blue artichoke

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In all the mess of digging out from under the crushing load of spam I received recently, I forgot that I can still post entries. There were several things I wanted to write about; I've already forgotten most. But, we did have an "ethnic" meal that I want to tell you about. For those of you raised in the South, the Yankees can seem like a different ethnic group. Even in these modern times, the yoke of the Civil War still exists, generations later. I remember being called out at a party in college for being a racist, slave-holding Southerner responsible for retarding the economic development of the country. Me, personally. Of course, the guy who started picking this fight with me was stupidly drunk at the time and rummaging through a stranger's freezer looking for purple icee pops, but it still rankled me. Though the South (but for a few individual holdouts who wave Confederate flags, point their cannons to the north and proclaim "the South Will Rise Again") has given up all thoughts of secession, there still exist regional culinary differences. The pot roast, much loved throughout the country, is traditional Yankee fare. And I made a Traditional Yankee Pot Roast for dinner:

Traditional Yankee Pot Roast

2 t. olive oil
1 (4#) boneless chuck roast, trimmed
1 T. kosher salt
1 T. cracked black pepper
2 c. coarsely chopped onion
2 c. low-salt beef broth
½ c. ketchup
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 c. chopped plum tomato
1 ¼ # small red potatoes
1 # carrots, peeled and cut into 1” pieces
2 T. fresh lemon juice
Chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 300.

Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over med-high heat. Sprinkle roast with salt and pepper. Add roast to pan, browning on all sides (~8 minutes). Remove from pan. Add onion to pan; sauté 8 minutes or until browned. Return roast to pan. Combine broth, ketchup and Worcestershire; pour over roast. Add tomato; bring to simmer.

Cover and bake at 300 for 2-½ hours or until tender. Add potatoes and carrots; cover and bake an additional 30 minutes or until veggies are tender. Stir in lemon juice. Garnish with parsley, if desired.

Serves 10.

290C, 8.4g fat, 20g carbs

I don't remember where this recipe came from, but it was pretty good, and would have been even better had the potatoes and carrots been a bit more done. They were fully cooked, but still crisp-tender, not the break-apart, mushy vegetables that can be gummed instead of chewed, which is how we like them here at Blue Artichoke. Half an hour just wasn't long enough. Next time, I'll add them sooner, or cut them smaller. I also had a smaller piece of meat, so I browned it well, then let it simmer in the oven for an hour and a half before adding the vegetables. I also forgot the lemon juice. It smelled so good that my mouth was salivating and my stomach grumbling; when the timer went off, I served it up and tucked right in. No garnish.