Grant's Pot Roast

January is seriously the perfect month for comfort food, and this recipe is one of Grant's favorites.

Alright, I'm a sucker for comfort food. Start the oven on a cold winter afternoon and shove something in it. Something you don't have to pay much attention to for 3 or 4 hours. Well... say... pot roast. I have a very soft spot in my heart for pot roast. Rich beefy flavor and killer gravy. When I was a kid, we had this every other Sunday night for supper. My mother was a very good cook and this was one of the best things we got to eat. When I learned to cook, it was from her, and I had a great teacher.

I have been intrigued with cooking as long as I can remember. My mother, Alpha (Henline) Chapin was my first inspiration. As a stay at home mother when I was very young, she provided cooked from scratch meals every day. It has to be the reason I love real food. We never had store bought bread at our house. She baked bread once a week; I remember watching and sometimes getting to help with the kneading, the smell of freshly baked bread permeating the house. My brother Rex and I would wait anxiously for a taste when it came out of the oven. My buddies all knew where the cookie jar was when they were at our house, it was always full of her famous chocolate chip oatmeal delights.

Pot roast was probably the first thing I learned how to cook, and I can't remember a time when I didn't know how to make gravy. It is still one of my favorite meals. Here's how the recipe has evolved:

2-3 lbs of arm or chuck roast, something from the front of the animal. (If you can, get it from Larry at the Town and Country Market in Slater, Iowa.)

1 tbsp or more Cookies Flavor Enhancer
(Wall Lake, Iowa BBQ sauce company run by Speed Herrig - Buy a big ole tub, you will use it all the time)
1 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil or canola oil
1 large onion, cut into 3/4 inch dice
4 cloves of garlic, smashed
2 bay leaves
1 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup water or beef stock
1 tsp worchestershire sauce
5 oz tomato juice
1/2 tsp celery salt

Dry off the meat with paper towels; sprinkle half of the CFE (that's what we call it at R house) and half of the pepper on the meat.

Heat up a dutch oven or heavy casserole dish on pretty high flame, so it will make a crust on the meat.
Put the oil in and add the meat, seasoned side down, then season the other side of the meat.

Cook it 4-5 minutes until it starts to get brown and crusty on one side. Then flip it over and do the same thing to the other side. When the smoke alarm goes off, go take the battery out of it, and then put the garlic and onions in the pan alongside the meat.

Brown them up and dump in the wine (you can clean up the stove later). After you breathe in all of the alcohol fumes from the reducing wine, add the water and tomato juice. Sprinkle the worchestershire sauce and celery salt over the top of the meat and throw in a couple of bay leaves.

Put a lid on it and stick it in a pre-heated 325 degree oven.

It's a smelly, messy process, but believe me, it imparts a lot of flavor, and makes killer gravy.

From here, you want to let it cook an hour, or hour and a half. Then you can add carrots, celery, parsnips, turnips, rutabaga, cabbage or more onions. Any hard vegetables you like. I usually just do carrots and more onion. You can never have too much onion.

I put it back in the oven and let it cook another hour, and then put in put in potatoes, cut in large chunks or baby reds, peeled around the middle. You could also add sweet potatoes or winter squash or tomatoes depending upon what you like.

Back into the oven for another 45 minutes to an hour, and you are ready to eat. To check if it's done, stick a fork into the meat and give it a twist. The meat should fall apart with gentle pressure and the vegetables should be tender.

Put the meat and vegetables on a platter and keep warm.

Then comes the best part....the gravy. You will have some very flavorful liquid there in the pan, and this is what it's all about. Bring the liquid to a simmer on the stove. If you want to remove some of the fat, you can skim it off. I leave the fat in, it's all flavor. You could add some more wine at this point or water or beef stock, depending on how much gravy you want.

Then TASTE IT! I can't stress TASTING, enough, to the people I teach to cook. If you don't know what it TASTES like, how can you serve it to anyone with any measure of confidence? Even when you are just cooking for yourself. The best cooks are people that have good TASTE. It may TASTE fine just the way it is. If not, use salt and pepper, herbs, anything you like. Then TASTE IT AGAIN, and make more adjustments until it TASTES good.

Once you have adjusted the seasoning to your liking and it is simmering, you can thicken it with your favorite starch or serve it as Au Jus. I usually use a flour/wine slurry, (equal parts). Shown here being mixed with my Mother's gravy shaker. It's been in the family for years.

Whisk the slurry slowly into the simmering broth. You could also use a roux or cornstarch or arrowroot, just make sure it comes to a boil to cook the starch. If you get lumps, whisk it until you can whisk it no more and run it through a mesh strainer. I've seen lots of lumps in my days in the kitchen.

Let everyone serve themselves the meat and vegetables, and let them dump gravy over it all. Guaranteed to warm you to the bone. Serve with hot popovers or biscuits and pass the horseradish.

You just can't beat pot roast on a cold winter day. Let us know if you try this recipe!