Remember a day or two ago, when I said I saw the very end of Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, and decided I needed to deconstruct Anne Burrell's pot roast with squash and figs? Yesterday I bought the beef, squash, and fresh figs, and today I spent hours modifying her recipe (found on the Food Network site) based on what I already had available and the flavors I like best. For the last three or four days, I have been feeling crummy, and my appetite was non-existent. Now, with a full belly for the first time in days, I am changing my tune. I was just saving myself up for this meal, and it was so worth it. I also missed most of my favorite Saturday cooking shows, but while I listened to my football game, I watched Martha Stewart make a potato puree with brown butter. I tweaked that for my own purposes, mixing a large sweet potato in with two smaller (organic) russets, and it was the perfect complement to my roast and veggies. Holy mama, you wish you were at my house tonight.
Both of these recipes were a bit fussy. Okay, they were a lot fussy. This is the kind of thing you would really only make for someone very special, unless you have nothing better to do than spend hours in the kitchen, which apparently I did today. I have my choice of some of the best restaurants in the country within a half-hour drive from my couch, yet this was easily as good or better than entrees I've had downtown. I can't say I really saved any money, because it still cost me at least $17 for a plate, all things considered. But I didn't have to change out of my football jersey, I ate with my feet up, and the only tip I had to hand out was letting two very enthusiastic doggies clean up the bowl and sieve from the potato puree. (Turns out, the easiest way to assure the professional eater dog doesn't literally nose out the little red-headed dog is to offer them a strainer with food on both sides.) This would have been really good with a bold red wine, but in deference to how I've been feeling, I stuck with water.
I'm better at writing recipes in paragraph form, so bear with me. I will put the outline at the very end of the blog. Also, I was cooking for one person plus leftovers, so adjust as needed for the number of people you want to feed. I highly recommend cooking mis-en-place, cutting up everything ahead of time and having it in bowls as needed, ready to go. It helps prevent any one stage getting overcooked or burned.
Preheat the oven to 350. I started by heating a little peanut oil (just my preference) in a Dutch oven, patting dry a chuck roast with a paper towel, salting it, and browning both sides of it to caramelize the edges of it. (It doesn't "seal in the juices." That has been scientifically disproven.) I put the roast on a plate, and in the same oil, sweated half of a thinly sliced yellow onion and a couple stalks of celery, chopped, plus a heavy sprinkle of dried red pepper flakes. Once the onion started to turn translucent, five or six minutes later, I dropped in a little minced garlic. That only cooked a minute before I added tomato paste (get the kind in a tube--less waste!) and a bay leaf. Once that was warmed, I put in maybe a quarter cup of sherry vinegar, used a bamboo scraper to deglaze the bottom of the pot, and added about half a box of good organic chicken stock. The recipe called for orange zest, but I had lemons, so I used that, taking large sections of one with a vegetable peeler. I also added thyme and coriander, plus salt and pepper. The meat went back in, lid went on the pot, pot went in the oven, Anne went to listen to the football game for an hour (we won). Pulled out the Dutch oven, and turned the meat over, adding chicken stock to keep the meat covered halfway up. At this point I dropped in two chopped carrots, again deviating from the original recipe, before putting it back in for another hour. The original also called for dried figs and butternut squash. I found fresh figs, and once the stems were cut off and they were quartered, they were perfect. I can't tell you the name of the squash I used. It looked like an acorn, but it was speckled green and white, and it had an orange blush spot on the bottom of it. It was a little unwieldy to peel and chop, so even though it was delicious, I might use butternut next time. At the two hour mark, I picked up the roast, poured the chopped squash and figs into the cooking liquid, and set the meat back down on top of it, flipped again. Back in the oven while I made the potatoes. One large sweet potato and two smaller white potatoes, peeled completely and chopped into large pieces, boiled (covered) for about 15-20 minutes in only an inch or two of water, and then pulled out with a slotted spoon, to a bowl where they were mashed with a traditional potato masher. I poured a third of a cup or so of half and half on them and mixed gently. I put a couple heaping tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan, and heated it on medium heat until it just started to turn brown and smell nutty. That went into the mashed potatoes, along with salt and pepper and freshly grated nutmeg, and I stirred with a fork. (A blender or food processor would have turned them to glue--don't use it for this.) I got my fine mesh sieve and with my bamboo scraper, I pushed spoonfuls of the potatoes through to make a fine puree. This is labor intensive and messy, but it was worth it. The roast had cooked lidded for a half an hour with the squash and figs in it, and another 15 minutes with the lid off. I pulled it out of the oven, removed the meat to a platter and the squash and figs to a bowl, and then on a medium high heat, reduced the pan juices as long as I could wait until I was ready to eat. I got out the good china, because after all this effort, why not, and put a large spoonful of the potato puree in the center. I sliced the roast in half-inch thicknesses, and piled a few pieces on the puree, surrounded it with squash and figs, and poured over the reduced pan juices. It was amazingly complex. As I ate, I could taste the sweet of the figs and squash, the savory of the browned roast, the earthiness of the potato puree, the nuttiness of the browned butter, and even the heat of the red pepper flakes. Every layer of flavor was necessary. I would not leave any of this out. I even enjoyed accidentally eating some of the lemon zest.
This was a wonderful burst of autumn in one meal. I even was able to open a window tonight, for the first time in months, as it is finally cool enough to do it again. The world is finally tilted at the right angle for me.
Pot Roast with Squash and Figs
Chuck roast, patted dry
1-2 T oil
Yellow onion, thinly sliced
2-3 ribs of celery, sliced
Dash red pepper flakes
1-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4-1/2 c tomato paste
1/4 c sherry vinegar
2-3 c organic chicken stock
Thyme
Ground coriander
Zest of one lemon
2 carrots, chopped
6-8 fresh figs, stems removed and quartered
Acorn or butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
Sweet potato, peeled and chopped in 1" segments
Russet potato, peeled and chopped the same
1/3 c half and half
2-3 T browned butter
Nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
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