Morceau à Braiser (Pot Roast)

Well-marbled meat is a temptress in plastic wrap. That sounds odd so let me explain. I was getting a few staples at the local chain grocery store when I passed through the meat case and surveyed what they had to offer. I didn’t necessarily need anything but I always like to know what they’ve got because you never know when you might find something special. In the chuck/pot roast section, a piece of meat caught my eye. It was a three pound piece of chuck striped so beautifully with veins of alabaster fat that it looked illustrated rather than real. I couldn’t not buy it. A few days went by until I had a free night to make it, causing it to turn a little brown on the surface but after a quick whiff I knew this was purely cosmetic and no need for concern. I figured I’d make a pot roast rather than cut it up for a stew, beef bourguignon or chili colorado. I also decided to give it a different approach than the typical pot roast with carrots and potatoes cooked down to near liquid form. I trimmed the ribbons of exterior fat, sprinkled it with salt and pepper and browned it thoroughly in a little corn oil in my pressure cooker (no need to waste extra-virgin olive oil on browning). After pulling it out I sautéed diced carrots, celery and onion in the same pan, deglazing the precious brown bits with the liquid released from the aromatic vegetables. The pressure cooker loses virtually zero liquid so I needed very little to cook the roast. I had about a half cup of Cabernet so I used it along with an equal amount of chicken broth. I squeezed in a quarter of a delicious orange I bought at the farmer’s market along with some pieces of the peel, threw in two bay leaves, a teaspoon of freshly ground coffee, a dozen peppercorns, salt, a tablespoon of double concentrate tomato paste and a couple smashed garlic cloves. I pressure cooked it on the first red ring for an hour while doing yard work and let it cool naturally. Three hours in a 325 degree oven in a conventional pot would be about the same. I pulled the meat out, confirming it could be plied apart easily with a fork, and strained the liquid through a double mesh strainer. I put the liquid in the refrigerator to cause the fat to congeal on the top for easy removal later. I occupied myself with other tasks, such as moving the flailing avocado tree from one part of the yard to the other, before returning to the fridge where the fat had formed a nice, solid crust on top of the liquid. I lifted it out with a fork directly into the trash can, leaving me with a flavorful sauce that wouldn’t make me feel like Orson Welles after eating it.

Don't let the Corning cornflower casserole dish and compost-like visual fool you - a restaurant would charge you through the nose for this meal.

My plan with the sauce was to make it flavorful and refined without that overcooked vegetable flavor that some braised dishes have. I had stripped it of any solids but I wanted the sauce to have some texture when I served it. I pursued the intensely developed flavor route and roasted a bunch of shallots in olive oil, salt and pepper in the oven at 350 for about 40 minutes. I soaked porcini mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes, diced them up and used the porcini liquid (strained through a coffee filter to remove grit) for the risotto. I added the roasted shallots and porcini mushrooms to the sauce pan of liquid along with some cornstarch dissolved in milk to thicken it. After bringing to a simmer I poured it into the casserole dish the meat had been resting in and put it in the oven at 400 degrees/convection broil, on the middle rack so it wouldn’t burn.

While it heated through and formed a nice crusty top I finished the risotto and steamed some broccoli. The meat, as I expected was very tender and moist. The sauce was intensely flavored. The porcini mushrooms and coffee gave it an earthy flavor but it was balanced by the tang and sweetness of the tomato paste, wine, shallots and orange. I thought it was great and it had all the trappings of an over-priced restaurant meal (pot roast is cool now if it has things like porcini mushrooms and shallots in it). To answer my monetary-minded friend Tony’s inevitable question, it cost about $3.00 a serving for the entire meal. To me, that was dessert.