Slow Cooker Pot Roast

[Steven Blaski]

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Serves 4 as Main Dish.

This recipe is adapted from the book "Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker."

One to three days before cooking, salt the roast. For a 3-pound chuck roast, use 1-3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt.

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Ingredients

• 2 T olive oil
  
• 1/2 c each (diced): onion, carrot, potato, celery
  
• 3 lb chuck roast
  
• 2/3 c red wine
  
• 1-1/3 c boiling water
  
• 1 lb steamed root vegtables
  

1. In a large skillet, saute the diced vegetables in 1 TB oil till soft. Scrape veggies into the slow cooker.

2. In the same pan, add remaining oil. When hot, brown the pre-salted roast lightly on all sides. Place roast on top of the sauteed veggies.

3. Deglaze the pan with the wine, loosening all the tasty browned bits, and reduce it till slightly thickened. Pour the syrupy wine into the cooker, along with boiling water.

4. Turn slow cooker to Low. Cook for 7-8 hours.

5. Strain sauce, mashing solids against the strainer, then refrigerate sauce and roast overnight in *separate* containers.

6. Next day remove the layer of congealed fat from the sauce and any fatty bits from the roast.

7. Pour enough sauce into a large saucepan to cover the bottom and place roast on top. Cook, covered, over low till heated through.

8. Meanwhile, heat the sauce; thicken, if necessary, with a bit of potato starch slurry (I don't usually find it necessary). Place sauce in a gravy boat.

9. About 20 minutes before serving, steam some root vegetables (such as quartered Red Bliss potatoes, halved baby carrots)

10. Place roast in the center of a platter. Surround with steamed vegetables. Drizzle sauce over everything. Pass the extra sauce.

Keywords: Beef, Crock Pot

( RG1441 )