Original recipe! Some herbs, a Crock Pot, and a Roast.

On a day when you want something fancy for guests coming over but don't want to spend a lot of time, a braised piece of meat is a versatile and forgiving dish provided you have a crock pot! An oven alongside an oven proof pot with a lid would work as well. With minimal prep and actual working time and a lot of waiting around, the crock pot allows you to have a savory tender main dish that you can honestly say "took all day," even if it doesn't feel like it. 

Ingredients are approximate

4 lbs of pot roast (in this case, a 7 bone roast)

2-1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp pepper

1/2 tbsp dried and crumbled chervil

1/2 tbsp dried and crumbled oregano

1 beer - used in several situations, see recipe notes

4 cloves garlic, cut into "spears"

1 onion, halved and quartered (eighthed?)

1/2 cup soy sauce + a few more splashes

Water to cover

Recipe as follows:

Get the herbs, salt and pepper together. Crumbling them together by hand is fine, but I felt like pretending to be fancy today so I used a mortar and pestle.

Here's the glorious piece of meat. Notice all the rich fat. I actually cut off quite a bit but I didn't want to go overboard. Considering how falling apart the meat is after 6 hours, it wouldn't really have mattered if I cut off too much fat.

The garlic gloves are soaked in a little bit of the beer to absorb some flavor and firm up.

This makes it easier to insert the spears into incisions all over the roast. 

The meat is then rubbed with the salt pepper spice mix and splashed with half a cup of beer and the soy sauce. Cover, set in the refrigerator and turn a few times over a few hours. When you take it out, reserve the soy sauce.

Later, brown the roast on all sides. I rendered a bit of beef fat in vegetable oil and raised the heat to get a good sear on all the sides.

Use a little bit of beer to deglaze your pan or pot.

When that's done, place the roast on top of the onions in the crock pot. Pour in the beer from the pan, soy sauce from the marinade and cover with water. A few extra splashes of soy sauce would help to ensure a savory and well seasoned roast. Let the pot roast go on hot for 1 hour at least, and then you can set to low if you are willing to wait for at least 4 more hours.

The end result, a meltingly tender dish of meat and juices. Serve with vegetables and potatoes, or perhaps a good loaf of crusty bread.

I made a quick gravy using the ratio in Ratio by Michael Ruhlman.

10 parts of the hot liquid from braising, and 1 part roux, whisked together quickly. This was fantastic with potatoes.

I apologize for this rather sad picture. By the time I thought of photographing most of the dish was wiped out! Success!