Weekend Food Blogging: Crock Pot Roast

I love my crock pot. It’s so for­giv­ing. Rum­mage around the fridge for a few ingre­di­ents, close the lid on them, and still come back to a hot, sat­is­fy­ing meal at the end of the day. It has two set­tings only, high and low (unlike my microwave, for exam­ple). And the brown and orange speck­les on my circa 1973 Cana­dian Gen­eral Elec­tric say com­fort food like no other kitchen appli­ance (also unlike my microwave, which just says beep). This recipe comes from Donna-Marie Pye’s Canada’s Best Slow Cooker Recipes, with mod­i­fi­ca­tions noted:

Pot Roast with Root Vegetables

Serves 6 to 8

• ¼ cup all-purpose flour
• salt and black pep­per
• 3 to 4-lb (1.5 to 2 kg) beef cross rib or rump roast
• 1 table­spoon veg­etable oil
• 2 onions, quar­tered
• 4 car­rots, peeled and sliced
• 4 to 6 pota­toes, peeled and quartered
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1 small can (7.5 oz or 221 mL) tomato sauce
• 1 clove gar­lic, minced
• ½ tea­spoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf

1. In a bowl sea­son flour to taste with salt and pep­per. Pat meat dry and coat on all sides with sea­soned flour. I never do this. Some­times I toss a bit of flour into the crock pot to compensate.
2. In a large skil­let, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add meat and cook, turn­ing with a wooden spoon. Trans­fer meat to slow cooker. I never do this either, although I prob­a­bly should. There are some things you do for con­ve­nience, and some things you do for cui­sine. A crock pot is about con­ve­nience. I usu­ally start at step 3.
3. Add onions to slow cooker, along with car­rots, pota­toes, stock, tomato sauce, gar­lic, thyme, and bay leaf. I also added some parsnips. Cover and cook on Low for 10 to 12 hours or on High for 6 to 8 hours, until veg­eta­bles are ten­der. Choose low. High does not ten­der­ize the meat as well. Also, next time I do this, I am going to add a lit­tle wine and tomato paste with the broth. One of the trade-offs to skip­ping step 2, I think, is to miss out on all the flavours brown­ing the roast imparts to the pot.
4. Remove roast, onions, car­rots and pota­toes, cover and set aside. Dis­card bay leaf. Tip slow cooker and skim off any excess fat from sur­face of gravy; sea­son to taste with salt and pep­per. Pour gravy into sauce boat. Slice roast, arrange on a serv­ing plat­ter and sur­round with veg­eta­bles. Serve with gravy, which didn’t taste that good. My biggest beef (pun alert!) with crock pots is that the au jus is often bland and thin: this is not a roast; it is a runny stew. I added a lit­tle wine and tomato paste to the broth, and reduce it by half, before sea­son­ing. Now it is good. Cui­sine wins over con­ve­nience at din­ner time.