Beef-Country Pot Roast

This part of the midwest is known as "beef country" and the cow is king, both for meat and for milk. Most everyone buys their beef by the half, or side, and stores it in their deepfreeze. We get ours from my barber, who along with his son, raise Angus beef cattle on their land about 10 miles outside of town. Grass fed and well cared for, his beef has a very high reputation around here. A local processor takes care of the butchering and cuts ours to order, then vacuum seals it.

Along with steaks, ribs and burger, we also get beautiful roasts like this one, a 4lb rump roast-


Into a pot with olive oil to brown the surface.


The plan is to braise it in wine, mushrooms and onion, then serve it with mushroom gravy, steamed broccoli and fettuccini. Into the roasting pan and sprinkled with some Alpine Touch and Coarse Ground Black Pepper. A cup of Merlot, a cup of beef broth and tossed in about 5 or 6 unpeeled garlic cloves for good measure.


Foiled it tightly and into a 300F oven. Good to go! Meanwhile, a jump start on the gravy helps a lot. Deglaze the browning pot with a half cup of beef stock, half cup of red wine and a cup of water-


Once that's done, reduce the deglazement to about 1 cup, then add the mushrooms. Cook them only till hot, then into a container with a tight fitting lid, then set aside. As they juice out inside the container, it will be perfect for the final gravy.


It's a lot easier to make gravy a few steps ahead so you're not frantically creating a sauce at the last minute.

Two hours into the braising, the roast is at 120F internal and looking good. That liquid is going to be the main base of the gravy once the roast is done. I'll pour the hot juices into a small pot, mix with the roux and the mushroom-deglazment and in minutes I'll have perfect, home-made gravy.


Okay here we go, making the roux. Two tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour and a touch of salt. Cooking it till nutty-brown and we are set for the finish line.


Okay, so after the roux, we mixed the mushroom deglazement in with it and turned it down to LOW. Mixed it well together and waited about an hour till the roast was done.

Took the roasting pan outta the oven, and scooped most of the drippings into the gravy saucepan. Smelled wonderful! Brought that to a steady boil to reduce out while I made the pasta and the broccoli.

Once the sides were done, sliced up the roast and put it to the table next to the fettuccini with fresh parsley...


"Beef, it's whats for dinner!"

hey, that looks GREAT next to the fettucinni with those mushrooms and the greens from the parsley and broccoli! an outstanding preparation and an excellent pictorial!

Edited by TasunkaWitko - 01 February 2010 at 12:54

i wanna come for dinner !! great fotos too amigo !!!