I think crockpots are pretty amazing things. One can prepare a home-cooked, hot meal with very little preparation but all the savory taste. My Auntie Angela and I are pretty close. She's an old-school hippie who still wears flowers in her hair and feeds all the stray dogs, and kids, that find their way to her. So she's gotten pretty great at cooking on a budget, and without spending hours in the kitchen.
My uncle, her husband, manages a landscape and irrigation team. So after spending all day outside, he always comes home to a hearty meal - served precisely at 6 P.M. accompanied by fresh bread and lots of milk. It's a routine, and a tradition, that I also look forward to since I regularly pop over there for dinner. I know I can count on a delicious meal. And they have cable. It's heaven.
When the air turns crisp, my aunt starts cooking up some really good stews and pot roasts. She recently told my cousins and me that we needed to start learning the family recipes. Although simple, cooking this pot roast with her for the first time is a small memory I'll hold close forever.
The recipe can be made in four hours on medium or eight hours on low. The ingredients and directions are below. We used organic, local ingredients from the Farmer's Market on Kings Drive and 7th Street Public Market on 7th Street in Uptown. I could write a whole other article on why I choose to go broke doing that, but this is about the pot roast.
- 1-2 cups water
Credit Alexia Gyorody - 2 melted beef bullion cubes
- 1/2 white onion, sliced
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
- 4 cups vegetables: celery and carrots are my favorite but go with your preference
- Mini white potatoes
- 3.5 lb pot or rump roast for every 4 people
- teaspoon garlic salt
- teaspoon pepper
- seasoning salt
- meat tenderizer
- 2 tbsp butter
The night before you plan to cook, season the roast with the garlic salt, pepper, seasoning salt and meat tenderizer. Season to taste. I used about one teaspoon of each seasoning. Leave it in the fridge overnight.
- Melt beef bullion cubes in butter on stovetop or in microwave. Remove from heat once melted.
- Slice the onion into inch-thick slices
- Peel and finely chop garlic clove
- Wash and chop vegetables.
- Wash potatoes. I don't peel them but feel free to if you like.
- Put the roast in the crockpot first in the middle, then surround it with the potatoes, garlic clove on top, then vegetables next, lastly 1-2 cups water to 1/2 way cover the ingredients.
- Cook for 4 hours on medium or 8 hours on low.
- Share & enjoy.
