Pot Roast with Mashed yam-potatoes, and gravy

I am by no means any authority on the preparation of a roast.  In fact, this roast was the very first one I have ever made.  You see, my mother is the one who makes roasts, and so if she makes one, we just go over there and eat.  Thus, I’ve never made one.  Until today. Considering my lack of experience, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out.

 

 

INGREDIENTS:
1 roast cut of beef.  (I happened to have “eye of round”.)
2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into halves
1/2 onion cut into wedges and separated
1 clove of garlic
2 tbsp fresh thyme
2 tbsp fresh sage
2 bay leaves
4 beef bouillon cubes
2 cups of boiling water
2 tsp fresh ground pepper

First, sear the meat on all sides, on medium-high heat in a cast-iron skillet with about 2 tbsp butter until browned.  Put this browned meat in a Dutch oven, or oven proof deep dish. I made beef bouillon with the cubes, and 2 cups boiling water, and added all the herbs and seasonings.  Pour this over the meat, and put in the carrots, and onions and garlic.  Finish cooking the roast in the oven for about 4-5 hours with a very low heat option (maybe around 200-250).  Check the meat with a thermometer every so often.  Since eye-of-round can be tough, I just kept it simmering in the broth well beyond the 160 degree internal temperature.  

Cut the strings off, and slice the meat across the grain, into the thinnest possible slices.

 

Mashed Yam-Potatoes:
8-10 potatoes (red or Yukon gold)
1 large yam
1 cup milk
1/4 stick of butter
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp seasoning salt

Boil the potatoes and yams in their peels until fork tender.  Drain water off, and then peel them (I stuck a fork in each potato using my left hand, and used a knife to peel them with my other hand.) Mash them up with butter, milk and seasonings.  You can also use a hand held mixer to really fluff them up.  The yams add vitamins, fiber and a soft, sweet flavor to the mashed potatoes, as well as a little color.

Now ordinarily I’d put a little more effort into a gravy, but since I was in a hurry last night, I just used the recipe on the back of the corn-starch container… I strained the broth from my pot roast through a sieve, and mixed that with corn-starch and simmered it up.  But for some reason it didn’t get very thick, so it was almost more like an Au Jus.  Nevertheless, it was still really good drizzled over the meat and potatoes.

 

Technorati Tags: pot roast,eye of round,beef,main dishes,potatoes,yams,carrots,gravy