via Imgur
I'm a Whovian and the opportunity was too good to pass up. I'm almost laughing too hard to type.
Okay so, I kinda have issues cooking meat. I have this horrible fear of not cooking it enough and people getting sick. At the same time, I'm concerned I would overcook meat. There's apparently a family history of overcooking meat because of a fear of undercooking it. So with that in mind, I threw caution to the wind and decided to make a pot roast and vegetables. My mother used to make it and I loved it.
I found a reference recipe on allrecipes.com and headed to the grocery store after work (my usual routine since it's two blocks from my work). My boss, who also does a lot of cooking, recommended getting a pot roast kit that has the seasoning mix and a bag. I found one thankfully, since I couldn't find the "browning sauce" that the recipe called for. From there, I pretty much disregarded the recipe. I grabbed white onions (in hindsight, yellow would have worked better, but white was still delicious), red skin potatoes, and carrots. Then I literally stood in the meat section looking over the beef for ten minutes thinking to myself, "Why can't it have a 'pot roast' label on it?? I have no idea what I'm looking for!" I ended up googling on my phone which cut of beef is used in pot roast. I got a good-looking chuck roast, not quite 3 lb.
When I got home, I was feeling exhausted again, so I sliced up a Roma tomato and sprinkled it with kosher salt and black pepper as a snack before going to bed. It turned out to be a good choice, because that day wasn't a pot roast sort of day. It was warm and mild, more of a salad day, Dad said. The next day was chilly, rainy, and dreary, a perfect pot roast day!
Dad was off work, so he made coffee while I started the pot roast and vegetables around 9:30 am. I roughly kinda followed the recipe on the back of the seasoning packet. I preheated the oven to 350F and opened the roasting bag into a 9x13" pan. I have a weird aversion to touching raw meat but I laid the pot roast in the bag without freaking out. Then I thoroughly washed my hands (gold star for me for not cross-contaminating!) and started chopping up the vegetables. I chunked up two large white onions and broke them up over the roast in the bag. I peeled the carrots and cut each into four pieces, and into the bag they went. I cut the potatoes, skin on, into big chunks, and can you guess where they went?? Then I grabbed six cloves of garlic, peeled them, and crushed them with the flat of my knife to get the juices going in the roasting bag.
Biggest clove of garlic I've ever seen!
The recipe on the packet didn't say anything about putting the vegetables in the bag with the roast and seasoning mix, but I wanted all the flavors to get down together. So, six potatoes, six carrots, six cloves of garlic, and two onions later, I pretty much couldn't fit anything else in that bag! The original reference recipe called for two carrots, one onion, and three potatoes. Pfffft, amateurs. (Also, no celery in my recipe. Celery is an abomination.)
I added the seasoning mix to 1/4 c water and tipped the bag up to pour it in over the vegetables. Then I just squished everything around in the bag until I saw the juices running everywhere.
I closed the bag with the handy tie that keeps it slightly open to let steam escape. I put the pan in the oven and set the timer for 2 hours. This is the part where I had to trust the recipe. I would have no control over the doneness of the meat or even be able to tell if it was done. But the packet said 2 hours at 350F for a 4 lb roast, and mine was slightly less than 3, so the meat should be fine.
So for the next two hours I sat in my room right off the kitchen, bumming around social media and trying to distract myself from the amazing smells in my kitchen. Dad took a nap in the recliner with the dog. I had to open the oven for a moment at twenty minutes to go just to check on it and smell it!
Finally, shortly before noon, it was done!
I decided it would be easier to store leftovers if we just kept it in the same pan. So I slit the bag open and slid the roast and vegetables into the pan. You can see the juices and how everything has cooked down! I really wish the pictures shared the smell! It smelled amazing, and the house still smells like garlic and onion and I love it!!
Such a hearty meal deserved a substantial drink!
Dad and I spent the next half hour in our respective spots, his recliner and my bed, yelling to each other about how amazing it all was. As soon as I finished eating, I heard a distinctive engine outside. My brother had come over to take the dog for a walk, but I had to tease him that of course as soon as I cook, he shows up! So my brother, Dad, and I sat and chatted for a while before and after he took the dog for a walk, and eventually I headed off to bed, full and happy!
Verdict: AMAZING. I don't want to eat anything else ever again. It was that delicious! The flavors came together perfectly. Again, next time I'll use yellow onion instead of white but it in no way ruined this. Everything cooked through well but didn't turn to mush. And oh my goodness the roast! I am pleased to say that it cooked all the way through properly, it was tender and juicy, and ohhhhh the fat off the roast was like butter. I'm drooling just thinking about it! It had amazing flavor from the seasoning and from the garlic and onion. Is it blasphemy to say that I think it's better than my mother's pot roast and vegetables? It is seriously the best thing I've ever eaten, and I am proud beyond belief that I cooked it myself! I can't wait to dig into the leftovers, sitting and marinating even more in the juices! Dad had more for dinner that evening!
Reviewing my cooking journey so far, I'm realizing how easy it actually is, and how satisfying it is to cook a good meal and have people appreciate it. I'm not a patient person, so to have (almost) instant gratification with food makes me happy. If I want food, I want it now. If I want success, I want it now. That's why I'm having a hard time getting around to making sourdough starter. I'm not good at planning ahead. If I want sourdough bread, I want it NOW, not in a week when the starter is ready. I'm a recipe shopper too. I'm not good at just grabbing stuff at the store. I have a recipe in mind, in my hand, and I shop from that. I'm not great at planning. I'll need to work on planning and stocking up if I'm going to have my own restaurant! On that note, I'm having an existential crisis about what I want to do with my life, so I'm still not solidly signed up for culinary school. I'm still weighing the pros and cons of everything I could see myself doing as a career. Fear of commitment? Definitely.
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