I sealed the lid a bit better with tinfoil since this pot lets out steam through a switch at the top (even when the switch is closed).
And so it begins, although there is still a lot of the convenience food to be found here as at home, I know I'll be doing more authentic cooking here now than I was before. It stinks we don't have our pots & pans yet or any real cookware because the company-provided stuff stinks!
The result? Fabulous tender meat that fell apart on contact! It will taste much better with wine instead of grape vinegar but next time (if we don't have our wine permit yet) we will try it with French onion soup for the liquid. Also, I did have way too much liquid and didn't feel like making gravy for the potatoes.
Here is my first attempt at trying a new recipe abroad:
Recipe from Simply Recipes but I'll post my adaptation.
about 1lb of "New Zealand Beef Stew"
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper, italian seasoning to taste
1 large yellow onion,
sliced
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1-1/2 cups of grape vinegar I added more liquid before reading the comments in the original recipe (we don't have our wine permit yet, but maybe should have tried French onion soup or beef broth?)
Several baby carrots
1 Use a thick-bottomed covered pot, such as a dutch oven, just large enough to hold roast and vegetables. Heat 1 Tbsp of oil on medium high heat (hot enough to sear the meat). Sprinkle and rub salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning all over the meat. Brown roast in pot, all over, several minutes on each side. Don't move the roast while a side is browning, or it won't brown well.
2 When roast is browned, lift up the meat and add garlic and chopped onion to the bottom of the pan. Let the roast sit on top of the onions. Add 1/2 cup of red wine. Cover. Bring to simmer and the lowest heat possible to maintain a low simmer (we cook our roast on the warm setting of our range)*.
3 Cook for 3 1/2 to 4 hours, until meat is tender. (If you are using a pressure cooker, cut the time by half). Near the end of the cooking, add carrots, cook until tender, about an additional 10 minutes.
After cooking 3 1/2 hours, before adding the carrots. Note how much liquid has been released by the meat. This comes from slow cooking at a very low temperature. If your pot roast is too dry, make sure the pan you are using has a tight fitting lid and that you are cooking at the lowest possible heat to maintain the low simmering.
Serves 4. Suggest serving with green beans and potatoes
*If you use a gas range, you may find difficulty getting the flame low enough. A tip I recently read in Cook's Illustrated suggests tightly rolling up some aluminum foil, shaping it into a skinny donut, and putting that on top of the burner to create a little more distance between the range and the pan. If your pot roast is turning out too dry, you might want to try this tip.
