Dark Days Challenge Week 5: Pot roast epiphany!

Success!

Yes, here we are in Week 5 of the Dark Days Challenge, and I can finally report an all-local meal I didn't just like, but really loved.

It was a simple pot roast in a crock pot with root vegetables, my first ever, and oven-roasted Brussels sprouts, another first.

It was all tasty and easy to prepare and I plan to make it all again.

Even my husband, who has a pretty picky palate, said it was good. That's not bad, I think, for a non-cook like me.

After studying 10 different pot roast recipes, I distilled the concept down to the bare essentials of beef, broth, root vegetables, salt and pepper.

I really wanted to showcase the flavor of the grass-fed beef, a 4-pound pot roast from Thundering Hooves of Walla Walla, delivered to my door as part of my semi-weekly delivery from Spud.com.

I used farmers market carrots, onions and a lot of parsnips that needed using, plus meat broth from Sea Breeze Farm on Vashon Island.

I seared the beef in Golden Glen Creamery butter from Bow and Far North Olive Oil, grown in New Zealand by a Mukilteo couple. (I know that's a lot of food miles for olive oil, when I could get it from California, but it came from the Edmonds farmers market and it's good.)



I loaded the crock pot in the morning and came home from work to find a wonderful-smelling house and a miracle of falling-off-the-bone tenderness and flavor.

Why had I waited so long to try this?

With a meal basically ready to serve, I spent the novelty of extra time on the Brussels sprouts.

I found a “Barefoot Contessa” recipe online that called for 40 minutes of roasting in a 400-degree oven with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Easy! And wow, they tasted amazing, heavenly miniature cabbages, tender and sweet, lightly browned, so good they didn't even make it onto the plate with the beef. (I cut mine in half for faster cooking and it worked great.)


Thanks to those gloriously green globes, I now have something wonderful to stand in for the typical steamed broccoli.

I am also vowing to plant some in the garden this spring.

Next week: What on earth shall I do with this new-found culinary confidence?

I'm off to visit urbanhennery.com to see what all the other Darks Days challengers are doing, which is to say, a lot.

Pot roast in a crock

2 cups carrots, coarsely chopped

2 cups parsnips, coarsely chopped

1 cup onion, coarsely chopped

1 cup broth, water or red wine

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

3 or 4-pound chuck roast

Salt and pepper to taste

Put carrots, parsnips, onion and broth in a crock pot. Salt and pepper to taste.

Heat oil and butter in a large pan on medium-high heat and brown the roast for about five minutes on each side.

Place the browned roast on top of the vegetables in the pot. Cover and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or until the meat is extremely tender.

Serve meat and vegetables with freshly ground pepper and salt.

Here were the veggies ...


... and the beautiful meat ...


... seared and ready for roasting ...

Roasted Brussels sprouts

1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts

3 tablespoons good olive oil

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut off the brown ends of the Brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves.

Mix them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper.

Pour them on a sheet pan and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.

Shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly. Sprinkle with more kosher salt (I like these salty like French fries), and serve immediately.

“The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook”