POT AU FEU

"POT ROAST"

Submitted by: Jean-Pierre Engelbach & Michele Bassereau/Paris, France (1998)


COOKING TIME: 2 1/2 to 3 hours (1 1/2 hours in a pressure cooker)

INGREDIENTS:
1.5 to 2 kg (3 1/3 - 4 1/2 lbs) of beef: shoulder, middle rib, shank cuts
4-6 leeks (use white portion only)
4 carrots
3 turnips
1 onion studded with 3 cloves
1 clove garlic
1 stalk celery
"bouquet garni"-parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage leaves tied into a small bouquet of herbs
salt
1 beef soup bone with marrow
4-6 potatoes
Toasted bread, rusks, or melba toast
Condiments: cooking salt, pickles, mustard

DIRECTIONS:
1. Wash and pair vegtables. Fill a deep pot halfway with cold water. Add the onion and cloves, garlic, celery, herbs, and salt, and heat to boiling.
2. Add the beef cuts to the boiling water. Cover and let simmer.
3. When the meat has cooked for 1 1/2 hours (45 minutes in a pressure cooker), add the soup bone and the vegtables to the pot, reserving the potatoes which are cooked separately. Bring back to a boil, then simmer. Allow for 2 1/2 to 3 hours cooking time in all (1 1/2 hours in a pressure cooker).
4. 30 minutes before the end, cook the pared potatoes in salted water ( or cook them over the broth in the steamer basket of the pressure cooker for 15 minutes under pressure).
5. Serve the broth with toast as a first course. Present the meat, vegtables and slices of marrow on a large preheated platter. Cooking salt, pickles and mustard are served on the side as condiments.

Menu Suggestion
Beef broth
Pot roast
Chicory and apple salad
Cheese
Pear fruit cake

MEMORIES/STORIES ASSOCIATED WITH THIS RECIPE: The Pot Roast is a dish which one makes for collective meals. In the French campaigns, it could be prepared in quantity and could be cooked with a wood fire in the chimney. There it could remain suspended in the heat for several days. It is a dish which gathers all the family during the dark evenings of winter.

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