Snow Day Pot Roast

As Grenville posted earlier today, we had a “snow event” here on the VA Eastern Shore last night. So what better meal on a cold Sunday than something from the crockpot / the slow cooker.

This recipe is from The Farmer’s Wife Slow Cooker Cookbook, a gift that Grenville lovingly gave me a couple of holidays ago after telling me that I was “the farmer’s wife.” The book has “101 blue-ribbon recipes adapted from farm favorites.”  It was bought at a Tractor Supply store, which has been known to be one of Grenville’s favorite shopping places.

Recipes include soups, sauces, main and side dishes, and desserts adapted from The Farmer’s Wife, a monthly magazine published in Minnesota between 1839 and 1939. There were no slow cookers then, so these recipes have been adapted for slow cooker use. The cookbook contains many appliance and cooking advertisements, which are fun to read. Interestingly, most of these period advertisements were from the 1940-50s. They will be featured in a separate post.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

• 3-4 lbs. boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 C flour
• dash of garlic powder
• 4 carrots, peeled and cut
• 4 celery ribs, peeled and cut
• 4-6 potatoes, peeled and cut
• 1 large onion, peeled and sliced
• 1 can beef broth
• 1/4 C cider vinegar or red wine
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, low-sodium
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp oregano

1. Remove packaging from meat and dry off with a paper towel. Combine flour, salt, pepper and garlic power and roll beef in mixture. Save any leftover flour.
2. Heat olive oil in large skillet and brown the meat, turning to brown all sides.
3. When browned, transfer the beef to the slow cooker. Add some red wine (cooking wine OK) to the pan to deglaze it. Add in the beef broth as well.
4. Pour the broth into a heat-resistant cup then take all the cut up veggies and mix them together in the pot, seasoning with the parsley and oregano. Add the veggies around the beef roast. Pour the broth all around. Cook on LOW 7-9 hours or until meat is tender.

To thicken the juices, take some of the reserved flour and some of the juices and whisk in a bowl or Pyrex cup. Add back to the crock pot and turn on HIGH for 10 minutes. Alternately, you can remove the juices, whisk in the flour, transfer to a saucepan and cook until thickened, making sure to stir.

This dish is a meal in itself, but can also be served over buttered noodles. There’s sure to be leftovers, which are even better the second night.