Pot Roast

This recipe was adapted from Alton Brown's pot roast recipe; I eliminated ingredients I didn't like and substituted a few ingredients with what I had available at home.

2 lb chuck pot roast
2 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, crushed with a knife (that's usually what I do to get rid of the skins)
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 14.5oz can of diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup baby yukon gold potatoes
2 big mushrooms, sliced in half

Get a skillet on the stove and get the heat on medium-high and get the pan really hot and preheat the oven to 200F. Meanwhile, sprinkle the meat with the salt and cumin and rub it all over.

Get the meat in the pan and let both sides sear. Chop up the onion, smash the garlic, cut the mushrooms and rinse the potatoes while the meat is searing.

Prepare a sheet pan with 2 big pieces of foil, crisscrossed. The foil should be big enough to wrap up the roast.

Once the meat is seared on both sides, take it out of the pan and put it on the foil-covered sheet pan. Add in the potatoes and mushrooms and start working on the sauce.

Add some olive oil to the pan (which should still be hot) and toss in the onions and garlic.

Let the onions and garlic soften and cook a bit.

 Then measure out the tomatoes, raisins, balsamic vinegar, and Worcestershire sauce and add it to the pan.

 Let the sauce ingredients simmer for 10 minutes or until the liquid is reduced by about half.

 Pour the sauce over the meat.

Wrap up the foil to make a neat little package.

Let the meat cook for three hours, or until the meat is fork tender. Once it's ready, open up the foil packet and take out the meat, potatoes, and mushrooms and put on the serving platter.

Gather up the remaining juices, onions, and raisins and put in a food processor to blend into a sauce.

I opted to serve my pot roast with zucchini, kale, and Spanish rice (used the same recipe as last week). I thought the red of the rice would brighten up the plate a bit.

Both the zucchini and kale were cooked the same way: in olive oil with garlic and red pepper flakes and a tiny sprinkle of salt. Too much salt will draw a lot of water out of the vegetables, which I think is gross.

Bon appetit!