The Perfect Pot Roast
Dear Slow cooker,
I’m so sorry I had to do this through a letter, this is not easy for me at all, honestly. It’s just that, well, I’ve found another pot. It’s shiny and red and beautiful. It’s not that I don’t love you; I just think we need to spend some time apart while I get to know my Le Creuset.
We cooked a wonderful meal together the other night, and it was amazing. Slow roasted pork with crispy potatoes and an apple and radish salad. The meat was perfect, and the new pot, The Creuset, well I was able to make sauce in it after the meat was done. I hope some day you can accept me back knowing that I have cheated on you like this.
I hope you’re able to find someone else that can treat you better, use you more often. My flatmate Hannah is a wonderful cook – you two should hook up. I won’t mind.
Love Lou
Ingredients
1.5kg pork neck (if unavailable, you could use shoulder)
6 cloves of garlic
A few sprigs of rosemary
Salt & Pepper
1 cup alcoholic cider
100mL brandy
2 onions
2 carrots
Bay leaf
50g butter
3-4 tablespoons flour
Spoonful of Dijon mustardFor the potatoes
12 roasting potatoes (dutch creams or kipfler are great), cooked well in salted water before roasting
100g duck fatFor the salad
Bunch of radishes
2 granny smith apples
1 fennel bulb
½ red onion
Dressing
Mayonnaise
Lemon juice
Seeded mustard
Sugar
Salt & Pepper
Prepare the pork by making small incisions throughout and stuffing with slivers of garlic and small sprigs of rosemary. Use around 2 cloves of garlic and a full sprig of rosemary, broken into parts. Tie with cooking string to keep together.
Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in your Le Creuset or other cast iron dish. The dish should be oven proof and have a tight fitting lid. Sear the meat on medium heat for 10-15 minutes on all sides to ensure they are browned.
Add cider, brandy, remaining diced garlic, remaining rosemary and bay leaf to meat. Bring to the boil.
Once bubbling away, pop some greaseproof paper on top, put the lid on and pop in a 150 degree oven for 1 ½ to 2 hours. Check up on it and turn the meat every half hour or so.
Once the meat is tender, remove it and set it aside under some foil to rest. Strain the liquid (read: flavour) and reserve. Wipe down the pan and apply medium heat. Melt butter and leave until sizzling. Then add the flour and Dijon and stir with whisk to brown for a couple of minutes. Add the meat juices slowly while whisking to create a sauce. If there is a lot of juice, leave the sauce simmering for a while to reduce.
Once sauce is thick, remove cooking string from meat and cut into slices.
Add the meat back to the pan.
Serve at the table, rustic style, from the pot.
I served this with some delicious potatoes roasted in duck fat and the salad ingredients very thinly sliced with a little dressing.
Everyone oohed and aahed over my beautiful pot. Who says love isn’t fickle?
Oh I’m definitely trying this! Great recipe! Thanks.
I intend to make this recipe in my old crock pot, but thank you.
I am afraid that with the meat and ingedients in as well, I simply could not lift this or any of the Crueset ware, and the crockpot would be the worst. I had the whole set and had to drill holes in the bottom, and turn them into hanging plant containers.! Sorry!
Should of sold them on eBay, would of provided a good return for you.
Please do not use a metal whisk in your Le Creuset. In fact, you should not use metal utensils on enameled cookware – ever.
Thanks Maureen. I had no idea!
Yum! This looks great, can’t wait to try it out. Thanks!
)
This recipe looks disgusting, butterscotch pudding is way better. Thanks Maureen, but I will still use metal utensils on enameled cookware.The Perfect Pot Roast – what an imature name
And you can’t even spell immature!! I think the recipe looks great. Good tip also Maureen. Kidyom, I think you need to look at your own name????