Survival Sunday 220: Pot Roast Dinner

Occasionally, my mother will need someone to put the main part of dinner in the oven when she's at work. Since I'm usually home around the time that needs to happen, I get tapped for the privilege, and this past week, the dinner in question was pot roast.

While this week's Survival Sunday is for a beef roast, the actions taken are basically the same for most roasted meats or even vegetables (with some changes, I'm sure, like the addition of oils or other seasonings!). Roasting times vary for different cuts of meat, but if you're going for a beef & potatoes meal, this should help.

What do you need for this:

• Beef Chuck Roast
• Onions
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Potatoes
• Milk
• Butter
• Frozen Veggies

Seems simple, right? The most expensive part of this will be the beef chuck. It can get pricey. Only make this if you're feeding multiple people (this fed 3 with leftovers, so probably could serve 3-6 people, depending on how much you wanted to eat).

Let's start with the roast!

Here we see the three basic things we'll need on my cluttered countertop:
onions, meat, and the cooking vessel (in my case, this is a baked bean crock)

Make sure your hands are very, very clean and that your cooking vessel will fit both your meat and your onions! My onions were tiny. You can use almost any kind of baking dish or roasting pan - just make sure your meat fits inside and there's not too much room on the sides. You want the meat to hold its shape, after all, and while that can be maintained with a bit of butcher's twine (or 100% cotton string, undyed), it can be a pain to remember to cut that off after roasting.

I cut my string off before I put the chuck in my roasting dish, since I knew that A) this dish would accommodate my meat nicely while providing support and B) the twine would be a pain in my butt. Then I washed my hands in hot soapy water because food poisoning sucks.

Preheat that oven to 350℉ (~175-180℃).

For the meat, I placed it safely in my dish (making sure to remove the pad from the tray because ew) and washed my hands again. Then I returned to my meat and sprinkled it liberally with salt, ground black pepper, and garlic powder. I rubbed this into the side facing up with a quick little massage (not a long one, just a few seconds of rubbing to make sure the surface is covered), and then I turned the meat over and washed my hands again. I sprinkled more salt, pepper, and garlic powder on the other side, rubbed it in, and washed my hands once more. There you go. Your meat is finished.

Next, I went and got my onions, cleared all of the papery skin off of them by first chopping off the tops and bottoms, and then I quartered them. Depending on the size of your onion, you may want to do more or less pieces. Tiny onions get halved. Huge onions get cut into eighths. I had small onions, so I used 2. Chuck your onions into the pot with the meat. Get them around the meat. Then wash your hands again to be safe.

And you're done!

Now you cover the dish (our crock has a lid, but if yours doesn't, find something that will work, even if it's just a couple layers of kitchen foil!) and pop your meat into the oven and wait. Ours went in at 3:30pm (that's 1530 military time) and came out around 5:30, but you may want to check your meat's internal temperature with a meat thermometer, aiming for at least 135℉ (~60℃) for rare, increasing the internal temp for less pink. We are a less-pink family, but even with the meat being super hot in the middle, this turned out juicy and fantastic.

At any point during the cooking, you can start your mashed potatoes. I have no pictures of this process, since my mother did this part. Here are the basics:

Peel & cut up your potatoes into chunks. The smaller the chunks, the less you have to boil them.

Put your chunks in a pot with enough water to cover them, boil them until you can stick a fork into them easily and with very little force.

Strain the potatoes in a collander, return to the pot or another vessel where you will mash them. For creamier potatoes, add butter & cream or milk. You can also add cheese at this stage, and let me tell you, adding cream cheese will change your life. For healthier mashed potatoes, use sun butter & vegetable broth instead. This is still tasty, but I'd add some nutritional yeast for a kick. Also, this is when you grind some pepper into them and mix it all up!

Finally, select another vegetable (frozen works, but you can do canned!) and prepare that according to the directions. If you need more flavor, add butter or vinegar. I love frozen spinach served with a balsamic vinegar!

Now you plate your masterpiece!

That's right - my pot roast is well done, but it's still tender & juicy and perfect.
Also, that blob of mashed potatoes is defying gravity.

This is a really good dinner for cool nights, and the longer roasting time on the meat means you can start this dinner and then go off and do other chores around the house!

Don't forget to reward yourself with a nice dessert afterwards, too, btw.

That's a cup of Ovaltine Mocha and a slice of chocolate cheesecake topped with homemade ganache!
My mother is a baking goddess.
I aspire to be at least half as good as her one day!

Alright, folks, that'll do it for me!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC