Caring. About Food.
A Playing With Food and Mom & Me companion journal
with tips, recipes and musings
about how I tempt my Ancient One's palate.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
 
Hoisin Pot Roast
    Over the last few months, beginning sometime in December, I think, I've cooked more than a few pot roasts. Aside from the fact that I've been trying to keep my mother in beef in order to bolster her hemoglobin/hematocrit and keep her anemia at bay (which hasn't actually been successful), my mother is, at heart, a meat-and-potatoes (sans all other vegetables until about six or seven years ago) kind of girl. As well, I love a good pot roast especially when a variety of root vegetables (for us it's potatoes, carrots and onions; neither of us likes turnips or parsnips) and some peppers and celery stalks have been simmered with it over the last hour or so of cooking. And, the gravy! I'm not really a fan of gravy, but, when it comes to pot roast, bring that ladle a little closer, please!
    To keep my mother's senses alert, as well as my own, I've been experimenting with a variety of simmering liquids. So far I haven't ventured from starting with a basic beef broth out of a can; I've been adding a variety of other flavor enhancing ingredients, though. A couple of weeks ago, contemplating our second pot roast of the year, I was seized with the idea of leaning toward an Asian flavored roast. I decided to add Hoisin sauce (Dynasty's brand; although if you're curious about different varieties of Hoisin, give this page a try) and some other additions to the beef broth.
    Here's a list of what I added to the called for 1 cup of beef broth:    I also fooled around with the minced vegetable mixture called for in the Joy of Cooking, 1997 edition (pgs 667-668) recipe, which holds the basic instructions I follow when making pot roast. Instead of measuring the onions, I simply chopped 1 small-medium yellow onion, 4 large cloves of garlic, 1 whole green chili (also known as an "Anaheim pepper" and about a 1/2 cup of celery and threw them into my food processor for mincing.
    I was expecting the roast to be imbued with a smoky Asian flavor after simmering. What I got, though, was better than expected. The "Asian" influence metamorphosed into a rich, extremely beefy, flavorful roast. The gravy I made from the simmering liquid (after straining out the dregs of the minced vegetables) was almost too beautiful to eat: A deep sienna with a touch of Van Dyke brown...and savory, oh my! This is the kind of pot roast of which I've dreamed; it's the kind of pot roast that you think only food stylists can create with non-food items for commercials!
    The roast was huge, between four and five pounds. More than half ended up in the freezer. In order to preserve the flavor of the meat I spread the minced vegetable dregs over the roast before wrapping it for freezing. I also froze what was left of the gravy, about two cups, considering that my additions had increased the "called for" simmering liquid by 100%. A week later we had our first "left over pot roast" meal from what was in the freezer. It was even better than the first time and, by the way, the gravy froze and thawed like it knew what it was doing. So did the left over chunked vegetables I'd also frozen: Carrots, a medium Bermuda onion, two medium sized halved red potatoes and a green bell pepper sliced into 4 strips. I warmed everything in the oven instead of the microwave because I'd wrapped the left overs in aluminum foil for freezing but, also, in order to scent the house with the aroma of the warming dish.
    By the way, although the above mentioned recipe recommends turning the roast every half hour, the day I made this version was a partial wheelchair day for Mom, she was still battling her cold and I was running on empty. I managed to turn it after the first half hour. Soon after that initial turn, though, Mom decided to take her nap and I couldn't resist collapsing on the couch for a "short" nap. Two hours later...well, the roast was fine and so was I. Pot roast is very forgiving, it seems.
    For those of you who've never attempted pot roast but are interested, this particular roast took four hours of simmering to reach it's personal perfection. Because the roast hadn't been turned as per the recipe, the "top" of the roast developed a thin, deep brown crust. The meat, throughout, though, was fall-apart tender and retained an inviting prime-rib pink inside. I should also mention, the cook book recipe above recommends a very low, almost inactive simmering temperature. When I make pot roast I use what I imagine is a slightly higher temperature: "3" on a burner marked from "Low (1)" to "High (11)". This keeps the liquid visibly active but not jumping.
    Yes, I intend to continue experimenting with simmering liquids, but, I have to say, I think I've hit upon our "family recipe" with this one. It's definitely a keeper and repeater!

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