Beef Pot Roast Braised with Herbes de Provence

Method

1. Prep: Prepare broth/stock, if you don’t have any put away. It’s best to do this at least 1 day in advance.
2. Make Herbes de Provence in a small bowl, using dried herbs. Peel garlic cloves; if cloves are large, cut in half lengthwise; add to herbs and set aside in a cool place until ready to use.
3. Remove moisture on surface of roast with a cotton or paper towel, so that it will sear well.
4. Wash and peel turnips/potatoes, then cut into wedges; wash and trim brussels sprouts (see Brussels Sprouts – Cooking Tips for more info).
5. Wash and trim carrots. If using larger young carrots, cut them into 1 ½” lengths; if they are also large in diameter, cut in half or quarters lengthwise, to resemble baby carrots.
6. NOTE:  each piece of veggie should be about the same size.
7. If using dried pearl onions, remove dry skins; or thaw frozen pearl onions.
8. Combine prepped veggies in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.
9. Roast: Heat lard or coconut oil in Dutch oven or saucier over medium-high heat. Brown roast evenly on all sides. Season each side after browning with salt and pepper. 
10. Drain off excess fat, if desired. Let meat rest in warm pan about 15 minutes.
11. Add beef stock to pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Add garlic and herb mix. Cover and reduce heat to simmer 2 – 2 ½ hours. TESTING NOTES: 
    1. Rump or cross-rib roast: 2 – 2 ½ hours to this point, before adding the veggies in next step. However, if using flat burner or simmer plate only*, allow 3 – 3½ hours before adding veggies in next step, so they don’t overcook.
    2. If put in fridge overnight before finish cooking: take off heat after the 2 – 2 ½ hours and let cool for 30 min before transfer to fridge.
12. Add turnips, brussels sprouts, carrots and onions to Dutch oven. Cover; cook 1 – 2  hours, until vegetables are tender. TESTING NOTES:
    1. Rump or cross-rib roast required 2 hours for veggies to be tender when I used a simmer plate but only a little more than 1 hour with just the flat burner*; total cooking time of 4 – 4½  hours. 
    2. If finish cooking after being in fridge overnight: remove roast with broth from fridge and allow to warm to room temp, ½ – 1 hour; add veggies, bring to boil, then simmer before adding veggies and simmer 1½ – 2 hours. Total cooking time for both days: 3½ – 4½ hours.
13. Remove meat and vegetables; arrange on serving platter. Cover with foil to keep warm.
14. Sauce: Strain cooking liquids, then return to pot. Stir water into starch until smooth, then stir the mixture into liquids in pot. Alternately, use a buerre manie) Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook and stir 1 minute or until thick and bubbly. Use roughly 1 Tbsp flour for each cup of liquid to thicken
15. Serve pot roast and vegetables with sauce before it has a chance to cool.

‘* my gas stove (photo, below-right by Cat) has a flat cast iron burner that holds and distributes heat longer than an open burner, especially over a simmering flame. If I want a really slow simmer, I also place a simmer plate on top of the flat burner (photo, below-left, from Amazon), which means it takes longer for the contents to be tender.

Cat’s Kitchen Range with Griddle

Simmer Plate

Testing

6/7/15: Used 2.18 lb beef rump roast and cooked in saucier rather than Dutch oven because mine is too large for my small roast. Used 1 cup frozen pearl onions, thawed; and fresh veggies: young, slim carrots cut in 1 ½” segments; 1 each turnip and yellow fin potato; and 8 large brussels sprouts. Included lavender in herb mix. Made as written. Started simmer at 4 PM; not tender enough at 5:30 (1 ½ hours), so continued to simmer, but added the simmer plate so liquids would not evaporate. 6 PM: added only half of veggies (because pot is too crowded for all), even though I did not think meat was tender enough. Veggies are not totally submerged in the liquids; the brussels sprouts are on top, out of the liquid, but the others are mostly submerged. At 6:45, meat & veggies are not tender enough with 45 minutes of simmering. At 7 PM I removed the simmer plate.  7:15: veggies beginning to show signs of softening. OOPS, forgot to add the pearl onions, so added at 7:30. At 8 PM I was so hungry, and the veggies were tender, I decided to eat, even tho the meat could have cooked a bit longer. Made sauce using buerre manie (1 Tbsp each butter and flour), but that wasn’t enough to thicken, so combined another 1 Tbsp flour and 3 Tbsp water. Perfect. Total cooking time: 4 hours for meat, and including 2 hours for veggies. Result: Meat is more tender than I thought, and quite delicious. Veggie combo is tasty and all are wonderful with the herb-flavored sauce. When I make this again, I will allow more time for cooking the meat. I’ve updated recipe accordingly. Update, 6/10: I reheated the roast in the sauce (with a bit of beef stock added) for 2 hours at a low simmer. It was fork tender and even more delicious.

Testing 10/22-23/15: Used 1.75 lb cross-rib roast which should need less cooking time. Otherwise, braised as written but adjusted for smaller roast: used 2 small garlic cloves, 1 ½ tsp Herbes de Provence and 1 cup beef stock. After searing roast, seasoned with salt and pepper on both seared sides, and let it rest 15 min before adding stock, herbs and garlic to simmer for 2 hours (started at 8:30 PM, finished at 10:30 PM). Removed from heat and allowed to cool a bit. Into fridge to rest until next day to finish the cooking. 10/23: Removed roast with liquids at 3:45 PM to warm to room temp; brought to a boil then reduced to simmer at 6:15 PM and added prepped veggies. Veggies and meat are tender at 7:45 PM. Total simmer time 3½ hours between the two days. Made sauce and served. Result: delicious, but needed salt.

Testing 4/24/17: Used 2 lb cross-rib roast. Trying out my Chantal enameled steel saucier (have to give up my stainless steel while on Hashimoto’s Protocol to heal my thyroid). Prepared as written, using 2 rutabagas (no turnips available), potatoes, 14 brussels sprouts, and half-stalk celery, as well as 2 garlic cloves and the herbs; oops, forgot the pearl onions. Didn’t have beef broth, so used an herb-veggie broth. Set meat to simmer at 4:15 PM; added veggies at 6:45 PM (after 2½ hours); however, it wouldn’t all fit in this smaller saucier so I put half the veggies and half the broth in a Chantal saucepan to cook separately, and left the other half in the saucier to cook with the meat. Veggies were done about 8:15; meat was not yet fork tender but I sliced off a serving anyway – nice flavor. Next day, I simmered the roast another hour; tender enough to slice but not fork tender. Added a serving of veggies to reheat about 15 minutes. Result: This is a delicious recipe, but I made too many veggies – since I used a small roast, I could have reduced the veggies by ⅓.

References:

1. recipes.howstuffworks.com/beef-pot-roast-a-recipe.htm