Mother Hammell’s Pot Roast

材料

Beef Chuck Roast, boneless, approx. 2 pounds or so per casserole dish

2-3 medium sized potatoes, rinsed, peeled and cut into chunky chunks

1-2 large yellow onions, cut into chunky chunks

1 pound bag of baby carrots, rinsed

(optional) salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash seasoning (or your favorite seasoning)

olive oil or cooking oil (used for browning the roast in a skillet)

a casserole dish with a cover that fits tightly

手順

Prepping the Beef:

Before starting the pot roast in the oven you need to brown the beef on both the top and bottom. Put the roast in a shallow skillet with a little olive oil or cooking oil then brown the meat on each side for a minute or so. You don’t want to brown it through and through, just a bit on the top and bottom. This is the time to shake some salt, pepper, and Mrs. Dash seasoning (or your favorite seasoning) on the meat, if you so desire.

Assembling the roast in the casserole dish:

Once the meat is browned and seasoned on top and bottom, place it in the center of a casserole dish. Place the chunks of potatoes, onions and carrots all around the meat. Place some of the onion chunks directly on top of the meat. Then pour cold water into the casserole dish filling it to about 2/3 full (do not fully submerse the meat, otherwise it will bubble over into your oven!). Place the lid on the casserole dish and put in the oven to slow cook. Enjoy! ☺ I often make two casseroles at a time and refrigerate one for microwaving a few days later.

メモ

My Mom is one of those moms who cooks by feel and not by recipe… so getting her to divulge an actual recipe for this dish was pretty sketchy… such as:

“The key to this oven dish is to slow bake. If you put the roast in the oven around 1:00pm and plan to eat at 6:00pm…

degrees until you’re ready to eat… unless of course your husband calls and says he’s going to be late. Then turn it down to 250-225 until he gets home. Unless of course, you and the children decide to eat at 6:00pm anyway and then keep it in the oven on warm until he gets home. Now if you get a late start and don’t get it into the oven until say 2:00pm - 2:30pm you’ll need to increase the temp up to, say, 375 degrees for an hour, then 350 degrees for an hour or so, then 300 degrees for an hour or so, then 275-250 degrees until you’re ready to eat. But you know, I usually try to have it in the oven by 1:00pm… so you’ll have to experiment.”

So, you get the idea… there is no set time and temp to make this dish. However, through trial and error I have found that we like the taste better when I am able to get it in the oven around 1:00pm and cook it longer and at the lower temperatures