Pot Roast with Pierogies
It is summer and it is HOT down south. You would think I wouldn’t want to be cooking in this heat but I ALWAYS want to cook. When I don’t get a chance to go in my kitchen and cook my day doesn’t feel complete for some reason. I am however not a lunatic and don’t enjoy spending all day in a kitchen without air conditioning over a hot stove. Here comes one of my trusty pressure cookers to the rescue! I had a small roast and some of the pierogies I made last week still in the freezer. I took the roast out of the freezer last night with the intention of making a roast beef, unfortunately it didn’t defrost in the fridge in time so instead I made it into a pot roast in the pressure cooker, cooking it from a frozen state added about 15 minutes onto the cooking time but it came out delicious. When you make a pot roast I think the most important part of it is to take your time and brown it really well, it adds so much flavor to the gravy. Be generous with the seasoning too, add it in several intervals during the cooking process and taste it to adjust right before you serve the meal.
Pressure Cooker Pot Roast
3 pound roast, tonight I used an eye round, normally I use a chuck roast
2 large onions diced
2 sprigs thyme
2 cloves garlic smashed
2 tablespoons tomato paste, I used sun dried tomato paste tonight
1 cup dry red wine
2 cups unsalted beef broth
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup Wondra flour mixed in 1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
Rub roast all over with salt and pepper, set aside. Heat pressure cooker until hot then add the oil and let it heat. When the oil is hot add the roast and turn until very browned all over, it usually takes me about 20 minutes for this step. When it is browned remove to a plate and add the onions and garlic to the pan, saute until they begin to color, make sure not to burn them. When they are nicely browned add the roast back to the pot and add the liquids, tomato paste and thyme, lock on the lid and bring the pressure cooker to high pressure, time it for 60 minutes, when time is up let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes and then do a quick release of the remaining pressure. Uncover the pan and remove the roast to a platter, bring the remaining broth in the cooker up to a rapid boil and cook for 5 minutes, add the flour mixed with the water and whisk until no lumps remain, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Slice the meat and serve with the gravy.
If your roast is still frozen as mine was tonight add 15 minutes onto the cooking time while the pan is under pressure.
You will find the pierogie recipe on another post on this blog. I boil them until they rise to the top of the pot and then they are sauteed with lots of chopped onions in a little butter and oil until they are browned nicely.
This looks delicious! I’m going to try this with with some frozen pierogies!! YUM!!
It really came out great, after the middle son stopped by there wasn’t even enough left for a sandwich today. I think this is one of my kids favorite meals that I make, they all love the gravy. The carmelized onions really add some great flavor to the pierogies, I also love them with sour cream.
Ah… I made a pot roast last night in my 4 quart Fagor Duo PC. (the one that’s shaped like a frying pan.) I so agree about the browning stage of the roast giving both the flavor and a beautiful color to the gravy I put salt and lemon pepper (I had just got my new order from Penzeys and I got the the lemon pepper as a free sample and wanted to try it) I used my Ninja to chop onions, celery and carrots and I will say that was the must frustrating. I had the hardest time getting that cover from the small chopping bowl on evenly. At one point I was so frustrated I wanted to throw it across the kitchen. I added some red wine, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, chicken stock thyme rosemary and three crushed juniper berries. It was about a 4 lb chuck roast and cooked approx 1 hr and 10 minutes. It came out so tender, but very hard to slice even though it sat in the oven while I made the gravy. I used the wondra flour but only added 1/4 cup of water which is why it lumped. I used my immersion blender which took care of both the lumps and pureed the chopped veggies and made for a thick rich gravy. I served it with buttered noodles and then made these dinner rolls which my husband loved so much he took them to work today. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/RecipeDisplay?RID=10
I’m serving this again tonight (there are only 2 of us.
Kuby,
I don’t know if you have the original Ninja or the newer one but I too found myself struggling to get the cover on the small jar, then I realized that if I looked at it closely it has some ridge type (don’t know if I am explaining it correctly) areas on the jar itself and the lid has matching areas on it, when I lifted it up to eye level I could see them plainly and they fit together on the first try. Since noticing that little thing I always get it put together on the first try now.
I would have never thought of trying lemon pepper on beef, but then again we don’t really like lemony things, well actually I do but hubby doesn’t. All my meats used to come out fall apart tender in the pressure cooker and while it is great that way, I sometimes want meats that I can slice into nice slices so I started experimenting with the low pressure settings (or weights on my stove top Fagors) and that has given us well done tender but sliceable roasts. We still like the fall apart ones too but when hubby wants to take leftover sandwiches for work lunch he finds the sliced meat to not fall out the bottom of his sandwich as does the fall apart does. Mattie
Mattie, I can’t believe it! After reading the above I went and checked my Ninja (I have the blue one that is the original I think) It does have to be lined up. Sheesh, all that aggravation! Thanks for the tip Kuby
Kuby,
I know about the aggravation, I thought I was the only one having a problem getting it to work all the time because I never saw anyone else complain about it not going together right. Then I thought maybe mine was defective in some way. I had the problem with the original blue one like you have and then it happened with the newer Pro model too, figured it could be that both had the same defect and still no one was saying anything about it so I really looked over the new one good one day when I was again having trouble and the light went off when I saw the indentations or whatever in the container, I tried putting the top on and turning it until the top sort of just fell into place, they should really mark the plastic somehow to let people know that it fits together in a certain way. My original one would still work if the top wasn’t on correctly but it would strip the top plastic on the blade, guess I am just more used to my food processors that won’t operate unless everything is fit together perfectly. Mattie