half and increase the broth by a 1/2 cup.  It took a long time to cook and the smells were amazing, but made us hungry much earlier in the day!  I guess that is a good thing!  I love mushrooms the kids don't care for it as much.  I removed the root veggies before adding the mushrooms at the end, that way I could easily separate what the kids liked rather than having the mushrooms scattered throughout.  Delicious!  Will make again a great comfort food.  I may use the leftover meat to make my Shepherd's Pie again.  (in this blog)


Here is the pot roast with the herbs tucked into the meat and seasoned with salt and pepper before searing it. I had trimmed it of almost all fat and tied it together with twine (which came completely apart after searing it.. oh well)

Nice and browned on every side.











Diced onion, celery and carrots for the sauce.







Sauteed vegetables until softened










Add tomato paste

Add flour and stir into vegetables.

Add red wine and beef broth







Cooked roast after two hours.

Strain the sauce and discard the vegetables at this point.

Add Worcestershire and Dijon to the reserved sauce and pour back into the pot with the pot roast.

Add the vegetables (red potatoes, turnip and carrots) and cook for another 1- 1 1/2 hours.

Add the mushrooms to the last 10 minutes of cooking time.  I had sliced on hand that looked fresher than the button ones in the recipe, so I used those.

Serve and enjoy with the sauce.