Requisite Winter Pot Roast

 Pot Roast. Winter. Cold Weather. Those three (ok, four) words go together like macaroni and cheese. YUM. For Christmas I received Mastering the Art of French Cooking (unbelievably I did not own these...) and so I set off to find the perfect roast recipe.

Lo and behold on a Wednesday night I don't have 6 hours to cook a pot roast.

I did have 3 hours though.

SO I adjusted what I could and put it in the oven and prayed to the oven gods to keep cooking.

 My little trick: saute and caramelize your onions and carrots BEFORE you brown the meat. And deglaze the pan with a really BIG glass of pinot noir. DELISH.

And unfortunately it all disappeared so this is what I was left to photograph. Sorry:

The Perfect Winter Pot Roast

3 - 3 1/2 pound slab of beef. Pick something that looks good
Carrots, maybe about 5
Onion - 1 large or 2 small
4 - 5 medium potatoes, cut into roughly bite sized pieces
1 very big glass of wine, I prefer pinot noir but you can use what you like to drink
Salt, pepper
Thyme - maybe about 2 tsp
2 bay leaves
Olive oil & 1 tbsp butter
Enough water to cover the roast halfway

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Heat oil and butter in a pan. Saute onions until clear and parts are brown and delicious. Remove from pan. Do the same thing to the carrots. Remove carrots. Season the meat on all sides with salt and pepper. Add in just a teensy bit more oil to the pan and sear the meat on all sides - maybe 2 - 3 minutes per side? Just until nicely seared. Remove the meat.

Deglaze the pan with the wine. Scrape up all the bits. Add the meat back into the pan. Add in water until roast is covered halfway. Add in all the veggies (including potatoes), thyme, bay leaves.

Roast in oven for about 3 hours. Meat will fall apart. Serve with garlic bread and salad.