Hi friends!
This post is all about what to do with that rump roast, or sirloin tip roast, you saw on sale and don’t quite know what to do with because let’s face it… roast night was usually something our mum’s did. Now, we have to stay away from our parents (thanks, COVID) but that comfort food from my childhood is totally all I want.
How to make a pot roast:
Bring your meat out of the fridge to start coming up to room temperature. Chop an onion, a few celery ribs, 4 carrots and 4 potatoes. They can be decently large chunks because pot roast cooks low and slow.
Start off with a metal pot. It’s best if you don’t use a non-stick in this situation because we want to sear the meat and then deglaze the pan. Enamel on cast iron is okay too (like Staubbs or le Creuset), but I have a glass cooktop so I don’t use mine on the stove for fear of scratches. Put medium-high heat on the pot and add a bit of vegetable oil, and butter if you like.
While the pot is heating, season your meat with salt and pepper. Once the pot is good and hot, go ahead and sear each side of your meat so you get lots of brown caramelized goodness. Once it’s done, remove the meat to a plate. Put in pot your chopped veggies and about a tablespoon of tomato paste and cook until the tomato past is a rusty color, then deglaze the pot with some of the beef stock. Add Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice (about a tablespoon to help tenderize the met), and 2 bay leaves and set your roast on top of the vegetables. Pour in beef broth until it’s 2/3’s of the way up your roast, then cover and turn the heat down to low. You don’t want this to be boiling your meat, just the odd simmering bubble.
How long it takes to cook will depend on the size and type of your roast. My mum somehow knows on her own, but I use a meat thermometer to know it’s done and then I also check the doneness of the vegetables.
Once everything is cooked, you pull out the roast to cut up and use a slotted spoon to put the vegetables in a casserole dish. Then, you use a corn starch slurry to thicken the gravy left in the pot. You serve up a plate with veggies, meat and lots of delicious gravy and enjoy with a glass of cabernet sauvignon.
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