May 3, 2021

Last night was the all American Favorite “Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes” or as I once had in a dinner located down in South Carolina, “The Blue Plate Special”. Man was it good too!

So our first main entree’ recipe is as follows:

COOKING UTENSILS NEEDED

Instant- Pot (6-quart or larger)

Large serving fork or tongs

Wooden Spoon

Chef’s Knife

Cutting Board

INGREDIENTS:

Chuck Eye Roast (4 pounds)

2 Pounds of Carrots (I really like these carrots when done)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 to 3 stalks celery

2 cups water

2 medium onions – peeled and sliced in half

3 cloves of whole peeled garlic

1-2 tbsp. Olive Oil

2 tsp. beef bouillon or one bouillon cube

Garlic powder, Salt & Pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare the chuck roast by sprinkling it with salt, pepper and garlic powder on both sides of the meat. The beef I used this time looked like a 3-inch steak (buy two). Sometimes it’s a whole 4 pound roast that is oblong. What ever the shape, season it all around. Add the oil to the bottom of the Insta-pot and turn on to Sauté. Brown the meat on both sides. Remember that your beef should be dry before you try to brown it. If your beef is wet then it may steam and turn grayish looking instead of browning. Why do you want it a little brown on two to four sides? TASTE! The browning effect is the cartelization of the sugars and it makes your dish taste richer. Trust me there is a reason for EVERYTHING! I had two steaks so that four sides for me. A roast would be the something. Brown four sides of a whole roast. After your meat has browned, remove it to a plate on the side.

Pour in the water to the insta-pot. Add the onions, celery and beef bouillon. Stir with a wooden spoon to loosen the little brown bits on the bottom. This technique is called deglazing. Many times, you might be using wine to deglaze with instead of water. Mmm wine. Add the meat back in and cook one hour and 15 minutes. Yes, leave out the carrots for now. Cover with the lid and cook by pressing the meat button for one hour. Cool for 10 minutes and open according the manufactures directions for letting the steam escape. CAUTION!!! Steam burns hurt and can be a serious injury. Follow the directions! I use a kitchen towel to cover the vent and oven mitt to open the steam valve!

Once the steam has escaped completely and the little pressure gizmo has fallen down carefully open the lid. I cannot reiterate this enough: Be carful of the steam!

Now add the carrots to the top and make sure they’re in the sauce/juice.

Close her back up and cook one more hour.

Cool and repeat the opening process from before. You can let the meat rest and cool off in the pot while you make the mashed potato recipe found on another page!

 If you want, gravy here is a quick recipe for that:

Gravy

3 cups of dripping’s (Dripping are the Juices and fats that the meat cook in)

¼ cup water

3 tbsp. flour (one tbsp. per cup of drippings)

Remove the meat and then the vegetables from drippings by pouring through strainer or colander. Cover everything with foil to keep it warm. Return the drippings and the pan to stove over medium. 

In a measuring cup whisk together ¼ cup of water and flour.  Slowly add flour water to meat drippings while continually stirring and heat until thickened.

Serve immediately.

You can also make a flour and butter roué and the meat drippings to that but it’s harder. Maybe next time try that and see what you like better!

Try it and let me know if you have any issues that I need to fix before I print out my first addition of the Recipe Book!

I will post the Mashed Potato Recipe next!

May 3, 2021

The Drunken Chef

© Russ Ahrens and The Magic of a Perfect Pairing,2021